Annebrook extension project expected to take 18 months

Work on the extension of the Annebrook House Hotel in Mullingar began three weeks ago with the demolition of the existing building (the old Dunnes stores), and foundations are now being laid for a four-storey extension comprising 60 hotel rooms, a new breakfast room, and a new bistro/cafe.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner on Friday morning as he waited to help direct a lorry into the site, Annebrook proprietor Berty Dunne, in hard hat and hi-vis vest, said work is expected to take approximately 18 months.

“It’s going to be a huge advantage to the town because we’re going to have another 60 bedrooms, which on any given weekend will bring in another 150 people, and that has a huge knock-on effect to local shops, cafes, restaurant, pubs,” said Berty.

Expressing his gratitude to the local authority for their cooperation, he added: “It’ll be a good addition to the town, and thankfully the council had the foresight to help us with the planning and development of it. They put a huge effort in, and ourselves, to get this design right. There’s a lot of effort in it. It’s more than four years in the planning so we think we’ve got everything right, and we just have to build it now.”

Berty declined to give an estimate of the budget for the project, but said it is substantial, and it has increased in line with the rise in construction costs generally since the extension was first discussed. “I’ve looked at it with the QS and it’s a bit frightening, but however, we’ll get there. We have a good old Bank of Ireland behind us.”

Given the investment in the Annebrook building work, Berty is confident about the future of the local hospitality sector. “We’re right down the road from Dublin, where there are one and a half million people. We’re right down the road and it’s a lovely stopover.

"We get loads of people coming down by bus and by train and they love our enhanced streets and our shops and the locals chatting as they go in. They don’t get that kind of experience in Dublin, and they love coming down. We have repeat guests coming through all the time. They keep coming back and they say they love Mullingar.”

The greenways have also been good for business, and there is a new bicycle shed at the Annebrook for guests to use. “We have people cycling from Dublin with kids as young as eight years old, families cycling down. They have a few stopovers, but I couldn’t believe it there when a family pulled in. I do a bit of cycling myself and I love the greenways. They’re a huge addition.”

He also praised the “town in general” – “there’s not a piece of litter anywhere in the town this morning. It’s a credit to the teams that clean up here every morning and Westmeath County Council.”