The Burlo – bought for €228m – is back on market for knockdown €65m-75m

DUBLIN’S BURLINGTON Hotel, bought by property developer Bernard McNamara at the peak of the property boom in 2007 for €288 million, is back on the market with a guide price of €65-€75 million, The Irish Times has reported.

Agent CBRE Hotels is handling the sale on the instructions of Paul McCann of Grant Thornton, who was appointed receiver by Bank of Scotland (Ireland). The Lloyds-owned bank is using loans specialist Certus to run down its banking operation in the Republic.

Mr McNamara has been one of the biggest casualties of the property crash with overall debts of €1.5 billion.

The Irish Times went on to report that The Burlington is the second largest hotel in Ireland after Citywest in Co Dublin, with 501 bedrooms and extensive conference and banqueting facilities on a 3.8-acre site on the city’s south side.

The hotel is understood to have made profits of between €5 million and €6 million last year when the room occupancy rate was running at 70-75 per cent. A sizeable proportion of the profits come from the extensive banqueting hall, which can accommodate 1,500 guests.

Paul Collins, of CBRE Hotels, said yesterday there had been a remarkable recovery in the Dublin hotel market, and city hotels were now among the best-performing in Europe.

After buying the Burlington, Mr McNamara planned to boost the overall value of the site to €1 billion by developing a mainly office and retail complex extending to 33,300sq m. Shortly afterwards the property market bombed.