Built for €37m and sold for €9m, Radisson Blue is typical of hotels developed at end of boom

The year 2005 was Ireland’s ‘if you build it, they will come’ period. Much was built, but the conventional wisdom that property couldn’t lose money, was hitting the skids.

We were heading for ‘peak hotel’, as hospitality developments abounded. Many have since either shut their doors or changed hands, due to unrealistic financial expectations and a cliff-face recession. But some of the better-planned and built hotels are doing well under new management.

The Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa on Little Island, is celebrating a decade of service. The hotel was developed by Rick Fitzgerald in 2005, for €37m, and was taken over by Cork-based iNua Hospitality in 2014, for €9m. CEO Noel Creedon said the property fulfilled the company’s criteria for purchases: it was profitable, had potential for growth and was purchased at a significant discount to replacement cost.