CBRE’s hotel expert Paul Collins got an unexpected boost last week in his bid to sell Kilkea Castle, a’ four-star hotel and country club, when American TV business channel Bloomberg highlighted it as part of a programme on the collapse of the Irish property market.
Within days of the screening of the Co Kildare pile, Collins’s phone started ringing again with most of the calls coming from the United States.
Several investors have now made appointments to view the Castle and its 145-acre estate which has been marked down from €16 million to €6 million. After opening its programme with views of the the 830-year old castle, Bloomberg went on to show some of the “distressed” houses and apartments with low reserves which are to be auctioned by British agents Allsop and Dublin agents Space in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel on Friday next week. The Americans were not the only ones fascinated by the castle and its 18-hole golf course.
Their TV film showed none other than Kilmessan, Co Meath hotelier and restaurateur Chris Slattery, taking a close look at the ancient castle. The same businessman once owned Killeen Castle in Co Meath before selling it on to developer Joe O’Reilly for his now famous country club.
