Ireland’s largest hotels group has announced a €2m investment in one of Cork’s most successful hotels as part of a major rebranding, and has formally completed the takeover of the former Burlington Hotel, Dublin.

Investment at the landmark Silversprings Hotel in Cork by new owners Clayton/Dalata who acquired it two years ago as part of a nine-hotel €445m acquisition from the Moran Group will top €5 million by next year, while the hotel’s €3.2m reworked two-storey Events Centre, ballroom and business meeting rooms reopens from tomorrow.

The Dalata Hotel Group has bought the building which houses its Clayton Hotel in Cardiff, in a move analysts estimate will add nearly €2m to group earnings next year.

TEE-ED up for a sale is Unit No 1 at Cork City’s increasingly prominent commercial hub, Penrose Wharf — the point at which the N27 city route from Cork’s airport ends at the N8.

The €90m office development proposed this week for Cork City’s quays show a mark of confidence in the second city’s employment prospects — much of it foreign direct investment-sourced jobs — as is evident in recent jobs announcements and arrivals such as Tyco.

THE property investment market in Ireland’s second city hit new and record highs in 2015, far out-stripping 2014’s much-recovered market, according to a new report due shortly from DTZ Sherry FitzGerald.

The Dalata Hotel Group has continued its expansion drive by spending €40m on acquiring operatorship status in four hotels.

Record numbers of hotel beds are continueing to change hands in a major shake-up of the tourism and hospitality sector.

Plans for the €10m sale of a part-completed Cork City centre hotel building to the Dalata Hotel Group are well advanced, according to market sources.

The Dalata Hotel Group has reached agreement to buy the Tara Towers Hotel, in Dublin, for nearly €13.2m in cash.

Ireland’s largest hotel group, Dalata, is interested in adding the Clarion Hotel in Sligo to its portfolio.

A Cork harbour site which once sold for €25m to Howard Holdings comes to market in the same week as the city’s Howard Holdings-developed Clarion Hotel sells for €35m.

Cork’s Clarion Hotel has been acquired by the Dalata Hotel Group for €35.1m in a cash deal expected to be concluded before the end of this month.

Two different property offers, one to let, the other to buy, are on the market at 6 Lapps Quay, in the heart of Cork city, next to the Clarion Hotel, bus station and near the rapidly developing One Albert Quay.

The Castlemartyr Resort in Cork has been acquired for close to €14m by British businessman and hotelier Martin Shaw, who also owns a significant golf resort called Old Thorns Manor House in Hampshire, near London.

Global consulting engineering company, Arup, is to move into new Cork City offices, at One Albert Quay, in time for its 70th anniversary.

The Dalata Hotel Group is considering a possible purchase of Cork’s Clarion Hotel, which is currently on the market with a €30m price tag.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

TWO key moves this week may put Cork city on the investor and retail radar, as the city centre inches back from the slack years of recession.

With a price tag of €30m-plus, Cork City’s Clarion Hotel is the most valuable Irish hotel outside of Dublin to come to the open market since the economic downturn.

Hats off to the staff of the Clarion Hotel, Cork who completed 12 hours on a spinning bike and all for a good cause.

The year 2005 was Ireland’s ‘if you build it, they will come’ period. Much was built, but the conventional wisdom that property couldn’t lose money, was hitting the skids.

Ronan O’Gara and Ruby Walsh are fielding a range of reader questions at Cork’s Clarion Hotel and the Irish Examiner sports team are providing live updates right here.

THE top floor of City Quarter, the Cork City quayside office block facing the ambitious, new One Albert Quay €45m office site, has finally been leased.

The Irish Examiner’s innovative use of social media was rewarded at the inaugural Cork Digital Marketing Awards today.

Welcome to your Friday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

Most people can reel off the top tourist spots in their home place, but never visit them. So the Clarion Hotel’s writer-in-residence, Louise O’Neill, went on a day-long trip around Cork City

Limerick retailers and hoteliers are gearing up for a business bonanza worth in the region of €20m-€30m this weekend as the biggest event of the year rolls into town.

The dual return of a prestigious sporting event and hotel, allied to the continued pursuit of culinary perfection were the driving forces behind the success of the Cork Business Awards quarterly winners.

The Garda ombudsman is investigating an allegation of a cover-up within the force in a case involving a criminal who committed murder when he was on bail for serious violent charges.

Changing of the guard.

Mike O’Riordan may be the busiest man in Limerick this week, but as Michael Moynihan discovered, he isn’t complaining for a second.

It’s always hard leaving home but there was a cruel irony in the way Aer Lingus gave me 48 more hours in Ireland this week.

WINE is complicated enough for many consumers to get their head around, given the number of foreign words involved, whether they be obscure wine regions or simply grape varieties. It is not surprising that the simple labelling found on the average bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or Chilean Merlot is so welcome to many of us.