The news that Francis and John Brennan are selling their landmark five-star property, the Park Hotel Kenmare, Co Kerry, will come as a surprise to many. But for the brothers, who are also offloading a sister property in the town, The Lansdowne, which they purchased in 2021, it has been a consideration for several years.
“It was always for sale, if somebody wrote a cheque. We were always waiting for the white Rolls-Royce to come up the drive with the chequebook,” John says. “In 2019 we were approached by Belmond [the hospitality group owned by LVMH] to sell. It was a very simple conversation between the two of us and we came to an agreement.”
That deal did not progress, but according to John it made them think more about selling. “Since then it has been more prominent in our minds than it would have been.” Now the landmark Kerry hotels are on the market individually or together for a combined guide price of €20.5 million.
The Park, which Francis Brennan bought out of liquidation in 1986, having leased it for the previous two years, is now jointly owned by the brothers and Fergal Naughton, executive chairman of the Glen Dimplex Group. It has 46 bedrooms, a health and beauty spa, an award winning restaurant and extensive grounds.
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“In 2016 we were in trouble, to be perfectly honest with you, because we built apartments on the grounds of the hotel. They got finished in 2008 and then all hell broke loose in the property market. We were no different,” John recounts. “Fergal Naughton came in as 30 per cent shareholder in the hotel and has been a partner and a friend and a great alliance. That gave us the means to breathe again, get ourselves in order and then refurbish and renovate the hotel over the last three years.”
[ Five-star Park Hotel Kenmare and Lansdowne Kenmare on the market for €20.5m ]
In 2021, the Park relaunched post-Covid with a lavishly redecorated ground floor, undertaken at a reported cost of more than €1 million. The project was overseen by local man Bryan O’Sullivan, an internationally acclaimed interior designer. Business has been good, they say. “We were never better as a business than we are this week, the reservations going forward are very strong and the hotel is in terrific condition. We’re hopeful that it is the right time to sell it because it’s at the top of the market,” says Francis.
“You don’t make a decision like this lightly and no one thing makes the decision for you,” says John. “Francis started work at 14. I started work at 11. I’m 57, that’s 46 years serving people and being out front.”
Going forward, he intends to increase his involvement at Dromquinna Manor, the wedding venue with a glamping site and a bistro, a few kilometres outside Kenmare, that he owns and operates with his wife Gwen. “Dromquinna is a fantastic property in its own right. There are 60 weddings this year, and it will take more of my time.”
The brothers are currently filming series 13 of At Your Service, the RTÉ television programme in which they advise struggling hospitality businesses.
Francis Brennan, who will be 70 in September, has a book coming out in the same month “on ageing gracefully”, and he also has a successful retail collaboration with Dunnes Stores. He says that Covid gave him time to reflect. “You need a little time to yourself in life, which I haven’t had much of to date.”
The two hotels are landmarks in the town of Kenmare, and the Brennans are hopeful that the new owners will continue their legacy of warm hospitality. “Ultimately we would like the person or persons who purchase [the properties] to appreciate the gems of properties they are and the gem of a town in which they’re located and build on that,” John says.
