The Stillorgan Park Hotel in south county Dublin will open a new conference and banqueting centre with a capacity for 500 people in November, following an investment of £3 million.
The hotel has undergone an overhaul of image as well as of facilities since the present owner Des Pettitt acquired the premises in late 1997 and began redevelopment work. The hotel was reopened in 1998 after investment of £9 million and the four-star hotel now has 10 bedroom suites, bar, 150-seater restaurant and function rooms.
Mr Pettitt also owns the Talbot Hotel in Wexford and the Pettitt chain of supermarkets in Gorey, Enniscorthy and Wexford.
The new conference centre is the second stage of a planned three phase development for the hotel, which will see an extra 66 bedrooms and a leisure facility in 2001. The conference centre has a business centre, the latest in audio-visual and communication technology, and an adaptable layout.
Sharon Power, group sales and marketing manager, said that corporate customers now account for 70 to 75 per cent of business and this market sector is where the hotel sees future growth. "We are ideally placed to benefit from the growing business profile of the south county area and are the closest hotel with conference facilities to the Sandyford/Dundrum/Dun Laoghaire axis."
South Dublin has a high concentration of businesses and multinationals, but is lacking in large conference centres. Bord Failte's Conference Bureau of Ireland reports that the Irish conference facilities market sector has seen 39 per cent growth over the last five years, but that there is still a lot of potential in the market. The National Convention Centre at Spencer Dock may never be built.
