Galway’s landmark hotel loses €60 million in value

Date Published: 25-Apr-2013

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

The true scale of the collapse in the property market over the past five years was revealed this week when a four star Galway city centre hotel which was valued at €70 million at the height of the ‘boom’ was given a value of just €7.8 million following a series of write-downs.

City developer Gerry Barrett purchased the Meyrick Hotel in Eyre Square, formerly the Great Southern, along with two other hotels for a reported €130 million, but latest accounts for the company that owns the facility show it now has a book value of just €7.8m.

Mr Barrett bought the former Great Southern, the (now disused) Corrib Great Southern on the old Dublin Road, and the Killarney Great Southern for €130m in 2006, in a move which was regarded by the Galway City Business Association as “a vote of confidence in the future growth of the city” at the time.

The city centre Great Southern, where Mr Barrett used to enjoy an ‘end of week’ drink most Fridays, was quickly relaunched as the Meryick Hotel.

It was seen to have huge revamp potential at the time, amid plans for an extensive overhaul of the city’s rail and bus station – with new residential and retail premises – next door.

The purchase brought Mr Barrett’s developments and investments in Galway, Limerick, Dublin, Drogheda, and London above the €1 billion mark and put him among the “premier league” of property developers.

He told the Galway City Tribune at the time that he intended to transform the city centre Great Southern and “make it a very special place in Galway”.

But the value of the properties decreased sharply following the collapse in the market in late 2007 and 2008.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.