Savills Hotels and Leisure have announced their appointment as sole selling agents for the Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2. The property is offered for sale with the benefit of a hotel management agreement with Hilton Hotels. Savills are offering this property for sale by private treaty with a guide price of €22m.
Savills are confident that the Hilton Dublin, guiding at €22m will attract strong interest on both an international and domestic basis.
According to Tom Barrett of Savills, “The Hilton Dublin presents a significant opportunity to acquire a leading branded Dublin city centre hotel. Trade and profitability started to recover in recent years and there is immense potential to further grow revenue and profits”.
The hotel recorded strong trading results and profit margins over the past three years in line with the start of a recovery in the Dublin Hotel Market. There are further opportunities to grow revenue as average room rates continue to recover and the addition of the new meeting rooms will create additional revenue opportunities. The hotel also benefits from additional revenue streams from a number of mobile phone masts and car parking licence agreements.
The Hilton Dublin, built in 1997 trades as a high end 4 star hotel and is situated in a prime location overlooking the Grand Canal and adjacent to the LUAS green line. This modern hotel comprises193 spacious air-conditioned bedrooms, lounge, bar and restaurant. The hotel also benefits from excellent conference facilities with a function room which can accommodate 400 theatre style, sub-divisible into 5 hi-tech conference rooms. Three new meeting rooms were added to the hotel in June 2013 due to the hotels high demand for conference facilities. A courtyard patio is fully equipped with outdoor seating and a BBQ area. There also is a gym available for guests and basement car parking. The hotel is in excellent condition throughout following a €5 million investment in 2008, along with significant on-going annual capital expenditure.
Due to its prime location in the heart of Dublin the hotel benefits from strong corporate and leisure business. The hotel is surrounded by a number of high profile office occupiers such as Rabobank, Mercer, Marsh Insurances, a sub office of The Central Bank and LinkedIn. On the opposite side of the Canal the Kuwaiti Embassy occupy offices in One Grand Parade while east along the Canal is the Dublin Docklands which has been transformed into the prime office location in Dublin with leading global banks and internet companies such as State Street Bank, Google and Facebook. Stephens Green and Grafton Street, Dublin’s main recreation and shopping areas are nearby along with The Aviva Rugby and Football Stadium and the famous Royal Dublin Society (RDS) show grounds, all within walking distance of the hotel.
The hotel opened in 1997 under the Stakis brand and subsequently rebranded to Hilton in 2000. Hilton Worldwide is recognised as the number one global brand in the hospitality industry with 3,900 hotels and 640,000 rooms in 90 countries worldwide. In Dublin, Hilton added both the Morrison and Burlington hotels to its brand portfolio this year, with both trading as DoubleTree. The Morrisson sold for €22 million approx. 18 months ago and after a €7m upgrade reflects a value of €210,000 per room while the Burlington which sold to Blackstone for €67 million in December 2012 is undergoing a €17 million investment and reflects a value of €167,000 per room.
The hotel is managed by Hilton under a 20 year management contract from 2005. The strength of the Hilton brand cannot be underestimated, with room occupancy rate of almost 90% recorded in 2012. The fee structure is strongly incentivised towards the property investor and there is a significant reserve fund in place to ensure that the property is maintained to the highest Hilton brand standards.
