Whitbread secures second location for Premier Inn in Cork
Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has secured a second location for Premier Inn in Cork City in the west of Ireland.
The company has purchased the site of the Leisureplex entertainment complex in the Victorian Quarter of the city which it intends to redevelop into a 168-bedroom Premier Inn hotel subject to planning permission.
As it works up its plans and brings forward a planning application for the development, Whitbread has confirmed that the entertainment complex will remain open and continue to trade.
Matt Gent, Development Manager for Whitbread in Ireland, said:
“Cork is a hugely successful city with thriving business, education, research, and visitor economies. Paradoxically It is also under-served by the type of affordable, flexible, and family-friendly hotel accommodation that Premier Inn provides so well.
“We recently opened a new Premier Inn at Morrisons Quay to the south of Cork City and investing in a second location to the east of the city centre underlines our confidence in Cork as a visitor destination and secures another well-positioned hotel for our guests to enjoy in Ireland.”
Whitbread opened the doors to the first Premier Inn in Cork on 29th January 2024. The 187-bedroom riverfront hotel which was developed along with three own-door office buildings, created 40 new jobs with recruitment focused within Cork City.
Across Ireland Whitbread currently offers its guest more than 1,000 Premier Inn bedrooms from six trading locations in Dublin and Cork and the company believes there is potential for around 3,500 Premier Inn bedrooms across Ireland in time.
