Kilternan Golf and Country Club in south County Dublin, owned by wealthy Irish-American businessman Chuck Feeney, is to be offered for sale by tender on June 22nd. Peter Lynch of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald is quoting a guide price of £8 million (€10.16m) for the complex, which has had a chequered history over the years.
The sports complex includes an 18-hole golf course and covers an area of 152 acres in an attractive rural setting at the foothills of the Dublin mountains.
Although a 48-bedroom hotel is the centre-piece of the property, it is thought likely that the next owner will convert the main building, which is listed, into apartments and develop a considerable number of other residential units in the grounds.
About 30 acres, currently unused, is likely to be targeted for expensive homes - though it is questionable whether the planners would approve of such a scheme in a high amenity area like Kilternan. Developers normally get a premium on sales of houses alongside golf courses.
The country club has over 100,000 sq ft of hotel and leisure facilities, much of it in need of upgrading.
Although the selling agents are precluded from disclosing the overall turnover at this stage, it is obvious the company is doing exceptionally well out of the golf course and leisure centre, due to its proximity to a huge middle-class population in south Dublin.
The golf course has 850 members who pay an annual subscription of £630 (€800). The green fee for visitors is £XX. Ireland's only dry ski slope in the grounds is rented at £12,000 (€15,240) a year, but that figure is due to be reviewed next year. An estimated 1,500 people use the leisure centre with its swimming-pool, gym and indoor and outdoor tennis courts, at a monthly fee of £40 (€50).
The hotel has been less successful, though it still has considerable potential, if upgraded. Some of the previous owners - the Opperman brothers, then former supermarket owner Pat Quinn - both ran into trading difficulties.
The facility was bought in 1974 for £440,000 by Dublin businessman Patrick Cosgrave. Mr Feeney acquired it about 12 years ago, and shortly afterwards opened the Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick. In October, 1998, he sold one of his Irish investments, Heritage House, an office complex at St Stephen's Green in Dublin, to a Cavan businessman for £6 million.
Mr Feeney, 69, has been noted for his generosity towards Ireland. Five years ago he donated over £30 million to Irish universities and in recent years he is reputed to have contributed even more to other organisations and charities in this country.
In 1997, the New York Times estimated that Mr Feeney had given away more than $600 million, mainly anonymously, to hospitals, universities and other needy bodies from the sale of his interests in the Duty Free Shoppers Group.
He was born in New Jersey but his grandparents were from Co Fermanagh. However, his interest in Ireland is thought to have deepened with his involvement in the setting up of Shannon Duty Free.
