Hotel Expansion: Jurys 340-bedroom hotel at Heathrow Airport, to open in November, will have direct access to the London underground, one stop from Terminal One. Joan Scales reports.
The growth of the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group will continue with the opening of a new hotel in Heathrow in November. The newest hotel follows quickly on the opening of the 240-bedroom Jurys Inn on Parnell Street at the end of last month.
The 340-bedroom facility will be the only hotel in the Heathrow complex to have direct access to the underground, at Hatton Cross, one stop from Terminal One. The hotel will also be serviced by the free number 285 bus from the bus station above Terminal One. Opening rates will be £59 per room per night, and regular rates £89 per room per night.
Jurys Doyle won the British Airports Authority's competitive tendering process that involved a number of leading hotel groups. They have entered into a 125-year ground lease with the BAA and the initial investment will be in the region of €34 million for the construction of the hotel.
The Heathrow hotel market has always been very competitive, with more than 15 hotels in a three-mile radius of the airport, many of which are four-star. Jurys Inn should find a niche with budget travellers, particularly as the room rate is for up to three adults or two adults and two children.
Jurys Inn Heathrow will include a restaurant, bar and meeting rooms and parking for 125 cars. This hotel will be the 17th Jurys Inn operating in Ireland and the UK, with almost 4,000 bedrooms.
The Heathrow hotel will be the group's fourth in the London area: there are Jurys Inns in Chelsea, Islington and Croydon. A Jurys Inn is due to open in Nottingham in 2005.
On the home front, Jurys Doyle has entered into an imaginative deal with O'Callaghan Properties for the redevelopment of Jurys Hotel, Western Road, Cork. O'Callaghan Properties has bought the hotel and four-acre site for a mixed-use redevelopment.
The existing 165-bedroom hotel is to be demolished and rebuilt as a six-storey 182-bedroom block on the island site, along with 300 apartments and more than 450 parking spaces.
The hotel had been in need of major refurbishment, and Jurys Doyle had considered taking on the project themselves.
This deal gives the best to both companies with Jurys releasing capital and moving towards the industry norm of sale and leaseback.
O'Callaghan Properties will construct one of the biggest apartment developments ever in Cork.
The apartments will be a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom units in five blocks of varying heights from five to nine storeys. A new bridge will also be built, connecting the site to Lancaster Quay, beside Mardyke Street. The existing bridge will be retained.
Jurys Doyle will lease back the new hotel on a 35-year lease when completed in the summer of 2006. It will also consult with the developers on the construction of the four-star hotel, which will have extensive leisure and meeting facilities. The construction of the hotel is expected to cost in the region of €30 million and the project will be undertaken by the Bowen Group.
Staff at the hotel, where 110 people are employed full-time and 145 part-time/casual staff, have been informed and will be offered relocation, redundancy or early retirement. Staff will be offered new positions when the hotel reopens. This will be one of the biggest construction projects in Cork in the next two years. The €160 million development is subject to planning permission from Cork City Council. A decision is expected early in October.
