Hotels

Ceremony venue at Ballygarry

Ballygarry House Hotel and Spa is adding to its wedding offerings with the addition of “The Lodge at Ballygarry” – a venue which designed to hosti Civil, Spiritualist or Humanist ceremonies. TThe Lodge will feature a simplistic & rustic standalone building highlighting the backdrop of the Kerry Mountains with a large gable window behind th ballygarry1219

e altar and a loft conversion for musicians overlooking the main gallery.

Druids Glen profit rise

Pre-tax profits at the five-star Druids Glen Hotel and Resort climbed 51% to €1.48m last year.

Revenues increased 5% to €13.5m ahead of the resort being sold for €45m in June to the Neville Hotel Group.

The resort, which has hosted four Irish Open golf championships, was previously owned by three Irish families — the Lappins, the Hurleys, and the Flinns.

The Neville Hotel Group also owns and operates the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire, the Tower Hotel in Waterford City, and the Kilkenny River Court Hotel.

According to the directors’ report for Obalus Hotel Company Ltd, the Druids Glen “traded strongly in 2018 reporting an operating profit of €1.5m”.It posted an after tax profit of €1.29m after paying corporation tax of €187,919.

The Collective plans Fumbally hotel

Developer of large-scale co-living developments The Collective has included a 144-bedroom hotel in the plans for its first project in Dublin.

The Collective purchased a site in Dublin's Liberties area from property group Oakmount for €10.5 million earlier this year and has now lodged plans for a 144-bedroom hotel that would include 69 single-occupancy co-living units on its upper floors, according to The Sunday Times.

If approved, the proposed development would be called The Collective Fumbally and would be eight storeys in height. The Collective hopes to begin work on the development in the autumn of 2020 and expects that it will take 20 months to complete.

'Meyrick' becomes 'Hardiman' in Galway

A heritage hotel on Eyre Square Galway is to have its third name in 20 years. meyrick1219

The Great Southern Hotel, later called The Meyrick is to be re-branded as The Hardiman by Choice Hotels.

The hotel originally opened at the terminus of the Midland and Great Western Railway Company in 1852.

It is now named after the Galway-based historian and scholar James Hardiman (1782-1855) who was renowned for his deep love of Irish history and cultural traditions.

Big deals dominate hotel sales

Hotel transactions were primarily driven by “big ticket” Dublin hotel sales this year as investors, focused on high-quality Dublin hotels, which accounted for two thirds of total marker0919

transaction activity in 2019.

Major Dublin deals included the €134 million sale of The Marker (which will be rebranded as Ananatara), the €116m sale of the Conrad Dublin, the €50 million sale of Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links and the €40 million sale of The Central Hotel.

Three of these four transactions involved new capital entering the Irish hotel sector, with Archer Hotel Capital (Conrad), Deutsche Finance International (Central) and Northland Properties from Canada (Portmarnock), all making their first purchases here.