Parknasilla resort joins Fota finish

BIDS are at an advanced stage and heading towards €20m from European and Asian parties on the Fota Island Resort in Cork harbour this month, as Kerry’s Parknasilla gem joins Fota on the international sales market.

The Ring of Kerry hotel, with 500 heavenly acres and 83 bedrooms plus 62 lodges, is guided at €10m by Tom Barrett and Denis O’Donoghue of Savills Cork and Dublin offices, and will be considered a trophy buy with considerable potential, particularly if a wedding/conference facility is added.

Having been significantly upgraded by its 2006 buyer Bernard McNamara, who ploughed in a further €10 to €15m on top of his €40m purchase price, Parknasilla is expected to get US/expat Irish and Kerry inquiries, as well as fitting high-end portfolios being assembled and consolidated by UK-based operators and investors. It has in the past been favoured by European royalty and premiers, as well as ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, for whom special kegs of Bass were delivered to the bar for his annual vacation there.

There are now 250 beds at the hotel estate since Mr McNamara added 24 two-bed lodges and 38 three bed villas, plus extra bedrooms and an upgraded spa to broaden its visitor base.

An obvious extra market now is the function trade, but in part this Ring of Kerry demand has recently been part-met by the acquisition of Drumquinna Manor by the Brennans of Kenmare’s Park Hotel, which is of similar Victorian vintage to Parknasilla. Currently, Parknasilla’s Pygmalion restaurant seats 110, or 180 for functions, while there’s a 32-seat bistro bar, and 75 seat bar.

The package includes a 12-hole golf course. Parknasilla has been run in recent years by Tifco Group, for receiver Paul McCann of Grant Thornton.

When Dublin’s Morrison Hotel sold for €22m earlier this year to a Russian buyer with European connections, the purchaser said her first Irish hotel buy was “likely to be a pilot project in the sphere of commercial real estate for my investments in Ireland.”

Meanwhile, Fota Resort’s selling agents Colliers International and Cohalan Downing are well advanced in negotiations on the Cork harbour 500 acre estate with hotel, lodges and 27-golf holes, down to a handful of bidders.

The rumour machine has so far managed to pitch in Donald Trump, Denis O’Brien, and Chinese buyers, into the mix: those, and a few more can be expected to surface too for Parknasilla before pragmatic new owners take up ownership.

Details: Savills 021-4271371/01-6181300