Bill Wolsey, the founder of the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, has revealed how he gambled on the peace process lasting when he opened the city's first five-star hotel 20 years ago. The 72-year-old, who transformed the grade A-listed former Ulster Bank building on Skipper Street, said he was told it would never work.
Opening in spring 2006 in what was then a run-down area, the hotel is credited with revitalising the Cathedral Quarter. Mr Wolsey, who had previously run pubs and a nightclub in Bangor, County Down, said he sensed change was coming after the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. He researched hotels in New York and London before finding inspiration in Paris for the building's transformation.
“We were told it would never work, that the prices we were charging would never work, so we just disregarded their advice and ploughed on,” Mr Wolsey said. The hotel opened with 27 rooms, later expanding to 63 after acquiring the property behind. Within three years, it won the UK and Ireland Hotel of the Year award.
Among the hotel's standout features is the chandelier in the Great Room Restaurant, one of the largest in Ireland at over 10 metres tall, created by Tyrone Crystal. The cocktail bar has padded walls covered in fabric from France, which Mr Wolsey described as “hugely expensive,” complementing original features like fireplaces and the bar from the bank manager’s office.
Mr Wolsey’s Beannchor Group now runs 20 bars, the Bullitt Hotel, and the Little Wing restaurant chain, employing 670 people. Looking ahead, he plans to open a second Bullitt Hotel in Dublin, expand his Raging Ramen eaterie in Belfast, and launch a new bar at the site where the United Irishmen political movement was formed. “It’s probably one of the last things I’ll do personally,” he said.
