Ardree Hotel

Ard Ri to close for €20m upgrade

Work is to start soon on a €20m project to upgrade and extend the landmark Ard Ri Hotel in Waterford, the McEniff group has confirmed.

The hotel is to be completely refurbished to four-star standard, an extra 60 bedrooms added and the function room doubled in size so that it can cater for national conferences.

Hotel director, Fergal McEniff, said the scale of the project was a major vote of confidence in Waterford and in the future of the landmark hotel. The Ard Ri is to close during construction work, which is expected to run until late next year.

Negotiations are expected to begin in the next few days on a severance package for 40 full-time and 60 part-time staff. Workers were told about the plans for the hotel at a meeting in the hotel on Monday afternoon.

Mr. McEniff said the company considered that redundancy was the only realistic option given the length of the temporary closure.

“We regret that we’re losing the existing staff but we don’t expect our best people to wait around for a year or more for the new hotel to open. We’ve agreed that we’ll pay more than statutory redundancy and we hope that negotiations will lead to a satisfactory agreement on both sides.”

He added that the new Ard Ri would employ more than the present number of staff. More than 100 jobs would also be created during construction.

“We want to create a large quality hotel in Waterford which can attract major events and will bring new business and visitors to the city, as well as provide an outstanding facility for the local community”, he said.

The project will transform the appearance of the Ard Ri, which is one of Waterford’s most prominent buildings. The new façade alone is expected to cost in the region of €4m.

The extended conference room will be able to cater for up to 800 for a sit-down meal and up to 2,000 delegates at conferences. There will also be breakout rooms, an extended modern lobby and many new facilities, on top of the work on the 160 bedrooms.

Mr McEniff said there was no doubt that Waterford was losing out because it lacked a hotel of four star standard which was able to cater for large-scale events.

“We want the new Ard Ri to be a flagship project for Waterford and we believe it will be a major success in coming years. This is a go-ahead city with a lot of exciting things happening, and we want to be part of its growth and development.

“We feel this project will give another boost to business here. For instance, we’ve every confidence that we’ll be able to bring many more national events to Waterford and the new Ard Ri hotel.

“It’s fair to say that this investment package for the hotel is overdue. We spent €2m on the hotel around two years ago but we knew that much more was needed. To be successful in the hotel sector in Ireland now you have to really deliver first-class facilities as well as excellent service, and that’s what this is about.

“It’s been made possible because there’s a package of development at the site, with a nursing home and four apartment blocks to come at a later stage. We’re delighted that planning permission has now come through to allow it to go ahead.”

The announcement follows the decision by An Bord Pleanala last month to give planning permission for major development at the hotel grounds in Ferrybank.

The temporary closure is expected to begin on 23rd December. A meeting between the company and staff representatives is expected in the next few days.

Hotel manager Sheila Baird said the Christmas party season would go ahead as planned, but the New Year’s Ball would have to be cancelled. Anyone with bookings in the hotel in 2006 would be contacted as soon as possible to discuss alternative arrangements.

She added that the hotel’s sales department could be contacted at the main hotel number during the closure.

The McEniff group bought the Ard Ri from Jurys in 2002 in a €14m deal which included the Skylon hotel in Dublin.