COOKSTOWN-based construction giant McAleer & Rushe has been appointed as main contractor for a £37.5 million hotel project in Liverpool city centre.
It's the ninth hotel development McAleer and Rushe will have completed for Ireland’s largest hotel operator Dalata Group as part of a relationship going back to 2011, with four hotels currently under construction in Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Dublin.
The 260-bed Maldron hotel has been pre-let on a 35-year lease to Dalata after Valorem Investment Partners reached a funding agreement with Aviva Investors.
The hotel, which will open in late 2023, will be located at the junction of Liver Street and Park Lane, close to the prominent city centre districts of Liverpool One, the Baltic Triangle and the Albert Dockland.
And the contract will come as a timely boost to McAleer & Rushe, which took a £50 million hit to its revenues during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
The cost of pausing and then re-establishing Covid compliant activity on its building sites was the deferral of at £50m of income from its 2020 books.
The upshot result was a 15 per cent drop in the group’s annual turnover from £340m to £290m for the year to last December.
Mark Diamond, senior director of McAleer & Rushe, which currently has 350 staff on its books, said: “We're delighted to be working with experienced industry partners Valorem, Aviva Investors and the Dalata Hotel Group on the design and build of this important new facility in Liverpool.
“It's a credit to the skill, expertise and reliability within the McAleer & Rushe team that we've been appointed to deliver this full turnkey project, and we look forward to working closely with all partners as construction commences early next year.”
Shane Casserly, corporate development director at Dalata Hotel Group, added: “We're delighted to see confirmation of the funding for this development and the appointment of McAleer & Rushe as the building contractor.
“One Park Lane is a strong location, close to Liverpool One, Albert Dock and within walking distance of all the city centre attractions. We look forward to working with our development partners to deliver the Maldron Hotel Liverpool, a BREEAM-rated 'very good' property.”
Martin Claisse from Valorem said the development will be “the most significant addition to the hotel offer in Liverpool in recent years”.
