Developers given more time to build luxury €10m hotel

The project could create around 150 construction jobs and a further 100 full-and part-time jobs and the developers expect to have it built by 2018.

Husband and wife Padraic and Martina McHale from Clonbur bought the site on St Helen’s Street out of receivership for an estimated €2 million last year – a fraction of the €30m paid for it in 2006.

Separately, Padraic operates McHale Engineering in Mayo with his brother Martin.

The McHales told city planners that they expect to complete the hotel – which will have almost 130 suites, meeting rooms, restaurant, swimming pool, leisure centre and a spa – by 2018.

Planning permission for the massive development – based on the upmarket Ritz Carlton in Wicklow – was set to expire in February and the McHales sought a five year Extension of Duration through a company called Welmary Properties.

The original owners of the site – Galway-based developers Noel Burke and John Staunton – secured permission in 2009 to develop the site, but the collapse of the economy and construction sector saw their company placed in receivership by Danske Bank.

The new owners said they believe the hotel plan will become feasible in the coming years, and indicated to the City Council that it will be completed in 2018.

“Having regard to reducing construction costs and, hopefully, the bottoming out of the economic recession, [the McHales] are confident that the proposed development – which constitutes the provision of a high-quality quality hotel development at an accessible inner-urban location – will become more attractive to the market and achieve funding required to implement in the coming years,” the application reads.

The original plans for the hotel included a full concierge service, standard suites with hot-tubs and 'sunken' TVs in walls.

The McHale family has been involved in several high profile property purchases in Galway City, most notably the ‘Odean’ site at Eyre Square with the Comer brothers, Galway’s richest brothers.