Two new Hilton Hotels, in Limerick city and Kilmainham in Dublin, both at the top end of the business market, will open in April.
The two four-star hotels will add over 300 beds and provide almost 200 full-time and around 60 part-time jobs.
The total investment in both developments is over €100 million; in Dublin €40 million and in Limerick €70 million.
Both developments are enhanced by on-site apartment schemes - 137 units in Limerick and 228 in Dublin - which will also feature a commercial and retail element.
Lalco Ltd, the development vehicle of Galway-based John Lally, will own the hotels. The apartments are in the course of being sold. Lalco has entered into a management contract with Hilton Hotels to operate both hotels.
"The Limerick Hilton will be to Limerick what the Shelbourne is to Dublin," John Lally says. "We bought the Jurys Hotel from the Jurys Doyle Group at Sarsfield Bridge on the Ennis Road for €9.75 million. We traded for a year. It's on the Ennis Road, overlooking the river. It would be regarded locally as one of the finest hotel and residential sites in the city. When people think of a premium hotel, they are thinking of the Hilton."
Lalco demolished the old hotel on the 4.2-acre site and development began in September 2005.
Imposing though the Limerick Hilton will be, the Kilmainham Hotel, on the site of the old Rowntree Mackintosh factory, stands out as one exits the motorway, just before Heuston Station. It also fronts onto the museum at Kilmainham Jail.
"Both hotels are contemporary in design. It's architecture of the current time, using the most modern materials available. Externally, it's strikingly contemporary," Lally says.
The apartments, The Strand in Limerick, go on sale tomorrow; all but about 40 of the apartments in the Old Chocolate Factory in Kilmainham have been sold. In Limerick apartments range in price from €305,000 for a one-bed to €470,000 for a three-bed.
John Lally, whose father, Joe, now retired, worked with Bord Fáilte for 25 years, is no stranger to the hospitality market. Following a successful career as a quantity surveyor in Britain, he returned to Galway, where he launched the Harbour Hotel, in the docks area, and embarked on a chain of tourist hostel accommodation.
And his views on Ireland as an attractive tourist destination are very positive. "The Dublin hotel market is very topical. A huge stock of rooms are going out of the city. New hotels coming into the city will provide a new injection of badly needed rooms in the city centre. The hotel market in Dublin is changing and Limerick, to a lesser scale, is changing."
And how does he answer the often-aired complaint by tourists that Dublin is an over-priced city? "I think, in terms of hotel prices, in Ireland, it's very competitive, very good value. Just look at the personal columns in The Irish Times. I have great confidence in it."
Not content with opening two new hotels this year, Lally is expanding further. He is planning a 200-bed four-star hotel in Sandyford in Dublin. And plans for a country idyll, Humewood Castle and Estate, due to open in 2010, will be a five-star international resort complex "steeped in 500 years of Hume family history". Humewood is a stately home on 430 acres and is set to become a "country living-style hotel and resort, the like of which really isn't offered elsewhere here".
Humewood Castle will be comprised of 20 suites in the castle itself. The adjoining five-star hotel will provide 120 beds. Another 350 beds will be offered in 150 units as lodges and self-catering accommodation on the estate. Outdoor pursuits, including horseriding, golf, tennis and much more, will be the main attraction - it'll be "a bit like Gleneagles [in Scotland]", says John Lally.
