The entire contents of the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels in Ballsbridge, Dublin will go under the hammer next month within days of the hotels' final closure, following their €379 million sale to developer Seán Dunne.
The last guests will leave the hotels on August 13th, the day after the Dublin Horse Show ends in the nearby RDS. However, there will be no time for sentimentality as the hotels will be stripped of the contents at auction on August 17th.
More than 2,300 lots are for sale including the contents of 400 bedrooms, comprising beds, televisions, lamps, bedside lockers etc which are being sold as complete lots, rather than on a piecemeal basis. Bar and restaurant furniture will be divided into separate lots.
The sale is likely to primarily be of interest to the hotel and restaurant industry with items including kitchen equipment, soft furnishings and fittings, engineering equipment, reception and back of house items, conference facilities, plant and machinery, elevators, boilers and generators.
However private individuals are welcome to bid for items including tables and chairs from the Dubliner bar or Raglans restaurant. The contents are on view on August 15th and 16th at Jurys Hotel and there is a €5 charge for entry to the auction which will be donated Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
Mr Dunne bought the hotels in 2005 but they continued operating under an agreement with the Jury Doyle Group. A spokesman for the group said both hotels had been trading well over the last number of months and had bookings right up to the day of closure.
The hotels had been operating at the Ballsbridge site for more than 30 years, the Berkeley Court was built in 1977 and Jurys Hotel opened in 1972. Between them the hotels employ almost 600 staff who have accepted a redundancy offer of seven weeks pay per year of service.
It is understood that Mr Dunne plans to redevelop the site as a mixed use commercial, retail and residential complex which may contain a new hotel.
