Hotel duo roll out €100m developments across region
John Gately, former owner of the Vienna Woods Hotel and group general manager for Fitzpatrick Hotels, has formed a new company, Gatlan Hotels, with Frankie Whelehan, managing director of Choice Hotels.
The pair purchased the former County Club Hotel in Cork last April for €6m and have embarked on an €18m refurbishment, which will be fully open next Monday.
“We have added on 54 bedrooms, bringing the total to 110 and in addition have put in 19 two-bedroom suites. There’s also a leisure centre with a 20-metre pool, a steam room, jacuzzi, sauna and gym.
“We have also put in a new kitchen, bar, restaurant, functions rooms and conferencing facilities,” Mr Gately said yesterday.
The new hotel, which will be known as The Montenotte and is a four-star facility, is just the start of their venture.
The men have plans to build a four-star boutique hotel in Cork’s city centre. The new hotel will cost in the region of €30m and is set to have approximately 120 rooms.
“We are also looking at developing two further hotels in Kerry. Both will be four-star and cost in the region of €20m each,” Mr Gately added.
However, he said that as yet they weren’t in a position to reveal their exact locations for the development, as they were still looking at suitable sites.
Mr Gately revealed that he and Mr Whelehan were also looking at a number of “potential opportunities” in the Dublin area.
“At present we have around half a dozen large projects in the pipeline,” Mr Gately added.
All in all, he said that they expected to invest up to €100m on various hotel projects around the country in the next few years.
