The fresh smell of newly-laid carpet tickles my nostrils as Bryan Meehan throws open the windows in one of the bedrooms that’s just had a stylish makeover at the five-star Park Hotel in Kenmare, Co Kerry, that he bought from the Brennan brothers (Francis and John) in 2023.
“We have renovated the furniture and it has a slight varnish smell off it but that will wear off,” Meehan says.
Next door is a small library for guests that is hosting an exhibition of work by French photographer Gilles Caron, who captured some striking images from the Bogside in Derry of the social unrest that broke out in 1969.
“These are all mine,” he says, modestly. “I managed to get 14 of the photographs to bring them back to Ireland,” he says.
RM Block
Meehan has a large and valuable art collection, some of which is now hanging on the walls in the Park. It’s one of the subtle changes that have taken place at the venue since the takeover from the Brennans.
From Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst, and Louis le Brocquy to Willie Doherty. And a photograph taken by The Edge, in 1986 in California, which was an influence in the making of the Joshua Tree album by U2.
The Edge stayed in the hotel when becoming an Irish citizen at a ceremony in Killarney recently.
A hard-bound book curating the collection has been compiled, with a copy in each of the hotel’s bedrooms.
This is all part of a €30 million investment (including the purchase price of just more than €16 million) by Meehan and his family in a property that first opened to guests in 1897.
Some 18 of the 43 bedrooms (he has added two by renovating rooms previously occupied by staff) have had a makeover.
“This winter we’ll probably do another 18 and by this time next year we’ll be 90 per cent done,” he says.
He also has plans to renovate the pool and spa areas over the winter months, appointing a Japanese architect to bring an Asian influence, while also adding a small number of “contemporary” bedrooms adjoining the area.
Meehan wants to build a spa that is in tune with nature but is coy about his exact plan.
“Part of the reason we’re doing the new spa is to get more Irish people here in the winter,” he says.
“Away from Jacuzzi land and into more natural versions that you can do based on science that has been shown to promote longevity and health.
“I like a spa to be social, not men over here and women over there and I’d like it to bring a sense of community to the hotel, too.
“There’s nothing nicer than sitting with a couple of people in a tub out in the trees in the middle of November chatting away. I’d like to promote that.”
With bedrooms attached that have a “wow factor”.
“If people like my art, they’ll like my rooms. It’s about taking a five-star bedroom in Ireland to the next level.”
Other changes have happened on his watch. The food offering has been tweaked, under the leadership of a young head chef from Cork, James O’Sullivan. “He’s dynamite. Very shy, very understated.”
The bedrooms have been given mini bars for the first time. “There’ll be a free bottle of wine, Kombucha, stuff like that. Nuts, cookies, you can make your own tea, coffee, this is a better experience,” he explains.
The room we are in (it’s a suite comprising two separate areas) would typically cost €950 a night, he says. “Cheaper in the winter, off the top of my head, €700, €750. We’ve put some sound insulation so you don’t hear downstairs, the piano in the bar.”
It has a dual aspect offering “stunning views” of the 12 acres surrounding the luxury hotel.
And he has opened up the hotel and its grounds to locals, to help foster the sense of “community” that he mentions throughout the interview.
“The gift I’ve been given here is the beauty. Sustainability is about community and not building walls around community. It’s about supporting local farmers and being a responsible part of the community and getting people close to nature, walking through it and feeling they’re welcome to use it.”
He says the hotel is making money but is ‘not as profitable’ as when the Brennans ran it ‘because I upped everyone’s wages’. One of his daughters worked out a living wage appropriate to Kenmare and staff who were on the minimum wage were given a pay increase
Meehan has made his money as a serial entrepreneur in food, cosmetics and coffee.
In 1998 he set up Fresh & Wild, an organic food store in London. It grew to seven outlets in London and Bristol by 2004 with Meehan selling it to the American retailing group Whole Foods for $38 million (€32 million).
He followed this by setting up a cosmetics company with Paddy McKillen and Ali Hewson, the wife of Bono, called Nude, producing chemical-free make-up. Set up in 2007, it was sold nine years later to Beautycounter.
He then moved on to Blue Bottle Coffee, investing in the business and then raising huge sums of money to fund its growth, with Bono among the backers.
In 2017, Nestlé paid $500 million for a 68 per cent stake in the business. Meehan stayed on as chief executive for three years and remains on the Swiss giant’s sustainability board.
Why buy a small hotel in Kenmare, a town very much built around the tourist season from March to October?
“I was coming back to Ireland and I wanted to find a house on the water in west Cork or Kerry. I stayed here and was looking at a house in Sneem that I almost bought before deciding it needed too much work,” he explains.
In 2022, he “came across” Dromgarriff Rainforest in west Cork, “fell in love” with the site and led its purchase.
“Then I heard this hotel was coming for sale and John Brennan came to see me. He was very keen an Irish family bought it. I was intrigued by its history and how beautiful it was but it also had lots of issues.”
Meehan says he was also interested in buying the Lansdowne Hotel across the road, which the Brennans also owned at the time (the two hotels were on the market for €20 million).
“Paddy McKillen said to me: ‘Kiddo, everyone knows the Park Hotel, nobody knows the Lansdowne, what are you doing to yourself’. And I thought I don’t need the hassle of two in Kenmare, one is enough.”
He got the keys in November 2023 and rather than shutting the doors and bringing in the builders to gut the property, Meehan decided to upgrade the hotel on a “piecemeal” basis.
He says the hotel is making money but is “not as profitable” as when the Brennans ran it “because I upped everyone’s wages”.
One of his daughters worked out a living wage appropriate to Kenmare and staff who were on a lower wage were given a pay increase.
“We’ve also hired more people and we’re spending more money on where the food comes from. I’m long term about it. I want the hotel to be profitable and doing well but this is an investment for me for the long term.
“I have my income, thank God, from the money I got from Blue Bottle and so forth. I’m not reliant on the hotel to pay for my mortgage. For the next three or four years I’m investing in it long term.”
Something of a romantic, the hotel is owned by an Irish company called Forever Begin, a name derived from a line in a poem by Kerry bard Brendan Kennelly.
Based primarily in California, Meehan, who was born in London to Irish parents and is also a US citizen, travels here every month for a week or so. With events unfolding the way they are in America he says his life is likely to gravitate back to Europe, especially with two of his children living in London.
“I feel disappointed that we’ve come to a point where America feels that someone like [Donald] Trump needs to be in power to represent them,” he says of the American president.
His current wealth is a long way removed from his childhood. Meehan says he “grew up with no money” after his father’s fashion business on Wicklow Street in Dublin went bust in 1979, with the family losing their home.
“We had to move house and school. I still have a certain amount of anxiety [about money] within me from that time of my life.”
The family relocated from south Dublin to a smaller house in Newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow but Meehan retained his place at the fee-paying St Gerard’s school in Bray when the principal granted him and his siblings scholarships.
“I learned what the word arrears meant because I was snooping through my dad’s things one day and there was a note from Gerard’s saying ‘arrears’. I looked up the word and figured out that my dad owed all this money to Gerard’s and they wrote it off. That was amazing.”
He has since funded two scholarships at the school for students who might not otherwise be able to attend the school.
His mother worked as a house cleaner in Donnybrook and Meehan took summer jobs picking raspberries and potatoes or working on construction sites.
“It put money in my pocket,” he says of a period that he describes as “character building”.
His father got a job as a sales rep for a motor parts company, later setting up on his own before a bad car crash in 1987 put him out of action for a while.
Meehan had just completed his first year of Trinity, where he studied economics, and stepped in to run the business.
“I kinda liked it,” he says, adding that it probably sowed the seeds of his later career as an entrepreneur.
“I was doing the accounts, sending out invoices, doing the P&L, and saying to my dad let’s put this on a this computer program. The two of us worked very well together,” he says.
His father died two years ago, while his mother, now 86, is in a nursing home.
Back to the Park and Meehan says 70 per cent of business is from Americans during the summer and annual revenues run to about €6 million a year.
“May to October are your profitable months where you can make your money. The rest you are just trying to max your revenue and keep operations in place.”
I want the Park to be a place where you can spend your money, have a great experience and still have a sense of community around you, which is what Ireland is built on
— Bryan Meehan
The hotel will close in January to allow for renovations.
Innovations have included Music at the Park events, showcasing up-and-coming bands. “The Brennans would never have done that,” he says.
And it is considering hosting weddings. “We get about three phone calls a week.”
What do the Brennans think of his changes?
“I see John a lot. He wants to hear that the Park is doing great [under its new owners],” he says.
Sustainability is a major theme in his life, something he picked up from his Swiss mother in law. “I didn’t know what organic was until I met her in 1994.”
It inspired him to take an MBA in Harvard, later starting up his organic food business.
“I want this to be the most sustainable hotel in Ireland,” he says.
He has an ambitious plan to generate electricity and hot water by using biofuels but is not sure if it will work. “If successful we will be operating the hotel on zero emissions.”
The hotel is using more local milk, butter and organic meats in preference to “something that comes in a catering van”.
“We don’t do salmon here because it’s farmed so we promote trout instead because it’s more sustainable. And we’re making our own bread and jams.”
Having stopped doing a tasting menu, three courses at its Landline restaurant will cost you €110, which he accepts is a “lot of money” but says reflects the quality of the product.
Would he like a Michelin star? “I would love a Michelin green star, which is the star they have for people who are doing more sustainability. But you can’t chase it, you’ve just got to keep your head down and do what you do. If they think we deserve it, great, and if they don’t I’m not going to change what we do.”
At 57, many entrepreneurs might be thinking of slowing down rather than investing in a hotel for the long term.
Where would he like the Park to be in five years’ time?
“I would love it to be a hotel where people who are looking for a special occasion felt welcome and where people who have all the money in the world felt that I offered them an experience that was community-driven and made them question how they spent their money in other five-star hotels.
“Ireland was always a place where when you walked into a pub you were the same as the person having the pint of Guinness beside you.
“I want the Park to be a place where you can spend your money, have a great experience and still have a sense of community around you, which is what Ireland is built on.
“I’d love this to be a hotel where someone like my mum could come in and feel welcome. And for super-wealthy people to feel very much part of an Irish community and culture. It’s a high bar. You can judge me on that in five years’ time.”
CV
Name: Bryan Meehan
Job: Serial entrepreneur who owns the five-star Park Hotel in Kenmare, Co Kerry
Age: 57
Lives: Has properties in the United States, London and Ireland
Family: Married to Tara with three adult children in their 20s, all born in London but “never prouder to be Irish”.
Hobbies: He’s an avid collector of art.
