The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
MEMBERS of the Lynch family will have an opportunity to make a bid for its former Ennis flagship hotel after it was put up for sale by private treaty as a going concern this week.
The West County Hotel, one of the largest hotels in the West of Ireland, is being sold on the instructions of the receiver, Declan McDonald of Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
CBRE Hotels are suggesting €2.5 million to €3 million as an indicative guideline price for the extensive hotel complex.
West County Hotel Ennis Limited was wound up following a High Court order in May 2011, 43 years after the West County was first developed by Michael Lynch Senior. The hotel is no longer connected to the Lynch family and is now part of the Great National Brand, whose headquarters are on the Quin Road in Ennis.
There has been speculation that members of the Lynch family are considering making a bid for its former flagship facility. Efforts by The Clare Champion to secure a comment from Michael B Lynch on the sale and a possible family bid proved unsuccessful on Wednesday.
The West County Hotel was built in 1968 and officially opened by the late President, Dr Paddy Hillery.
Bed & Breakfast rates in the hotel at that time were available at 32/6 (IR£1.12.6) for a single room and 60/- (IR£3) for a double room. After many extensions and with additional facilities added on several occasions throughout the intervening 44 years, the West County is now one of the biggest conference, event and function hotels in the West.
The hotel, located on the Clare Road near the motorway, is only 20kms from Shannon International Airport and SFADCO, the manufacturing and industrial centre for the entire Shannon region.
It sits on a high-profile site extending to approximately six acres and the accommodation includes 152 en-suite bedrooms, eight separate and interconnecting conference/banqueting suites that can cater for up to 1,650 delegates and a modern leisure centre
Dermot Curtin of CBRE Hotels said this is an exceptional opportunity to acquire one of Ireland’s busiest and best-known hotels.
“The West County Hotel has traded very successfully for many years and under new ownership will be poised to confirm its position as one of the most highly regarded full-service hotels in the Shannon Region. The hotel already enjoys a substantial turnover and, with some strategic investment over the next few years, will continue to maintain its very significant presence as one of Mid-West’s leading and most popular family and function hotels, which each year continues to host some of the more significant events, conferences and functions held in the West of Ireland,” he said.
