Dundalk born businessman purchases Crowne Plaza Hotel

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk has been sold to East Coast Catering Ireland, the company which also owns the Fairways Hotel. 

According to the Irish Times the company bought the hotel from Tifco Hotel Group for a figure in the region of €11 million.

East Coast Catering was originally started in Canada in 1984 by Dundalk native Patrick O'Callaghan where it won a number of  catering contracts in Canada’s fledgling offshore oil and gas industry.

Since then the company has branched out with its Irish division operating asylum centres such as Dundalk’s Carroll Village and Hatch Hall in Dublin.

The company also acquired the Fairways Hotel in 2015 and reopened the hotel in 2019 after an extensive €12 million investment that also saw the construction of the Fairways Centre which houses Supervalu, McCormacks Pharmacy, Costa Coffee and a Medical Centre.

The 14-storey Crowne Plaza building boasts 129 en-suite bedrooms, a business centre, fitness centre, rooftop restaurant and the ‘Fourteen Below Bar’ as well as conference facilities to accommodate up to 400 people.

Speaking to the Democrat, local engineer and director with East Coast Limited, Denis Williams said that: 

“We expect it to be business as usual for the hotel and we plan to do some significant improvement work over time. 

“There’ll be a good five year plan working on a refurbishment, but the hotel will remain open during that.

“It’s early days but we know that there will be a significant capital investment required on the property.”

It is expected the hotel will work in tandem with the Fairways and Mr Williams feels there’s great potential for the two to accommodate large conferences.

“There are larger conference facilities in the Fairways and the ability to increase the number of bedrooms for conferences should make Dundalk a more viable destination for larger conferences that require two hundred beds or thereabouts.”

A meeting with all employees of the hotel will take place next week and staff have been assured that their positions will be retained. It’s also expected that the hotel will undergo a rebranding at some point in the near future.

“The purchaser really is the O’Callaghan family, Patrick O’ Callaghan and his son Matthew will be the owners of the hotel,”  continued Mr Williams.

“Pat is a Dundalk man but he’s been living in Canada for over forty years. He’s eighty now, so his son is also involved in the business.”