Princely sum sought for Ard Rí

The former landmark Ard Rí hotel and grounds in Waterford city, bought for a reported €15m in 2006 for a proposed €400m mixed use development, has been put on the market for €750,000.

The complex, dating to the late 1960s and run for years as a Jurys Hotel, was bought as a development play by a consortium headed up by Cork businessman Tom Coughlan who also bought Cork City FC in 2008 before it too was hit by financial woes during his stewardship.

The six-storey hotel, on a height and on 20 acres overlooking the Suir from the Kilkenny-Waterford border, was bought by the consortium from Donegal hotelier Brian McEniff who had acquired it in the 1990s.

The group went for, and acquired planning from An Bord Pleanala for 107 apartments, a replacement 160-bed hotel with leisure centre, a three-storey nursing home and other elements; the permission is due to expire in Oct 2015.

Local market sources say apartments would always have been a difficult sell on this Ferrybank site, and the hotel business had waned: the building is now largely derelict and has enforcement orders served on it after becoming a focus for anti-social behaviour.

Joint selling agents, acting for the owners, are Trevor McCarthy of Irish and European in Cork City, and Fergal Burke of GVA Donal Ó Buachalla in Dublin, who guide the entire at €750,000.

The 20 acre site — already being suggested locally as suitable for a public park given its panorama and prospect — has good frontage to the Dock Road and accessibility to the M9 and N25 Cork-Rosslare route. It’s within a walk of the rail and bus stations.

Most of the former hotel buildings have been demolished, apart from the six-storey accommodation block.

The portion in the Waterford City Council Area (almost 13 acres) has been designated as an “Opportunity Site” and the Co Kilkenny section is zoned as open space.

Details: Irish & European, 021-4277606; GVA Donal Ó Buachalla, 01-6762711