Ardree Hotel

Benny-c

I was home during the weekend (it's been a while!), & I noticed that the Ardree is closed.....anyone know what the story is, apartments


benny

Psychedelic

yeah i think it's gonna be apartments. the place is closed since early this year.

Benny-c

The memories......;)

JPA

I thought they were just doing it up?

Roen

In fairness the town needs more apartments. :eek:
It's a pity that for such a commanding position that there isn't something up there we could be proud of.

mike65

I thought it was a revamp!

Mike.

trishw78

It's closed since this time last year. They were supposed to be revamping it in a major way and building apartments and a retirement complex... But nothings been going on

ToxicPaddy

Its just getting a major revamp.. They are spending something along the lines of €20 million on the development.

Here is an article from the Munster Express:

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.

Tox

Rubens

Is anything being done there??

In all the time it's been closed I have never seen any machinery around. And in the last few months I've noticed more and more of the windows are smashed?

Aquos76

Rubens wrote: »

Is anything being done there??

In all the time it's been closed I have never seen any machinery around. And in the last few months I've noticed more and more of the windows are smashed?

I was stopped in traffic on the quay during the week and when I looked over towards the hotel I could see plenty on diggers working up at the hotel. It looked like they will digging into the big mountain of land up behind the hotel

brendansmith

My mate said all the windows are broken because of birds fling in to them, is this true?

c - 13

brendansmith wrote: »

My mate said all the windows are broken because of birds fling in to them, is this true?

Unless they're condors, albatrosses or maybe pterodactyls I doubt that they'd be able to fly with enough force to break a window.

Unless by bird you mean stone and by flying you mean thrown by a little scrotebag :pac:

brendansmith

c - 13 wrote: »

Unless they're condors, albatrosses or maybe pterodactyls I doubt that they'd be able to fly with enough force to break a window.

Unless by bird you mean stone and by flying you mean thrown by a little scrotebag :pac:

Thats what i thought but he was so confident when he said it. THE Fukker!

pjc180sx

ive been up aound there and there is nothing happening at all, and the place is a wreck. also nearly all the windows that are broke are the top ones??? this is such a shame to nlet this once great hotel get to this state.....:(

dazftw

Go up during the night and theres like heat cameras that a chap in carlow is watching on a monitor and he tells you to leave! Its funny!

If there were apartments up there I reckon they would cost some load though!

Fajitas!

Hah! I know one of the lads in Carlow that does video security.

I don't think they have heat sensitive cameras though.

dazftw

Fajitas! wrote: »

Hah! I know one of the lads in Carlow that does video security.

I don't think they have heat sensitive cameras though.

Yeah they were lit up red and it was night time so it was a guess :rolleyes:

spartacus93

dazftw wrote: »

Yeah they were lit up red and it was night time so it was a guess :rolleyes:

They're probably infra red to "see in the dark!"

dazftw

spartacus93 wrote: »

They're probably infa red to "see in the dark!"

I actually couldn't think of that word! Thank you

nkay1985

dazftw wrote: »

Go up during the night and theres like heat cameras that a chap in carlow is watching on a monitor and he tells you to leave! Its funny!

If there were apartments up there I reckon they would cost some load though!

That's ridiculous! What's some lad in Carlow going to do to you if you say no! If it's just call the cops sure you'd just avoid them when they eventually showed up.

brendansmith

You must be joking. Surely?

I refuse to believe for my own sanity that this is going on!

dazftw

http://www.netwatchsystem.com/pagecarrier81.aspx

The time we went up he said "attention the 4 of yousssss leave the area immediately" in a mad dublin accent!

hudsonriver

Lol, yeah Iv had him "chatting" to us as well,
that netwatch is getting pretty popular, seen it in many a spot

jasonpbmw

yeah me and a friend went up there today to look around and take pics and the lad came on the speaker saying you are tresspassing gardai have been notified and are on their way leave the area, sure we just stayed there another while and he kept saying it and said you with the blue and you with green tops leave this area imedietly and it was a foreign accent!! its the same thing thats up in the shops by tesco in new ross it said the same kinda thing when i parked 2 close to the windows!!! anyway does anyone know wats happening wit the hotel? its a complete wreck....

Sully

Have you at least taken the pics?!

jasonpbmw

i have indeed;) will i post some up?

abouttobebanned

of course

Johnnnybravo

Gwan show us the pics.

I heard tis full of squatters at the minute?? Also had heard some crowd working on the grounds in it were renting out areas to local prossies on a nightly basis??

jasonpbmw

wellbutty

It still amazes me that they didnt keep it open until they had permission to knock it and build something else in its place. It was still earning money through the leisure centre, hotel, bar, sunday lunch etc

deisedol

An other example of the greedy celtic tiger. the hotel was bought as speculation. The owners did nt want to contribute to the local economy whatsoever. they swooned in to make a quick buck but did nt achieve the overdevelopment planning they required. Thus the building is gone to wrack and ruin, probably a ploy to try and get whatever planning they wanted. We will hold ye to ransom- give the people of waterford an eyesore until they give us what we want in terms of planning. It is disgusting behaviour and
the building is probably going to NAMA- lets wait and see. I am sure we will be looking at that eye sore for a long time to come. Whoever Mc Eniff is should be ashamed of himself - they have even left their name on the building!

jasonpbmw

its a complete wreck around the place, i dont know why they didnt just keep it open im sure it was doing good buisness a big place like that. i was never actually in it when it wasw open, was anyone here in it? and if so wat was it like was it a decent enough place or a ****ty place inside and all???

deisedol

It was a really good 4 star plus hotel. The leisure centre and pool were fab, you would be looking down over the city from the jacuzzi and pool.
All the big events like the Mayors Ball and the annual Chamber of commerce Ball and big weddings were held there. It was excellent , i could nt fault it at the time. I never stayed in the hotel so i cant comment on the bedrooms. It was a very busy place and was doing very well. The views were spectacular as you can imagine.
The only reason it closed was because more money could be made with less hassle from property speculation or so they thought!

jasonpbmw

i wonder will it ever reopen again or whats going to happen to it now??? i cant seem to find info on it anywhere?? so was there excuse for closing it saying that they were going to renovate it only an excuse then or did they really intend to do the place up and then they just hadnt the money or does anyone know?

JohnC.

jasonpbmw wrote: »

i wonder will it ever reopen again or whats going to happen to it now??? i cant seem to find info on it anywhere?? so was there excuse for closing it saying that they were going to renovate it only an excuse then or did they really intend to do the place up and then they just hadnt the money or does anyone know?

There was a big development planned for the site. See this thread. Waterford City Council refused permission, but it is being appealed to An Bord Pleanala.

PFJSplitter

Does Waterford still require archeological mitigation (dig for historical artifacts) of building sites slated for new developments?

Professey Chin

PFJSplitter wrote: »

Does Waterford still require archeological mitigation (dig for historical artifacts) of building sites slated for new developments?

If they need a reason to stop anything being developed theyll use it

jasonpbmw

the last of the lights are finally gone out in the hotel just before xmas.................does anybody have any pics of a few year ago when the spraoi was on and it was spelled out on the hotel with the lights??