One of the north’s top luxury hotel resorts has launched a bid to develop 32 new apartments on its estate.
The Galgorm Resort in Co Antrim has submitted a planning application for the multi-million-pound timber frame development on a site located 200 metres from its hotel reception.
Documents provided to planning authorities on behalf of the Galgorm Collection state the riverside project could be built on part of the resort’s former nine-hole golf course.
The hospitality group’s plans involve selling the 32 apartments to private buyers.
In its proposal to Mid and East Antrim District Council, the agents for the Galgorm Collection state: “The apartments, which will not be for permanent residential use, will be for private purchase, allowing owners, whose primary residence is elsewhere, to avail of all that membership offers at the resort.”
A similar holiday home-type scheme was previously promoted at the Lough Erne Resort in Co Fermanagh.
The agents add that a condition could be inserted as part of any planning approval, that would prevent the apartments being used as permanent residences.
The new apartment development would span around 59,000 sq ft of floor space, with a mix of two and three bedroom units. The proposal also includes a central ‘roof garden’ area on the first level.
Industry monitor Construction Information Services (CIS) Ireland, estimate the project could involve a build cost of around £6 million.
Opened in 1991, the hospitality group, ultimately owned by brothers Paul and Nick Hill, has invested around £60m in the 200-acre estate in Cullybackey.
In the past five years, they have expanded on the 122 hotel bedrooms with cottage suites, log cabins and shepherd huts.
The next stage of the ongoing accommodation expansion is Fenaghy Lodge, introducing nine new units of forest accommodation this year.
The Galgorm Collection also has planning approval for a new hotel block that would add 64 rooms.
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The group also owns The Rabbit Hotel in Templepatrick; The Old Inn, located in Crawfordsburn; as well as Parisien and Fratelli in Belfast.
The latest accounts for the hospitality group show it doubled its revenue to £45m in the year ending October 31 2022, with pre-tax profits rising to £7.75m.
The Galgorm Resort was by some distance the strongest part of the business, accounting for around 75% of its total revenue.
The Co Antrim hotel and golf resort alone made a pre-tax profit of £6.6m in 2022.
While the Galgorm Collection has invested significantly in its three hotel sites, its plans to establish a new hotel and restaurant in south Belfast appear to have stalled.
The group secured planning permission in November 2019 to redevelop the former Holy Rosary Church on the Ormeau Road into an 18-bedroom boutique hotel and restaurant.
In an update on the project, CIS Ireland said it had been advised that architects KnoxClayton and Consarc are no longer involved with the project.
