Chinese hoteliers pay €20m for Cork’s Fota Island Resort

The Fota Island Resort in Cork Harbour, built by Irish developer John Fleming at cost of over €90 million, has been sold on behalf of Nama to a Chinese hotelier family for an estimated €20 million.

Selling agents, Colliers International in conjunction with Cork auctioneer, Coholan Downing have confirmed that the resort comprising a hotel, golf courses and holiday lodges set on 500 acres, has been purchased by the Kang family.

Colliers International declined to say what price the Kang family had paid for the resort which was put on the market by receiver PriceWaterhouseCooper on behalf of Nama but informed sources confirmed that the resort achieved its guide price of €20million.

The successful bid was made on behalf of the Kang family by chartered accountants, O’Connor Pyne & Co Ltd of Ballincollig who confirmed the purchase of Fota Island Resort in a statement issued yesterday afternoon.

“The family confirm that the business will trade as normal with all commitments, such as weddings and corporate bookings being honoured. They look forward to the continuation of the successful relationship between the hotel and the golf club,” said O’Connor Pyne.

Conor Pyne of O'Connor Pyne told The Irish Times that the Kang family were familiar with Fota Island Resort from a number of visits over the past few years and were very pleased with the purchase which represents their first investment in Europe.

"As a family, they are very experienced in the hotel business with two five star hotels in Shanghai and Beijing and they have many years of experience in the sector - they weren't involved in any previous bids for Fota so they're obviously very pleased with the outcome."

Marcus Magnier of Colliers International said the purchase of Fota Island Resort by the Kang family was a major vote of confidence in the Cork economy and was good news for the resort which employs over 200 people between full time and part time staff.

“It’s a real vote of confidence in the Cork economy - they will be undertaking work at the hotel including a certain amount of refurbishment and upgrading it if that is possible while they also plan to finish out the lodges so it’s good news for Cork,” he said.

Fota Island Resort was developed by the Fleming Group in 2006 after John Fleming purchased the bought the original Fota golf course in 2004 from the Killeen Group, owned by the O'Mahony family, the Toyota car distributors.

The Fleming Group proceeded to add two more golf courses to the original course which hosted the Irish Open in both 2001 and 2002 while the group also built the 131 bedroomed hotel complete with a state-of-the-art leisure centre and spa with a 18-metre pool.

In 2006, Mr Fleming invited the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to official opent the hotel which he signed up-market international chain Sheraton as the operator but when Nama took over Fleming Group loans in 2010, PriceWaterhouse Cooper was appointed as receiver.