Major development plans have been drawn up by the University of Limerick (UL) to construct a 200-bedroom four-star hotel and additional student residential accommodation on its riverside campus, The Irish Times has learned.
The hotel, subject to planning, will be utilised during the summer periods from May to August, when most of the UL student population is on holidays.
It forms part of a plan to increase UL’s total student residency bed numbers by 500. The university currently provides on-campus accommodation for 2,600 students in six residential villages.
In a project information memo seeking a request for tender to appoint a design team for the development, UL stated: “The new student residences development will provide accommodation for up to 500 students during the academic year and for leisure and corporate guests in the summer months – May to August. A reception lobby and breakfast room/ancillary services will be planned with this requirement in mind.
“The development may be located on two separate sites on the University of Limerick Campus in a 200/300 bedroom split configuration. Of the 500 bedrooms it is planned that 200 rooms will be developed so that they can be readily reconfigured to deliver a four-star standard hotel service during summer months.”
The university is set on 133 hectares with a student population of over 11,600 and 1,300 staff.
The proposed development will be located adjacent to the National Technology Park, which is home to a number of global pharmaceutical, science, and information technology companies, employing more than 4,000 people.
The plans include the development of “200 premier standard en suite bedrooms”, featuring a mixture of one-bedroom “high-end faculty apartments”; “studio apartments”; as well as four or six bedroom “apartments with shared living / social spaces”.
“The balance of 300 bedrooms will be provided in four-bedroom and six-bedroom standard student apartments with shared living/social spaces.”
‘Low-cost option’
“It is planned that a least 100 of these 300 beds will be developed with a view to deliver a comfortable but low-cost option to students and accordingly bedrooms may not be en suite,” the design brief added.
A UL spokeswoman told The Irish Times: "The university has been to the forefront in development of first-class on-campus student accommodation and this development, when completed, will provide for future growth in the student population at University of Limerick.
“A request for tender [RTF] to appoint a design team for a new student residences development has been issued. The RTF is for design team appointment only, therefore the cost of development is not available at this time nor is there yet a timetable for delivery,” she added.
Details regarding the operation of the proposed project, such as room charges, will not be finalised until much later in the process, UL stated.