US company moves from IDA park to CUBE low carbon centre
A Laois office building created by the local authority as a "low carbon centre of excellence" is now full up.
A local company bought out by a US multinational will lease the second floor of The CUBE in Portlaoise, moving out of the IDA business park taking its 40 staff into the town centre.
DemandScience confirmed the reason for the move of their Irish office to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.
"DemandScience is in the process of relocating our offices to the second floor of The CUBE. The move should be complete in approximately two weeks.
"Moving to The CUBE’s modern facilities is a wonderful opportunity to provide our teammates with a great place to work in the heart of Portlaoise’s Cultural Quarter."
No new jobs are created in the process, the company confirmed, adding that there are 50 staff in the Portlaoise office.
"The move to The CUBE does not impact headcount. DemandScience’s strategic team in Ireland is an important part of our company and our global operations. We’ve been in Portlaoise for ten years, and this additional investment is part of our commitment to our team, Portlaoise, Laois County, and the region," a spokesperson for DemandScience said.
Laois County Council's associated company owns and runs The CUBE.
The CEO John Mulholland gave the details of the new tenant in his May management report.
"The CUBE building at Tower Hill, Portlaoise is now fully tenanted. US owned company ‘Demand Science’ headquartered in Massachusetts USA has taken up occupancy of the second floor.
"Their core business is to enable organisations to find the right business solutions and prospects faster and to target in market buyers across the world through facilitating business-to-business contact.
"Approximately 40 staff from Demand Science will use the CUBE as their work base bringing the total number of workers in the Cube to 75 people."
The aim of the CUBE is to "stimulate the creation" of 260 jobs over 10 years. It also gives training and advice to businesses to move towards carbon neutrality.
The first floor is leased out to Irish jobs company FRS Recruitment.
It was officially opened last March by Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney.
Speaking at that opening, Mr Mulholland described its purpose.
"While the principal aims of developing this centre, the CUBE, is to assist the development of innovation and jobs in the low carbon economy, it is in reality about much more than that. It is about bringing once derelict and vacant buildings back to life. It is about bringing better confidence to a place and it is also about taking small steps on the road to a low carbon Town and feeling our way towards compact town centre development,” he said.
The DemandScience Laois office began as Internal Results, launched by two Portlaoise natives in 2011. Like DemandScience, it's purpose is linking up businesses with other businesses seeking to forge worldwide deals.
Internal Results moved to the IDA's Enterprise and Technology Park in Portlaoise in 2013 expanding its workforce to over 50 people with IDA support. It was sold in 2016 to US company Madison Logic and in 2021 to DemandScience.
The glass fronted CUBE office on Tower Hill was formerly an unfinished private office that was near dereliction.
It was developed and funded by a grant of over €2m from the Regional Enterprise Development Fund to be "a multi point incubation hub for the development of a Low Carbon Centre of Excellence, assisting in attracting and developing companies with a low carbon focus".