Hotel for the long haul

WITH seven new businesses/office re-locations at Cork’s Airport Business Park, the recently-purchased Cork International Airport Hotel has upward momentum behind its upgrade plans.

The new office moves at the park are expected to bring employment at the airport campus to around 3,500, with 750,000 sq ft of business space already developed.

Ownership of the hotel (which was developed at a €30-40m cost by Bernard McNamara,) changed in 2012 after agents Savills had 100 inquiries about the profitable business which sold for around €5m to Phillips Hotels, fronted by Munster businessman Vincent O’Farrell.

Now, further investment/spending by year’s end at the modern four-star 85-bed hotel in the business park is likely to top €750,000, says Cork International Airport Hotel manager Aaron Mansworth, who has worked in recent years at the International Airport Hotel and McNamara’s Parknasilla hotel.

Changes have been made to the reception, bringing it back down to ground level from a mezzanine setting. Also getting a major turnaround is the New Yorker bar, going the cozier route, with fireplaces, new seating, snugs, smaller bar counter — and there’s already a pay-off in terms of local support from neighbouring areas, adds Mr Mansworth.

The hotel opened in 2007, and employment, which currently stands at 85, is expected to grow later this year as further changes come on stream. Target markets include the family/Irish sector (55-60%,) and the UK (20%) with a new emphasis on families and longer-stay tourism.

The hotel (there’s also a Radisson Park three-star hotel closer to the new airport terminal) also serves the business park catchment of 3,500 employees, with its ten meeting/function/conference rooms, with a ballroom for 300, and last year the hotel did 35 weddings, notes Mr Mansworth who said Phase One spend of €500,000 was finishing up in May of this year, to be followed by several other projects.

Consultants Cunningham McLean, headed up by Terry McAleavy are behind the design changes and Mr McAleavy is also a design partner in hotel projects in the Doyle Collection and the multi-million euro redevelopment of the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, bought last year by Blackstone for €67 million.