JD Wetherspoon has confirmed that it will invest €4m in developing a pub and hotel on Dublin's Camden Street. The development property includes Camden Hall, formerly Dublin's largest homeless hostel.
The Peter McVerry Turst announced plans to close the homeless hostel in May 2013. Previously a backpacker location - Camden Hall was commissioned as emergency homeless accommodation by Dublin City Council in mid-2011 as a response to a spike in homelessness in the city.
The brand is best known for the 926 bars that it owns across the UK and Ireland - it also runs 31 hotels. The Dublin hotel will have 100 rooms.
Since JD Wetherspoon arrived in Ireland there have been a series of rumours linking the chain with a number of properties in Dublin's city centre. This deal should see the group's low drinks pricing coming to one of the capital's busiest streets - putting it in direct competition with established licensed premises like Whelan's, The Palace, The Bleeding Horse and Against the Grain.
The group has also purchased a property in Waterford city centre. The pub will combine two adjoining buildings that front onto Arundel Square and Broad Street.
It is probably not a coincidence that this news comes to light as the company opens its second Irish premise at the Forty Foot in Dublin's Dún Laoghaire - due to open tomorrow.
The new pub made the headlines in both the UK and Ireland last week when a dispute over drinks pricing caused a falling out between JD Wetherspoons and Heineken - the chain announced that it would stop stocking the larger in its premises on both sides of the Irish Sea. JD Wetherspoon has been working with the brewery for over 35 years, and their contract is thought to be worth £60m (€76m).
The company has also secured locations in the Dublin suburbs of Swords and Blanchardstown, as well as one in Cork City. The company intends to open around 30 pubs in Ireland - so we can expect a lot more stories like this one in the coming months.
