Last Supper for Jurys Inn – owners rebrand chain as Leonardo

Hotel chain Jurys Inn is to be rebranded as Leonardo, bringing to an end an association between the Jurys name and Irish hotels that dates back to 1839, reports the Sunday Independent.

The Jurys Inn name will disappear as part of a rebrand by its owners, the Fattal Hotel Group, with all 35 Jurys Inn hotels across Ireland and Britain to become Leonardo hotels this autumn.

The entire Jurys Inn portfolio was acquired by the group, which is owned by Israeli billionaire David Fattal, in 2017. It already has 15 Leonardo-branded hotels in the UK and 145 worldwide and is set to embark on an expansion of the chain.

Fast-track development

Property developers lodged plans for almost 15,000 homes under the fast-track planning process in the first two weeks of April as they rushed to meet the final deadline for the scheme, reports the Sunday Times.

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An Bord Pleanála received a record 36 planning applications in two weeks under the Strategic Housing Development process, which comes to an end on Tuesday.

While the scheme had closed for new applications in February, developers who had already started discussions with the planning authority for their respective developments were given an extension until April 19th.

Construction inflation

Key projects in the Government's €165 billion National Development Plan (NDP) are at risk of being scrapped or delayed if construction costs continue to soar, according to the Business Post.

A review of capital projects in the pipeline in areas such as housing, transport, health and education was completed last week by officials in the Department of Public Expenditure.

It found weaker than usual levels of interest among construction firms for new public works contracts, with inflationary pressures making many projects with fixed-pricing contracts unattractive or unviable.

Airport plea

Dalton Philips, the chief executive of airport operator DAA, told Dublin Airport employees that it had not been possible to predict that passenger numbers would return to their current levels so quickly, reports the Sunday Independent, citing a video message filmed for staff.

Mr Philips has asked non-security staff at the airport to volunteer for early morning shifts on a special taskforce set up to help overburdened security colleagues.

“I need you to support us because helping our customers, our passengers, get through the airport through this very busy time is our number one job,” he said.

Biopharma fundraising

Renexxion, a biopharma company headquartered in Roscrea, has secured $100 million (€92.5 million) in funding as part of a move that will see it list on the US stock market in the coming months, reports the Business Post.

The company, founded by Tipperary native Peter Milner, aims to bring a new gastrointestinal drug to market that it believes can achieve sales of at least $1 billion.

Mr Milner is a former EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist who sold his first company, CV Therapeutics, in 2009 to Gilead for $1.5 billion in cash.

Cloud capital

Zoosh Group, a company backed by property developer Sean Mulryan, is planning to launch a €25 million fund targeted at helping to grow cloud-focused start-ups, according to the Sunday Independent.

Zoosh invests in and works with new cloud ventures from the idea stage to commercialisation. Mulryan, who founded Ballymore Group, recently acquired a "significant stake" in Zoosh through Ardenode Capital and will join its board as a non-executive director.