Whitbread PLC, the owner of Premier Inn, has secured a second site for Premier Inn in Cork City, a popular tourist destination located in the west of Ireland.
The company has acquired the site of the Leisureplex entertainment complex in the Victorian Quarter of Cork City, with plans to transform it into a 168-bedroom Premier Inn hotel, pending planning permission. During the planning and development phase, Whitbread has assured that the Leisureplex entertainment complex will remain operational and continue its activities.
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 recently inaugurated the first Premier Inn in Cork on January 29, 2024. The riverfront hotel, boasting 187 bedrooms and developed alongside three office buildings, generated 40 new employment opportunities focused on Cork City.
Currently, Whitbread offers over 1,000 Premier Inn bedrooms across six operational locations in Dublin and Cork. The company envisions the potential for approximately 3,500 Premier Inn bedrooms throughout Ireland over time.
