Dublin Westin opens at last

The Dublin Westin hotel opens on 1 September after a long and difficult development history. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

The five-floor site has 163-bedrooms and stretches over one block opposite Trinity College on College Green. It was formerly the Allied Irish Bank and the Pearl Assurance building.

It is the first Irish venture for operator Starwood Hotels and Resorts who has a lease on the property which includes a 90-seat restaurant, The Exchange, and a bar in the former vaults of the bank called the Mint. Both have separate street entrances.

The hotel, which will employ 170 staff, has seven meeting rooms and a 160-capacity banqueting and conference hall converted from the former banking hall.

Treasury Holdings developed the site at a cost of £37m. The first planning application was made nearly ten years ago.

Hilton abandoned plans for a hotel on the site in 1997 after conservationists opposed a four-storey height increase.

The opening of the Westin was delayed by three months because of a manpower shortage in the Irish construction sector. The historic site is listed which also presented complications for the developers ( see article).

General manager Enda Mullin said the hotel was 70% booked for September, but he expected occupancy to drop to about 40% during the winter.