Tipp up for the double

TWO Thurles hotels are up for sale this month — one is famed in GAA lore and heritage, the other, larger, a trading entity, and just on the edge of the Tipperary town.

The duo are Hayes Hotel, the birthplace of the GAA in 1884 and steeped in GAA legend ever since, and the Anner Hotel: both are being offered for receivers KPMG.

Already under the eye of a local Thurles consortium is the 36-bed Hayes Hotel on Liberty Square: the trio, known as the Thurles Troika, include hurling legend Lar Corbett who already has bar/restaruant interests in Thurles. Guide price is 750,000-plus via CBRE who are selling by private treaty.

Fresh on the heels of the Hayes Hotel launch (covered in these pages on Saturday last) comes the far larger Anner Hotel, with a 1.1m guide via agent Denis O’Donoghue of Savills.

The three-star Anner was built about 50 years ago, and extended and upgraded twice since, and has 95 bedrooms (29 with air-con), bar, restaurant, dining room and air conditioned conference and banqueting facilities with seven suites, plus a leisure centre opened in 1998, with an 18-metre pool.

The main function/banquet room caters for 250 people.

Location is on two landscaped acres on the Dublin road east of the town with a population of 8,000, and a catchment of 95,000.

It’s five miles from the M8 Dublin/Cork road, with a mainline rail service to both cities.

Savills’ Mr O’Donoghue says the hotel trade isn’t impacted by the sale, and it can be bought free from the existing management agreement.

“The Anner is currently the only hotel in Thurles with a bedroom offering ; it has a loyal customer base and represents an excellent opportunity to acquire a hotel with vast potential to grow business,” he adds.

Details: CBRE, 01-6181500; Savills; 021-4271371