Two hotel sales save 180 jobs

More than 180 hotel jobs in Tipperary and Cork have been secured with the sales of two well-known county hotels, The Anner, in Thurles, and the Midleton Park Hotel, in Cork.

They made over €4m, combined, via agents Denis O’Donoghue and Tom Barrett, of Savills. Selling for more than its €1.1m price was the 95-bed Anner Hotel, on the edge of Thurles, bought by local Thurles and Cashel family, the Mahers, from receivers Padraic Monaghan and Kieran Wallace, KPMG, after going to competitive tender. Brothers Michael, PJ and Seamus Maher signed contracts last week for the hotel, which only went to market in mid-January.

“There was a very strong level of interest, both locally and nationally, for the iconic property, built about 50 years ago,” said Mr O’Donoghue. The Anner has seven conference rooms, a function room for 250 guests, and leisure centre with 18m pool, which opened in 1998. The purchase secures 60 jobs and the Mahers have plans for refurbishment.

Also due a refurbishment, to the tune of €1m, is the Midleton Park Hotel, which has been bought by Wexford-based Talbot Group, for over €3m. It’s the group’s fourth hotel; they also own the Talbot hotels in Wexford and Carlow, and the Stillorgan Park Hotel in south Dublin. The MPH was sale-agreed back in June, but the deal has only just closed, securing 80 jobs.

The group plans to bring it from three to four star standard, and to refurbish the main function room.

The hotel, built in the 1980s, has 79 bedrooms, gym and pool, with 1,500-member leisure club, strong function business (as the only hotel in a town of 12,000 people) and is on over three acres. Developed by Tom McCarthy and Tom Kelly, who also developed the Kingsley Hotel in Cork City (now owned by the Chinese Kang family, owners of Fota Resort), the Midleton Park Hotel went into receivership in 2012, with David Carson of Deloitte.

“The sale of Midleton Park Hotel is a good indicator of the strong domestic interest in Irish hotel assets,” says Savills’ Mr O’Donoghue. “The hotel market continues to recover, driven by a 6% increase in tourism numbers in 2013 and increasing consumer confidence; we expect 2014 to be another very busy year for hotel sales.”

Details: Savills, 021-4271371