Westmeath hotel planning 50-bedroom extension

A Westmeath hotel is planning a 50-room extension on a nearby supermarket site.

The Annebrook House Hotel in Mullingar is set for the expansion with news owner, hotelier Berty Dunne, has bought the empty Dunnes Stores/Eason shop, and intends extending his Annebrook House Hotel to the site.

If granted planning permission, Mr Dunne intends that the extension, which will be physically connected to the existing hotel, will contain an extra 50 bedrooms and new leisure and spa facilities.

“We bought that premises from Dunnes Stores just probably 12 months before the pandemic started and we went for a pre-planning meeting with the council on the strength of what we were hoping to develop,” says Berty.

“The big issue we have at the moment is a shortage of accommodation in Mullingar: every weekend, we are inundated with people looking for rooms, especially on the Friday or Saturday nights.”

He believes the extension will benefit his business and the town generally: “It should be a huge add-on to the hotel and a huge add-on to the facilities in the centre of town: it’s a great thing to have hotels in the centre of a town; it’s great for footfall locally.”

He said he would hope to have the planning application within the next two months.

At present there is a staff of 110 in the hotel, which has just passed its 15th anniversary, and Berty anticipates that to cater for the additional business, staff numbers will rise to around 150.