Boutique hotel for site off Baggot Street

Hotels: Housebuilder Menolly Group is making its second venture into the hotel sector with a new 50-bedroom boutique hotel off Baggot Street. Dylan, as the new hotel will be called, is undergoing a €15 million refit to bring the former nurses home up to five-star standards.

The hotel is going into a Victorian building on Eastmoreland Place, Dublin 2. The former site of the Hibernian Hotel, it will be "internally unrecognisable" once the project is completed by August 2006, according to the company.

The building served as a nurses home for the Royal City of Dublin Hospital and features a striking red and yellow terracotta facade akin to the hospital itself.

It will be transformed into a 50-bedroom hotel offering luxurious rooms and two large suites, accommodation which will quickly come into use for the State's high flyers who expect comfort and style for their hard-earned euros. One pictures it as the place to be after rugby internationals, major racing events and shows at the RDS.

Ken Edmondson is the architect chosen to design and oversee the new southern extension to the existing building. This will house a new bar and dining facilities which will flow out onto a large outdoor deck.

All the rooms will be fitted with complimentary Wi-Fi access and state-of-the-art communications equipment will be built into the two meeting rooms.

Shane Cookman will head up the hotel team as general manager and deliver the five-star standards promised by the developers.

"We will be filling a long standing gap in the Dublin market," says Cookman. "Dylan will be a trendy boutique hotel that will cater for the modern day business traveller as an alternative to the traditional hotels. Dylan will also be a great asset to the business and residential community offering a vibrant, high-energy service that has come to be expected in all international cities," he adds.

The hotel is expected to open in August 2006, a few months before Menolly's first hotel venture, the luxurious Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa in Co Meath. This is set to open on April 17th next year and involved the transformation of the historic castle into a 145-bedroom hotel and spa. This hotel lies 18kms from Dublin city centre.