Tycoon with Kildare links is close to buying K Club for €50m

A enterprise tycoon who owns a nursing house in Maynooth is getting ready to a €55m buy of the Okay Membership in Straffan, it emerged on the weekend.
The sprawling resort and golf resort was put available on the market final yr by proprietor Michael Smurfit who was searching for as much as €80 million for the landmark property.
Low-profile nursing houses operator and hotelier Michael Fetherston emerged in current months as the popular bidder to purchase the sprawling property.
A deal has been agreed and the acquisition value is within the area of €55m, in keeping with a report within the Sunday Enterprise Submit.
Festerston has reportedly plans for a retirement village on the grounds of the advanced.
It’s understood that foreign-based buyers had been additionally considering shopping for the five-star resort that famously hosted the Ryder Cup golf match in 2006.
Mr Fetherston’s important enterprise curiosity is the TLC nursing houses group, which owns and operates 5 amenities within the better Dublin space together with Maynooth, Santry and Citywest.
The Okay Membership was initially purchased for €97m in 2005 by Bishopscourt Investments, which was a three way partnership between Mr Smurfit and property developer Gerry Gannon.
Mr Smurfit then purchased out Mr Gannon’s curiosity within the property in 2011.
The advanced, which incorporates two championship programs and a five-star resort, misplaced €three.1 million in 2017, its accounts present.
Opened in 1991, the Okay Membership now boasts 140-bedrooms and the resort is ready amid 550-acres of parkland on a mile lengthy personal stretch of the River Liffey.
A restored 19th Century Georgian mansion property, the Okay Membership is ready on the previous website of Straffan Home, which was initially modelled after a French chateau by Hugh Barton in 1832, the grandson of legendary winemaker Thomas Barton.
The Okay Membership is house to the Arnold Palmer-designed Ryder Course — the venue for the 2006 Ryder Cup and The Palmer Smurfit Course, host to the European Open from 1995 to 2007.
The Okay Membership additionally has a 20,000 sq. foot Okay Spa which is attracting prospects from Kildare and additional afield.
Well-known visitors who stayed within the Okay Membership over current years have included ex US presidents George Bush and Invoice Clinton, actors Joan Collins, Sean Connery and Michael Douglas, Prince Albert of Monaco and singer Justin Timberlake.