Construction BUSINESS

Hotel operator Dalata said on Tuesday that it is to close the historic Clyde Court Hotel, formerly the Berkeley Court, in Dublin’s Ballsbridge, on January 1st 2016. Developer Chartered Land will start construction of 190 apartments in a pavilion-style development on the site on Dublin’s Landsdowne Road in early 2016, with the apartments available for sale from 2017.

The Clyde Court Hotel has 100 employees, but Dalata said it expects no job losses, and it confirmed that the suppliers of the hotel “will suffer no loss and will be paid in full”. Construction of the apartments is expected to result in the creation of 500 jobs.

Dalata initially entered into a one year lease for the hotel in January 2012, and then began a new five-year lease from April 2013. Under the terms of this lease the landlord had a break option on December 31st, 2015, which has now been exercised by Chartered Land and Dalata will surrender the lease effective on that date.

At the neighbouring Ballsbridge Hotel, Dalata said it had extended the lease on the hotel, with no break options, to “at least April 2018”.

Pat McCann CEO of Dalata said; “While there is a certain sadness at the closure of the Clyde Court Hotel, I am delighted that the Ballsbridge Hotel will continue in operation until at least April 2018.”

The hotel is then likely to be re-developed to include additional apartments, a new hotel with a panoramic rooftop restaurant, a boutique retail offering and restaurant uses fronting a new public plaza.

Dalata said it is in the process of raising € 160m in fresh equity capital which will allow it to “acquire additional freehold hotels in Ireland, add bedrooms at certain existing hotels and explore opportunities to build new hotels in Dublin”.