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Bouncing Back
This unused Wexford 'ghost' apartment block is to be redeveloped as a luxury hotel
The Stonebridge building in Wexford Town was completed in 2008 but never used.
A LUXURY APARTMENT building, completed eight years ago but never occupied, in Wexford town is to be redeveloped by a leading Irish hotel group.
The Stonebridge building on Paul’s Quay in Wexford town was originally built as a lavish, 73-apartment complex.
Completed in 2008 just as the economic crash struck, the building has never opened for public use. It was listed for sale in September of last year with a guide price of €6.75 million.
Now it has been acquired by the Talbot Hotel Collection, the group behind similar ‘aparthotel’ complexes across the country in Dublin, Cork, Carlow and Wexford.
Their aim is to invest €2.5 million to complete the apartments and to welcome guests by the middle of 2016.
Investment
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Madeleine Quirke, CEO of the Wexford town Chamber of Commerce, said that she is “absolutely delighted to hear this news”.
“This is a lovely building that has remained empty for a long number of years,” she said.
To see such an investment in it now is a very welcome addition to the hospitality side of our town.
“This a completely unique tourism proposition,” meanwhile Talbot managing director Philip Gavin said.
There is not a hotel in Ireland offering anything like this accommodation to guests, both in terms of the scale and the quality.
The accommodation will be aimed at the corporate hospitality end of the market it seems, while 20 full-time and 40 contract positions are expected to be created by the redevelopment.
Bouncing back
“This is a one of a kind tourism offering and a real game changer in terms of the accommodation offering in Wexford and even nationally amongst the Irish hotel sector,” a clearly delighted Talbot Hotel Collection owner Cormac Pettitt said.
Quirke meanwhile sees the good news as a clear sign that Wexford town is bouncing back in tandem with the rest of the country following the recession:
“It’s a very good sign,” she said.
Wexford has bounced back very strongly in 2015, and looking forward and working closely with the authorities and businesses in the town, we’re very confident of many more good news stories to come.
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