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Flagship Temple Bar hotel seeks more than €50m

Hotel sale includes Hellfire Restaurant as well as retail unit let to Tesco, with planning permission to add 121 guestrooms

Temple Bar Inn
Temple Bar Inn

Following quickly behind last week’s launch for sale of The Morrison Hotel, another Dublin hotel, also in a prime location, has come to the market. The sale is expected to attract both domestic and international interest.

Temple Bar Inn, a 101 guestroom hotel, on Fleet Street and just off Westmoreland Street, is being brought to the market with the benefit of vacant possession by JLL, quoting more than €50 million.

The hotel, which is being sold by Heights Hospitality Holdings, occupies a prime city centre location on Fleet Street in Temple Bar, close to Temple Bar Square, Trinity College, and many of Dublin’s big tourist attractions.

The sale also includes a separate large ground-floor Tesco retail unit (tenant unaffected), in addition to 7 Westmoreland Street, a high-profile building that includes the recently opened Hellfire restaurant.

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The property comes to market with full planning permission for the development of an additional 121-guestrooms. This includes a 111-guestroom extension on Fleet Street, in addition to the development of 10 feature suites, above 7 Westmoreland Street.

Isobel Hotel, senior vice-president of JLL, said: “Combining a highly profitable trading business with a prime retail unit at ground floor level and the popular Hellfire Restaurant, the Temple Bar Inn offers a flagship opportunity in central Dublin. There is also valuable planning permission in place allowing a further extension of the hotel, bringing the total potential room count to 222.”

The ESB owned the building, which was formerly laid out as offices, but sold it for a reported €33 million in 2006 to a company controlled by Wexford-based Stafford Holdings, whose interests include Lifestyle Sports. Heights Hospitality subsequently purchased the building from Stafford Holdings and secured a number of planning permissions to extend the hotel. Heights Hospitality previously put the property on the market in 2019 for €45 million, but as the Covid-19 pandemic hit soon after, the property was withdrawn from the market.

It’s a busy start to the year for hotel sales. Last week, the Morrison Hotel, on Dublin’s north quays, was put on the market, with the sellers, a UK private equity investor, seeking €90 million-€95 million.

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan is a writer specialising in personal finance and is the Home & Design Editor of The Irish Times