Hotel, roof an' all, must go in contents sale

ContentsSale: Those seeking furniture or home improvement materials will find a lot to interest them in this hotel contents sale, says Rose Doyle

When the contents of Ivory's Hotel, Tramore Road, Waterford city go under auctioneer David Herman's hammer on December 7th and 8th buyers will be bidding for more than the usual selected sale items. In this auction everything is for sale and must go.

"The place will be gutted by the time I'm finished," says David Herman. "I'm to sell everything that can be taken out. If it can be moved I'll be putting a sticker on it. A €1 bid will buy items if that's all I'm bid."

Everything means beds to video surveillance systems, cutlery to glasses to pots and pans, windows, doors and roof tiles. There's a lot more in between, all of it good quality and none of it more than 10 years old, the age of Ivory's Hotel itself.

Ivory's Hotel was sold prior to its recent October 14th auction date for close to agent CB Richard Ellis Gunne's guide of €5.5m. Located in an area of recent, and considerable, commercial development the purchaser is believed to be a retailer. Des O'Toole of O'Shea and O'Toole, who sold the property for the Ivory family, confirms that it was not sold to a hotelier.

Ivory's Hotel was custom-built by Declan Ivory and his wife to be a modern, family hotel with an eye to fine detail. The latter included such as mahogany fittings for tea-making necessities in all 40 bedrooms. It has two storeys, though the high ceilings in the restaurant and bar area made single storey use of that side of the building.

"It was a top quality hotel," David Herman says, "and very, very well kept." He's taken charge of similar sales before - notably in the case of the St Laurence Hotel in Howth, Co Dublin some five years ago.

David Herman describes what will be coming under the hammer in Waterford with enthusiasm. "There's a big, long mahogany bar top, bar stools, tables, glasses - pint, wine and whiskey. The optics at the back of the bar for measuring will be going, too, and so will the coloured prints on the walls.

"There's a set of five watercolours which were especially commissioned and show Joyce, Beckett, O'Casey, Kavanagh and Behan. There are overhead TVs, plus screens, the carpets and curtains throughout, all of them good quality."

Furniture in the restaurant and reclining areas is all, he says, "nicely upholstered - couches, suites, cane and pine seating. The bedrooms have desks, good quality beds and bedding. I'll even be selling the 40 en suite shower units which have loos and wash-hand basins. Then there are all the interior doors - someone renovating an old place will be interested in them, or a building contractor.

"There's a big car-park with lots of plants and shrubs which have to be sold as well as the contents of a kiddies' playground at the back. The half-dozen or so hobby horses on springs cost €2,000 each when new. All the garden furniture will be for sale and everything in the kitchen - cookers, ranges, griddles, soup kettles, carvery units. Same in the office.

"There are two very good cold rooms for sale and a laundry area with industrial dryers and washing machines. All the light fittings will be going."

All in all, David Herman expects to raise between €50,000 and €60,000 for goods he says are "probably worth €200,000 or more. I'll be expecting hoteliers looking for bits and pieces to come along as well as publicans. The bedroom and restaurant furniture is suitable for private house use."

The auction (on the premises) will start at 10.30 a.m. each day and go on until 3 p.m. Viewing is on December 5th from 2.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on December 6th from 11 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.