€45m price tag for Druids Glen hotel and resort
DRUIDS Glen Hotel and Golf Resort has been placed on the market with a guide price of €45 million.
Savills Hotels and Leisure has been instructed to handle the sale.
The luxury 5-star resort sits on a 349-acre estate featuring a 145 bedroom hotel nestled between the Wicklow Mountains and the Irish sea.
The resort also boasts two 18-hole championship golf courses - Druids Glen and Druids Heath – designed by renowned course designer Pat Ruddy and former Irish golfer, Tom Craddock.
Edward Stephenson, Chief Executive of Druids Glen Hotel and Golf Resort, said: ‘The Druids Glen Resort has grown year on year and has become one of Ireland’s key destination resorts. Situated in close proximity to Dublin, it caters for over 130,000 visitors, both domestic and international, every year’.
In 1996, just a year after opening, Druids Glen hosted the Irish Open and continued to do so until 1999. Past winners included Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia.
The resort also hosted the Seve Trophy in 2002. The biennial golf tournament was between teams of professional male golfers; one team representing Great Britain and Ireland, the other team representing Continental Europe.
Druids Glen’s close proximity to Dublin is another major selling point and is also expected to make it an even more attractive purchase.
Tom Barrett, Director, Hotels and Leisure at Savills Ireland, commented: ‘Druids Glen Resort is one of the jewels in Irish hospitality. Located within the growing greater Dublin area, home to 1.9 million people, it will appeal to domestic and international buyers’.
The 5-star hotel at Druids Glen first opened in 2002 as a Marriott resort and has been fully refurbished over the past four years. It features 145 spacious air-conditioned guestrooms and suites, eight conference and event rooms, spa, health club and dining options including Hugo’s Restaurant, the Garden Rooms and Bar and Sycamore Lounge.
The resort has invested €9 million over the past five years to bring guests a fresh experience. The first ever alteration to the footprint of the original hotel was made earlier this year to reveal the new Garden Rooms and Bar which was designed to extend the area of the existing bar and pavilion.
Woodstock House, the clubhouse , dates back to 1770 and was built for the Earl of Aldborough.
In the past it has also been used by as a base for recording musicians, including Mike Oldfield recording while recording Tubular Bells II, Rod Stewart, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi.
The resort is owned by the Flinn, Lappin and Hurley families and has 650 members who pay an annual subscription of €2,800.
In December of last year it was revealed that operating profits for the company that runs the resort, Obalus Hotel Company Ltd, had increased by 40 per cent to €1.38 million. At the time a fullyear revenue growth of 7 per cent was forecast. Numbers employed at the hotel also increased from 205 to 232.