A golf resort on the Isle of Man could be adding a casino and a new aparthotel. (Aparthotels provide guests with the hotel experience minus the restaurants and bars.)

According to the request submitted to the government planning commission by the Mount Murray Hotel and Country Club Ltd., the casino is planned for 31,000 square feet, and the aparthotel would have 150 four-star or five-star rooms.

The existing Mount Murray Hotel is a four-star with 100 rooms, two restaurants and two bars, a fitness and health club, an indoor pool and an 18-hole golf course overlooking the island.

The Mount Murray Golf Club House, opened in April 2007, houses the island’s biggest pro shop, a large bar, a 100-seat restaurant, a snooker room, two conference rooms and a large function room.

The casino would be built on the opposite side of the parking lot from the pro shop, and the aparthotel would be just across the road from the casino.

Albert Gubay, group chairman of Mount Murray Hotel and Country Club Ltd., says the Mount Murray provides a unique opportunity for this kind of development. “In today’s market it’s impossible to build a four-star hotel with all the necessary facilities at a price that gives an economic return,” Murray told Isle of Man Today.

“The reason you can do it at Mount Murray is half the investment is there—conference rooms, bars, kitchens and parking is all there. You’ve only got to build half a hotel.”

Another 60 rooms have already been OKd for the existing hotel.

The £45.6 million project would create 150 construction jobs and add 50 permanent jobs to the resort when completed.

If the plans are approved, work would start in early 2009 and would be complete in two years.

By GGB Staff

Staff writers for Global Gaming Business magazine. Las Vegas, Nevada.