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 on Parnell Street has 253 standard bedrooms, a bar and restaurant. There is also an all-day cafeteria called Il Barista. The hotel also has three dedicated meeting rooms as well as a fitness room. The bedrooms are spacious, all en-suite and can accommodate up to three adults. A number of the bedrooms have been designed specifically with the needs of guests with mobility disabilities in mind and have wider entrance and bathroom doors. The entrance doors can also be operated electronically by remote control and there are additional handrails, accessible electrical sockets and emergency cord.

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 2011, however, Dublin hotels achieved a RevPAR of €60.16, which is an increase of nearly 15%. Occupancy rates also remain positive. In the first nine months of 2011 occupancy levels rose nearly 8% to 73%, whereas in the same period last year this figure stood at 67.7%.

Kevin Sheehan, Partner in charge of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Services at Deloitte, said “The results of these latest figures show that the summer season in 2011 has been considerably stronger than in 2010, which will come as a considerable relief. These figures correspond to recent figures from the CSO, which showed that in the period July to September of this year, the total number of overseas trips to Ireland increased by 6.5% to 2,126,200, compared to the same period twelve months earlier. The picture that is emerging for Dublin hotels in 2011 is one of steady recovery, albeit the margins being achieved are still relatively small. However with all key measurement indicators going in the right direction, it is clear that the careful consideration hoteliers gave to their marketing and pricing strategies have hit the right note with consumers.”

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 hotel will form part of this group of hotels.

Apart from the purchase price, it is expected that any new owner of the Grand Canal Square Hotel would have to spend somewhere in the region of a further €10 million on finishing fitting out the hotel including the restaurants, lounges, bars, kitchens, conference facilities etc. Of the 169 bedrooms, 21 of them are laid out as suites.

It is thought that, back in 2006, the original developer had a deal to sell the Dublin hotel to a Galway-based developer and hotelier for around €50 million. However, that deal could not be completed as, like many others, it too became a victim of the international banking crisis and the subsequent collapse in the price of property.

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 under the D4 brand. In recent years the hotels have been re-positioned, operating as budget hotels with accommodation sometimes being offered from as little as €37 a night.

All this is now expected to change under the control of the Dalata Group. It is believed that the two Dublin hotels will be possibly rebranded as the Berkeley Court and the Ballsbridge Hotel and moved up into the four-star category. The price of a room in both establishments is also expected to rise accordingly. It is also believed that extra funds will be made available to renovate some of the rooms in the hotels. The ground-floor of the former Jurys hotel has already received a €4 million up-grade due to flood damage caused by the heavy rainfall that took place in Dublin in October last year.

Dalata is the biggest hotel group in Ireland and has some 4,000 bedrooms in 23 hotels. It runs 11 Maldron hotels and a further 12 hotels under management contracts for a variety of clients. These include the former Citywest Hotel in Saggart, Finnstown House in west Dublin, Breaffy House in Co Mayo, Whites in Wexford and the Clayton Hotel in Galway.

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 to the business by Nama in 2010. The hotel was placed on the market by CBRE Hotels in September 2011 with formal bids being put in during November last year.

The Morrison is a four star hotel with 141 rooms located on Lower Ormond Quay in Dublin city centre. The hotel was built in 1999 and was designed by John Rocha. The hotel has an “East Meets West” theme and the stylish Dublin hotel is well-known for its great service, relaxed atmosphere and chic style. The hotel’s prime location in the heart of Dublin and its healthy profits were expected to appeal to international hotel investors. When the MTV awards were held in Dublin in 1999 The Morrison hosted the aftershow party headlined by Whitney Houston and since then it has become one of the trendiest hotels in Dublin.