Donegal Hotel Project Will Boost Jobs

Plans for a €25m four-star holiday resort in Ballyliffin, County Donegal have been announced.

The investment - which is expected to create around 120 new jobs - is being led by Ireland and UK-based businessmen, Sean Keogh and Owen McLaughlin.

Their multi-million euro Sandy Bay Hotel project - which will be developed by Belfast-based architects RPP - will encompass bars, restaurants and conference space, which all promise to make the village one of Ireland's leading tourist destination.

And the developers have called in an Omagh firm to look at possible eco-friendly measures, which could be incorporated into the scheme.

On the site of the former Pollen Beach Hotel, the new development, aimed at families, will offer 104 suites, 22 apartments, an outdoor pursuits center, and landscaped gardens leading to the nearby beach.

The developers are due to lodge their planning application for the Sandy Bay Hotel, to Donegal District County Council soon, and provided they are given the go-ahead, it is expected the complex should be completed by 2010.

Sean Keogh, speaking at the development's press launch, said: "We see the economic void that exists in Inishowen and with tourism representing one of our main hopes for the future of the peninsula, we are happy to invest in that future."

RPP, the Belfast architects behinds the design, has described the development as having "understated elegance".

The architectural firm has previously worked on large projects such as the Galgorm Manor, Ballymena and Newcastle's Slieve Donard Hotel.

Omagh-based mechanical and electrical consultants Patrick McCaul and Company has been tasked with providing eco-friendly building construction and sourcing alternative energy sources, including wind and bio fuels.

Managing Director of the Ballyliffin Lodge and Spa Cecil Doherty said he looked forward to the complex "resolving the long outstanding infrastructural deficiencies that blight the area".

(PR)(BMcC)