Brennan brothers considering 'best bids' in their €20.5m hotel duo sale

Thu, 13 Jul, 2023 - 18:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

HOTELIERS and hospitality TV show hosts Francis Brennan and John Brennan are this week considering offers for their two Kenmare Co Kerry hotels in the €25.3m ‘Project Halo’ sale, via agents CBRE.

Going once, going twice: wide a varied interest in the Project Halo Kenmare hotels sale, which went to 'best bids' last week with CBRE, for vendors Francis and John Brennan for a combined €20.3 million

The high-profile duo put the five-bed, internationally acclaimed 46-bed Park Hotel Kenmare and the 28-bed Lansdowne Hotel on the market in May with a combined €20.5m price guide.

Interest has been show in the two together, and in lots, it’s understood: The Park being the more valuable at €17m, and the more recently acquired Lansdowne was guided at €3.5 million, bought out of receivership in 2020.

Project Halo Kenmare hotels comprise The Park Kenmare and The Lansdowne

The brothers, presenters of RTÉs At Your Service, are thought to favour a sale of their two Kenmare hotels together, but a decision will depend on the specific offers and on the interest of Park Hotel investor and co-owner Fergal Naughton, chair of Glen Dimplex who took a share in 2018.

The sale(s) will end a 40 year high-end hospitality link for ‘brand’ Francis Brennan, while John Brennan will continue to own and operate Dromquinna Manor, on the Ring of Kerry for the present.

John and Francis Brennan, vendors at The Lansdowne Hotel, Kenmare. Picture: Andy Gibson.

The imminent sales of the Kenmare hotel duo come as agents CBRE report €135m in Irish hotel sales so far in 2023, with €91m in Q2, across six separate deals led by the c €25m purchase of Cork’s Imperial Hotel, described by CBRE as going to “a private Irish hotel operator.”

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins were guests of Cork's Grande Dame The Imperial Hotel at the weekend. Pictured before departing for official duties with Louis, Niamh and Helen Fitzgerald, of Louis Fitzgerald Family and new owners of Cork’s Imperial Hotel.

The Irish Examiner back in May exclusively revealed the Imperial purchaser as veteran Dublin hotel and bar owner Louis Fitzgerald, whose second-generation Fitzgerald family group owns up to 20 bars and hotels, primarily in Dublin and now with a major Cork hospitality base of historical note and over 200 years of history.

It's understood that buyer Mr Fitzgerald will revisit his South Mall Cork purchase next week: he bought off-market from Dungarvan-based Flynn family hotels, who invested significant sums since they acquired it in 1998 for €6.4m.

In their half-year hotel sector review, CBRE said hotel development activity £remains quite robust, despite escalating build costs and debt challenges,” noting a new high of €209 average daily rate in Dublin hotels, up 3.5% from Sept 2022, and the sale of an office building, Telephone House for conversion to a 296-bedroom aparthotel.

“This trend of offices being considered for hotel conversion is an emerging one,” they state.

2019 had been the recent high point for Irish hotel sales, with over €650 million invested in that year: this slumped in 2020, and sales were under €400m in 2021 and 2022.

CBRE say “private investors, family offices and hotel groups have dominated transactional activity in the Irish market this year, with institutional investors and private equity groups less active. This has the potential to change late in the second half of the year, should these investors get more comfortable with asset pricing and the cost of debt.”

DETAILS: CBRE-01-6185500