Moran to spend €166m on expansion of hotel chain

BUSINESSMAN Tom Moran is planning to spend more than €166 million refurbishing and expanding his Moran's and Bewleys hotel chain over the next three years. Ciarán Hancock, Business Affairs Correspondent, reports.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Moran said it would spend €10 million immediately on refurbishing the landmark Bewleys property in Ballsbridge, which it recently acquired from entrepreneur Bert Allen, along with five other hotels, for about €700 million.

Mr Moran said he also plans to spend about €90 million redeveloping his seven-acre Red Cow site in southwest Dublin and will spend £52 million (€66 million) on two hotels in the UK.

Mr Moran said the Ballsbridge hotel, which is situated beside the RDS, was the jewel in the crown among the three-star Bewleys sites. It will be upgraded to a four-star property and renamed under the Moran's brand. He revealed that the Ballsbridge hotel was not part of the original sale agreed with Mr Allen and was due to be offloaded to another group.

"The icing on the cake was Ballsbridge because that originally wasn't part of the deal," he said. "We'd done a deal on five and I asked him if he'd give us the sixth." He said the 304-bed hotel would remain open while the refurbishment took place. "It's a work in progress, we have all of our consultants looking at it," he said.

At the Red Cow, Mr Moran has received planning permission to build a 475-bed hotel and conference facilities to cater for 2,000 people. It will have a 17-storey glazed building as its centrepiece.

It will also have extensive leisure facilities, restaurants and bars and 900 car parking spaces. The group will shortly seek tenders from building contractors for the project. Work is set to begin next year and be completed in 2011. The existing Red Cow hotel, which caters mostly for corporate business has an 90 per cent occupancy rate. Mr Moran said demand often outstrips supply.

In the UK, he plans to lodge a planning application to extend his four-star hotel in Chiswick to 173 bedrooms with conferencing and leisure facilities attached.