The Northern Ireland business of Irish hospitality group Nolaclan is in administration after failing to sell its interest in south Belfast boutique hotel House.
Administrators from KPMG were appointed to Alan Clancy’s Botanic Way Limited last week, less than six months after he tried to sell his leasehold interest in the venue for around £500,000.
It’s understood the Botanic Avenue hotel has reopened with London-based RBH Hospitality Management now running it.
The 31-bedroom south Belfast hotel building is ultimately owned by Havana Limited, a property and hotel company controlled by TJ Jennings and his immediate family.
Better known as Shamus Jennings, the Belfast investor’s hotel interests already include Cathedral Quarter properties The Foundry and the Ramada by Wyndham.
The interior of House Belfast’s ground floor bar and restaurant on Botanic Avenue.
His parent property group Ducales also owns the St Anne’s Square complex.
Both his Havana hotels are already managed by RBH.
The London-based hospitality management firm confirmed its involvement in House Belfast on Wednesday, launching a recruitment drive for a new £60,000 a year general manager.
Despite CBRE’s March 2025 listing stating that the sale of Nolaclan’s interest in the Botanic Avenue hotel would not include the House brand, the venue continues to trade and market itself as House Belfast following the collapse of the tenant company.
The Irish hospitality group’s portfolio of eight sites across the border includes House branded venues in Dublin and Limerick.
Madison’s was opened by Botanic Inns during 1996 on the site of the former York Hotel, which had traded on Botanic Avenue for more than 30 years.
The building was substantially refurbished during 2017 by Pure Fitout, turning its ground floor into one of the most striking bar/restaurants in the city.
Nolaclan signed a 20-year lease a year earlier shortly after Mr Jennings bought the hotel from Nama in 2016.
According to CBRE’s listing for the venue, Nolaclan’s northern entity was paying around £345,000 per year in rent when it collapsed.
Alan Clancy, pictured at the official launch of House Belfast in January 2018.
The latest available set of accounts for Botanic Way Limited show it had net liabilities of just over £3m at the end of 2023.
It had 57 staff on its books at that stage.
The 2023 accounts confirmed Botanic Way was a subsidiary of Nolaclan.
It states Alan Clancy owned 65% of the business via company Capulat Ltd, with the remaining 35% belonging to the Venturis Bar Group Ltd, owned by well-known property developer Jerry Conlan.
Mr Conlan was one of the so-called Maple 10 group of investors who were given loans by Anglo Irish Bank in 2008 to buy shares in the lender.
The ten investors included Belfast-born property tycoon Paddy McKillen and the Belfast-based developer Patrick Kearney.