In the heart of Donnybrook, Dublin four, a hotel with 39 bedrooms lies empty. In 2023, the Sunday Business Post reported that the hotel – known for decades as Sachs Hotel and more recently as The Hampton Hotel – was to close permanently:
The hotel, which was renamed The Hampton in 2008, has been in operation since at least the 1950s when it opened as the Morehampton Hotel.
It will be remembered, or not, by many as the popular southside nightclubs of Vanilla and Raffles in recent years.
The low-key closure of the boutique 39-room hotel comes three-and-a-half years after the death of businessman Philip Smyth, the late founder of the West Wood Gyms, who held the lease on the property through his company Genport Ltd for decades but sold his interest in it in 2000.
As of today, the hotel is on the market: Colliers lists it for sale at the relatively bargain basement price of €12.5million, offering a glowing review of its attractiveness as a property:
The Hampton Hotel enjoys an enviable position on the southern side of the Morehampton Road in leafy Dublin 4. Morehampton Road links Donnybrook to the city centre and the property is located less than 1.5 km from St Stephens Green and everything Dublin City Centre has to offer. John Fleming architects has completed a feasibility Study, one of the options is to extend the existing hotel to create a 121-bedroom four star hotel with restaurant/bar and dining areas. A second scenario proposes the renovation and extension of the existing to construct a 131 apart hotel with gym and residents lounges. There are also two residential scenarios contained within the study and these allow for up to 59 apartments. The feasibility study is available in the data room. The immediate neighbourhood is a mix between high-end residential, offices with a host of excellent bars, restaurants and shops. The Hotel is well positioned close to Herbert Park and The Aviva Stadium
The area is considered to be generally under supplied by hotels and is possibly within one of the state’s most prosperous neighbourhoods.
As potential accommodation centres for migrants seeking a place to live go, you couldn’t ask for much better than that: A property which was being used as a hotel up until very recently, and which is available for a price that would be – for the Government – peanuts – and is located in an area with lots of amenities and surrounded by one of the state’s most prosperous (and therefore, we assume, friendly and welcoming) neighbourhoods.
Indeed, one could think of few more attractive acquisitions for the state: The price is low, the potential upside of re-developing the hotel in the long term is significant. Planning already exists to upgrade the facility to a 131-room apartment hotel, meaning that the state could quickly undertake the works needed to accommodate anywhere between 200 and 300 migrants at the facility, while acquiring for itself a primely located property that could, if necessary, later be sold without much risk of making a loss.
Of course, readers may now have gathered that my tongue is located in my cheek: We all know, I think, that it is highly unlikely that the state would acquire a vacant property right in the middle of Donnybrook Dublin four for the purpose of accommodating 300 or so migrant males. It is located in one of the state’s most prosperous neighbourhoods, for heaven’s sake.
There is no need to belabour a relatively simple point, but there is I think a need to constantly highlight it: While communities like Ballyogan in South Dublin are expected to bear the brunt of the state’s migration policies, the most prosperous neighbourhoods in the country are largely exempt, even when suitable properties are available and on the market.
The reasons for this are not hard to divine: Poorer areas protest in the old-fashioned way, with blockades and placards and angry denunciations of politicians. Richer areas protest by lodging petitions in the four courts and withholding crucial financial support from our political parties. Poorer areas, not to put too fine a point on it, protest with coarser language and messaging that might offend the sensibilities of our leaders; Richer areas protest with quiet words in the corner of meetings, and appeals to class solidarity. The one thing that the two areas in common are in terms of their instincts: “One of the state’s most prosperous neighbourhoods” would have no more desire for 300 migrant men arriving in its midst than the people of Ballyogan or Newtownmountkennedy would have.
I’m mentioning this because, on the RTE DriveTime debate for the European Elections the other day, Social Democrat candidate Sinead Gibney was asked for examples of where migrants might be accommodated. Her answer amounted to “I don’t know and that’s not my job, it’s the government’s job”. She was unable to cite even a single place where she would personally house migrants, had she the power to make these decisions. Well, here’s a suggestion, Sinead: Sachs Hotel.
Of course, most of us know, or at least suspect, exactly why candidates who say they desire more migrants to be accommodated suddenly go coy when asked where that accommodation might be found. And there’s a reason why when that accommodation is found, it’s more often found in places where the politicians haven’t a strong vote to begin with.
This is one reason why Sinn Fein is suffering more than Government parties over migration – the accommodation centres have mainly – by accident or design – ended up in places that Sinn Fein used to do well in. If Sinn Fein really wants to start winning back votes, it should be advocating that the next ten thousand migrants are welcome – so long as they are accommodated in places like Sachs Hotel. And Dalkey. And Foxrock. And Ballsbridge.
After all, that’s exactly what the Government has been doing to them for the past few years.