New owners invest €8m in Castlemartyr Resort
Castlemartyr Resort
A WHOPPING €8m has been pumped into upgrading the 5-star Castlemartyr resort by its new Singaporean owners who bought it for c€20m little more than a year ago.
Investors Dr Stanley Quek, a graduate of Dublin’s Trinity College and current pro-chancellor, and Irish-born Peng Loh have also just acquired the Ring of Kerry Golf Club, close to another hotel property in their Irish portfolio, Sheen Falls Lodge.
The two have invested heavily in refurbishing the already upmarket Castlemartyr hotel’s 108 bedrooms and guest suites, as well as carrying out substantial improvements to the grounds.
The facelift includes an expansive new lobby, relocated from the 17th century country manor house which is the centrepiece of the resort.
The double height lobby replaces the former ballroom and is closer to the newer wing of the hotel.
The hotel also added a second restaurant, called Terre, a just-opened high-dining experience under French chef Vincent Crepel, who has aspirations for not just one, but two Michelin Stars. The former Italian restaurant, Franchini’s, has been rebranded as Canopy, with seating more than doubled from 60 to 130 seats.
Outside, bunkers on the Ron Kirby-designed 18-hole inland links-style golf course have been renovated and a new driving range installed. Pathways have been upgraded and landscaping carried out and the hotel has also built two new tennis courts.
Director of sales and marketing Breffne McKenna said the ongoing investment is “a really good news story” for the East Cork area, where Irish Distillers have just announced plans to invest €250m in building a new distillery in nearby Midleton, with the expectation of creating 800 construction jobs over three years. Castlemartyr Resort is also a big employer in the area, with 236 staff.
Mr Loh, born in Ireland to two Singaporean doctors who were working here temporarily, has hospitality property interests across the globe. He is known his love of properties with a historical quality, where Castlemartyr fits the bill. The ruins of the 800-year-old castle that gives the village its name are in the grounds of the 220-acre estate, and was once home to Strongbow.
Dr Quek and Mr Loh also own Dublin’s Trinity Townhouse Hotel. They have actively sought to add Irish hotels to their portfolio in recent years. Dr Quek is an acknowledged expert in property investment and is executive chair of Region Development Pte Ltd in Singapore, a company he founded more than 30 years ago.
He has the distinction of being the first Trinity pro-chancellor from Asia. Mr Loh attended boarding school in Ireland and coincidentally, Castlemartyr Resort was previously a boarding school under the Carmelite Order, before being developed in the early naughties by John F Supple & Co at a cost of €70m. In 2015, it sold for c€12.5m to British businessman and hotelier Martin Shaw and the late Chinese businessman Zhenxin Zhang, before being sold on again last year to the current owners. Successive owners have invested in the resort, where the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton and the honeymooning Kardashians have stayed.
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