A well-known hotel in Dublin city centre came onto the market this week when the building that houses Jurys Inn Parnell Street was put up for sale. The popular three-star hotel at the junction of Moore Street has been valued by Savills at around €23 million.

The hotel was initially developed some eight years ago and was sold to a syndicate of private investors. At that time the hotel sold at the much higher price of €40 million which was supported by the availability of tax relief for investors in those days. Now that those sort of concessions no longer exist the group in question is seeking to sell the hotel at the newer, substantially lower valuation. The hotel is currently let to the Jurys Inn group at a rent of €2.39 million on a lease which still has 27 years left to run. The €23 million sale price would offer any potential buyer a yield of around 10 percent leading Fergus O’Farrell of Savills to comment that he expected “significant Irish and overseas interest because of the quality of the building, its central location and the long lease terms.”

Jurys Inn operates some 32 hotels in Irleand, the UK and the Czech Republic under the brand. The hotel...Click to read more about Uncategorized

Leading business advisory company, Deloitte, recently released figures from Smith Travel Research (STR) Global which cover the hotel sector in Dublin for the first nine months of 2011. STR Global tracks supply and demand data for the hotel industry and provides market share analysis for all major international hotel chains and brands. With tens of thousands of hotels taking part in STR’s hotel performance surveys, the company is one of the world’s leading sources of hotel performance trends. The STR figures show that hotels in Dublin are experiencing improved performance across the main key performance indicators.

Compared to the same period in 2010, occupancy rates across the hotels in Dublin has increased by almost 8 percent, with the average daily rate up over 6 percent. In addition, revenue per available room (RevPAR) has gone up by almost 15 percent. The average daily rate charged by Dublin hotels in the first nine months of 2011 was €82.41, indicating that rates have continued to rise since the beginning of the year. In the same period in 2010, the average daily rate was just €77.51. RevPAR followed a similar trend. In the first nine months of 2010 RevPAR fell by 7% to €52.47, compared to the same period in 2009. In...Click to read more about Uncategorized

Is has been reported that a Swiss company, with the backing of Israeli investors, has acquired the Grand Canal Square Hotel, which is located in the Dublin docklands and has been vacant for some time. The hotel and apartment complex was originally built by a Dublin developer and funded by Bank of Scotland, which has since closed its banking operations in Ireland. The development also has five retail units on the ground floor and 138 underground car parking spaces.

KPMG receivers have been working on the sale of the hotel complex, which is situated directly opposite the Grand Canal Theatre, for around 15 months. The receivers have still not confirmed the sale of the Dublin hotel and the 84 apartments in the complex, although it is believed that the price is somewhere around €30 million. If this figure is true then it falls well short of the debts on the development, which are thought to be in the region of €90 million.

The Swiss company in question is thought to have links with the W Hotels chain. This group specializes in luxury boutique hotels and currently has establishments in New York, Washington and Barcelona as well as hotels in London. As yet there is noting to indicate that the Dublin...Click to read more about Uncategorized

Last week a syndicate of financial institutions led by Ulster Bank is reported to have taken control of the hotels that make up the D4 Hotel Group located in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin. Over six years ago the lenders had provided finance to Carlow property developer Sean Dunne to acquire the former Berkeley Court hotel and Jurys hotel in the upmarket area of Dublin in a deal worth some €400 million. It is reported that at the height of the property boom Mr Dunne paid some €125 million for the five-star Berkeley Court and €275 for Jurys Hotel.

The lenders have reportedly appointed Dalata Hotel Group to take over the management of the hotels in Ballsbridge. Dalata is run by Pat McCann, the former chief executive of the Jurys Doyle hotel group and in an ironic twist it was Mr McCann who was involved in the negotiation of the sale of the hotels to Mr Dunne back in 2005.

The initial plan was to build an exclusive high-rise mixed development on the site of the hotels and the centrepiece of the projected €1.5 billion development was to be a 37-storey tower. However, the plan was rejected by An Bord Pleanála in January 2009 and the hotels were reopened...Click to read more about Uncategorized

It has been reported that Yelena Baturina, wife of the former mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov and one of the richest women in Russia, is poised to buy the Morrison Hotel in Dublin from Nama, the Irish state assets agency. It is believed that Nama is in the advanced stages of completing the sale of the Morrison, which has been on the market since September last year, and is expected to fetch between €20 and €25 million. This price is around half the value placed on the hotel by Anglo Irish Bank back in the heady days of 2006.

The Moscow Times reports that Baturina is bidding for the Dublin hotel through a London-based asset management vehicle. It is believed that the deal has not yet been completed but is expected to be signed this week. Baturina’s bid is thought to be the highest of a shortlist of three or four formally made to Nama at the close of 2011. The Russian business woman is reported to be worth some $1.2 billion and has a wide range of interests including construction and manufacturing as well as farming and property.

The Morrison Hotel was part of businessman Hugh O’Regan’s pub and hotel portfolio until Martin Ferris was appointed as receiver...Click to read more about Uncategorized