Hotting up in Killarney

ONE down, another to go in Kerry — DTZ Sherry FitzGerald this week bring Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin’s Muckross Park Hotel to market guiding €6.5m, after their summer 2014 off-market sale of Killarney’s 74-bed Aghadoe Heights for just over €6m, bought by Davy asset managers.

The arrival this week of the Muckross Park Hotel and Spa for receiver Declan Taite of Duff and Phelps comes as a blow to owners/developers Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin who had invested over €10m in the venture, known for its particularly lavish spa and which is trading very well, making recent profits.

As the only hotel within Killarney’s National Park, it has a special niche setting, and gets a particularly strong US trade, while Cork visitors make up as much as 50% of the domestic market there, it’s understood.