Cork Hotel Planning Expansion: Camden Quay Hotel Plans Delayed

Cork’s Vienna Woods country house hotel is planning a €6 million expansion.

According to The Irish Examiner, the Vienna Woods country house hotel has submitted a planning application to Cork City Council for the creation of 42 new bedrooms, and Michael Magner, who is a co-owner of the hotel along with his father-in-law, Brian Scully, is also planning to add a spa that includes an infinity pool, a steam room, a sauna, seven treatment rooms and seaweed baths, a 25-seat cinema, a virtual golf facility, and a cardio workout/gym area to the property.

The hotel is reportedly planning to add two single storey extensions to its sides to create a new lobby and a new pre-reception space, the latter of which is planned to be located between the existing bar and ballroom, as well as an extension to the dining room.

According to The Irish Examiner, Magner said that the hotel is also planning to construct a three story extension over the ground floor ballroom to accommodate the planned new bedrooms and the planned spa, and this extension is planned to include a terrace on its third floor and balconies off of the spa area.

The Irish Examiner quotes Magner as saying that the planned expansion is “dependent on planning, and, most importantly, when recovery returns”.

Magner reportedly said that, when completed and operational, the hotel’s expanded facilities will create new 50 new jobs and generate €1.8 million for the local economy in wages and salaries, “not including the extra spend from visitors to the area and increased purchases from suppliers”.

According to The Irish Examiner, Magner said that while the hotel has been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought its business to a halt, its owners have “used this time to concentrate on preparing a planning application that was sensitive to the existing hotel…and to plan for the future”.

The Irish Examiner also quotes Magner as saying, “Pre-pandemic, the demand for hotel rooms was a clear indicator that Cork was on the world map as a destination for the international visitor.”

Magner reportedly said that expansion works will take place off-season, cause minimum disruption to guests and be mostly to the rear of the hotel.

The three storey extension over the ballroom will reportedly be straightforward because the expansion will not involve digging foundations, and the expansion works reportedly will not interfere with the hotel’s original house building, which is a listed building that dates back to 1756.

The architectural company that has been enlisted for the expansion is Richard Rainey Architects, which is based in Kinsale.

The Vienna Woods country house hotel previously underwent a €5 million upgrade and currently has 45 bedrooms.

Camden Quay Hotel Plans Delayed
In other Cork hotel news, plans to construct a new hotel on Cork city’s Camden Quay have reportedly been delayed.

It was reported earlier this year that Carra Shore Hotel (Camden Place) Limited had lodged an application for planning permission to develop a hotel on a site on Camden Quay, that the proposed hotel would include 194 bedrooms, 41 of which would be long-stay suites, as well as a ground floor restaurant/café, a rooftop restaurant and a gym, and that the process of developing the proposed hotel would involve the construction of a rear annex, the height of which would range from two to six storeys.

However, according to The Irish Examiner, city planners have requested additional information about the proposed hotel development, and, while they said that the principle of constructing a hotel on the site in question is acceptable, they believe that the proposed layout of the bedrooms is “problematic” and “uncomfortable”.

Questions have reportedly also been raised about the use of the some of the proposed hotel’s rooms as long-stay suites, such as how long such stays would be, and further questions have reportedly been raised about the environmental impact of the plans for the proposed hotel, and aspects such as parking and drainage.

According to The Irish Examiner, the developer has up to six months to respond to the request for additional information.

Original article on hospitalityireland.com