Burlington Sold To Blackstone For €67M

Dublin’s Burlington Hotel has changed hands, with US private equity giant Blackstone buying it for a reported €67 million. Despite being in receivership, the hotel has continued to perform well, however Blackstone’s purchase still fell way short of the €288 million paid for it in 2007 by property developer Bernard McNamara. Blackstone is expected to spend in excess of €16 million on refurbishing and rebranding the hotel, which is then likely to trade as part of the Hilton Group. Five years ago the American buy-out group acquired the Hilton Worldwide hotels empire for $26 billion (€20 billion). Blackstone will have the option of upgrading and rebranding the Burlington as a five-star Waldorf Astoria hotel or as one of a number of other brands, including Conrad, Hilton, Doubletree or Hampton. The Burlington made profits of more than €5 million in 2011 when the room occupancy rate was running at 70-75 per cent. A large proportion of the profits come from the large-scale banqueting hall, which can accommodate up to 1,500 guests.