UK pub chain buys up hostel

UK pub chain JD Wetherspoon is looking to open a 100-room hotel and pub in the heart of Dublin city after it acquired Camden Hall Hostel on one of the city’s busiest night-time streets. Wetherspoon is looking for revised planning permission for the complex as part of a €4m development of the site which it says will create up to 75 jobs.

The dilapidated building on Camden Street houses a homeless hostel, a boxing gym and a garage all of which will remain in the building until work on the project commences.

The Peter McVerry Trust announced it planned to close the hostel in 2013 months after taking over the running of it at Dublin City Council’s request, in October 2012.

JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said: “We are pleased to have acquired this excellent building in the heart of Dublin. Our aim is to build a pub and hotel on the site and we believe both will be assets to the city”.

The site has planning permission for a 165-room hotel which Wetherspoon will be looking to revise to accommodate its plans.

The pub chain, which operates more than 900 outlets in the UK, has flagged its intent to open 30 more in the Republic in the coming years, including at the old Newport Café in the Paul Street Plaza in Cork city.

It owns four premises in Dublin in Blackrock; Swords; Dún Laoghaire and Blanchardstown, in addition to the Camden street site.

With the Three Tun Tavern in Blackrock open a number of months already, Wetherspoon will today open the Forty Foot pub in Dún Laoghaire.

Last week, the UK chain announced it had delisted all Heineken products from its hundreds of outlets after a dispute over the Dún Laoghaire facility.

Wetherspoon alleged Heineken had sought a personal guarantee from its chief executive, John Hutson to supply the pub with any of its drinks, which Mr Martin described as unacceptable and hard to understand.

“We have been trading with Heineken for 35 years and they have never requested personal guarantees before. It’s obstructive to do so now, especially when we have made record profits of around £80m (€100m) last year,” Mr Martin said.

The row is the latest issue with the provision of well-known drinks here with Diageo products, including Guinness, already off the menu following a separate disagreement.