Update: €6m expansion plans lodged for popular Cork hotel

Michael Magner, who owns the hotel with his father-in-law Brian Scully, is also planning to add a spa, to include an infinity pool, steam room, sauna, seven treatment rooms and seaweed baths, as well as a 25-seat cinema, a virtual golf facility and a cardio workout/gym area.

Two single storey extensions will also be added to the sides of the hotel to create a new lobby and a new pre-reception space, with the latter located between the existing bar and ballroom, as well as an extension to the dining room.

A three-storey extension is planned over the ground floor ballroom and this will accommodate the extra bedrooms as well as the spa, with a terrace at third-floor level. Balconies off the spa area will give guests terrific views, said Mr Magner, who bought the four-star hotel with Mr Scully in 2019, buying out the Fitzgerald family, owners of Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel & Spa in Adare, Co Limerick, who had been co-owners with Mr Magner since 2006.

Mr Magner said the new project is “dependent on planning, and, most importantly, when recovery returns”.

He said once up and running, the project will create 50 new jobs and add €1.8m to the local economy in wages and salaries “ not including the extra spend from visitors to the area and increased purchases from suppliers”.

Mr Magner said when they bought the hotel, the plan was to expand to meet growing demand, as they had had to turn away business in the past.

Refused group business in 2019 was in excess of €1.8m, he said.

However while the hotel has been badly hit by Covid-19, bringing business to a stop, Mr Magner said they have “used this time to concentrate on preparing a planning application that was sensitive to the existing hotel...and to plan for the future”.

“Pre-pandemic, the demand for hotel rooms was a clear indicator that Cork was on the world map as a destination for the international visitor,” he said.

When work on the expansion begins, it will be off-season and will cause minimum disruption to guests, Mr Magner said, as it will be mostly to the rear of the hotel. The three-storey over-ballroom extension will be straightforward because the expansion does not involve digging foundations. The extension will not interfere with the original house, which is a listed building dating back to 1756. Architects on the project are Richard Rainey (Elizabeth Sidey) - Rainey Architects in Kinsale.

Vienna Woods Country House Hotel, on 22 acres of woodland in Glanmire, is a 15 minute drive from Cork city.