Irish joint venture pays €11m for top Edinburgh hotel

Hotels: An Irish joint venture company has bought a four-star hotel in Edinburgh. Jack Fagan, Property Editor, reports

An Irish joint venture company has paid €11 million for the Royal Terrace Hotel in Edinburgh which had been owned for many years by the Meridien Group.

The Hanratty family, who own the Glengarriff Eccles Hotel in west Cork, and business couple Liam and Sylvia Walsh - have taken over the four-star hotel which is with within five minutes' walk of Princes Street in Edinburgh.

The hotel is housed in a row of seven Georgian buildings and contains 108 bedrooms, including 13 luxurious suites.

It is planned to refurbish the building over the next few years.

The purchase brings to five the number of hotels in the Prima group, which handles its own promotion and marketing.

The same joint venture company paid £4 million in 2001 for Hellby Hall Hotel in Rotherham, xxxxxx, which was subsequently enlarged and now has 90 bedrooms.

Mr and Mrs Walsh, who are from Co Kildare, also operate the Stanneylands Hotel in Wilmslow, near Manchester Airport and the Quorn Hotel in Leicestershire. Both of these hotels have been upgraded and enlarged in the past three years.

The Glengarriff Eccles Hotel, reputed to be one of the oldest in the country, was acquired in 2000 and has since undergone a total restoration and refurbishment.

This three-star, 66-bedroom hotel has also added a banqueting area and specialises in weddings and conferences.

The Hanratty family previously owned the Howth Lodge Hotel which was sold in 2000 to the Cosgrave Group.

It has since been demolished to make way for up to 40 apartments and penthouses, which are due to go on the market in about a month.

Kate McMorrow

With no room to expand at Wynn's Hotel on Dublin's Lower Abbey Street, owner Neil Loftus is concentrating on converting the basement, adding to the three conference rooms already up and running at Wynn's.

A planning application has been submitted to instal a kitchen, goods lift and build a single-storey bar extension to the rear of the hotel.

The land-locked nature of Wynn's is a drawback which owner Loftus has attempted to overcome since he acquired the hotel nine years ago.

Having failed to buy the former AIB premises, Loftus has his eye on the CIÉ offices next door, although discussions so far have come to naught.

"We've been trying to acquire other properties behind and beside the hotel and have had discussions with the owners, but nothing so far," says Loftus, adding that the regeneration of O'Connell Street has been "horrendous" for businesses in the area.

The closure of The China Showrooms is a case in point, he says.

Built around 1850 as a hotel, Wynn's has built up a loyal customer base over the years, catering mainly for the Irish and UK market.

Dubliner Neil Loftus decided to retain this reliable market when he sold the Clarence Hotel to the U2 group and moved over to Lower Abbey Street.

Keen pricing has led to the success of the conference end of the market, prompting the new additions, he says.

"We are constantly upgrading and it's a costly exercise. The access here is appalling just now and there's no compensation from the Corporation for this," says Loftus.