A Belfast man has described how he took a gamble on peace in Northern Ireland lasting to open the capital’s first five star hotel.
Twenty years after the opening of the Merchant Hotel, Bill Wolsey said he was advised it would never work as he transformed the grade A-listed former Ulster Bank building in Skipper Street.
The Merchant opened in spring 2006 in what was a largely run-down area, and has been credited with transforming the Cathedral Quarter.
At the time, Mr Wolsey, from north Belfast, had been running pubs and a nightclub in Bangor, Co Down, but said he could sense change was coming after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
At a time when many chose to socialise outside Belfast, crowds went to towns around the capital such as Bangor, but Mr Wolsey said he knew that when peace was settled, this pattern would reverse.
The 72-year-old said he researched hotels in New York and London before finding inspiration in Paris to transform the building.
“You could see that things were changing, tourists were starting to arrive, and we looked at the hotel market and thought there was an opportunity to do something,” he told the Press Association.
“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 with this building.
“At the time property people were sort of king but they stayed away from this building because it was so heavily listed, but the more I looked at it, the more I loved it, and I thought it would fit in with what our interpretation of a modern five star hotel would be.
“So we bought it, and you know, the rest is history.”
The hotel opened in stages, starting with 27 rooms before the property behind the original one was acquired, providing an expansion to 63 rooms.
Within three years it had won the UK and Ireland Hotel of the Year award, but Mr Wolsey said the fact many of his employees stay long term is what he is most proud of.
He also hailed buy-in from locals, from grandmothers bringing their grandchildren to Christmas events to well travelled professionals, who Mr Wolsey said “got it straight away”.
He said he is still hugely involved in every aspect of the business, including the decor.
Highlights include the chandelier in the Great Room Restaurant, which is one of the largest in Ireland at more than 10 metres in height, created for the Merchant by Tyrone Crystal.
It has 16 arms, each with a lamp and a curtain of crystals, cascading outwards from a central structure of five intricate tiers of lights and crystals.
In the cocktail bar, Mr Wolsey pointed out padded walls covered in fabric from France which he described as “hugely expensive”, complementing original features such as the fireplaces and the bar itself from the bank manager’s office.
“Our budgets are well above what others would spend on material and we buy good art, but we also know there is longevity if you get it right, and we also know our clientele who come here will appreciate that and understand what we’ve done,” he said.
Mr Wolsey’s Beannchor Group runs a number of other businesses in the Cathedral Quarter, and has 20 bars as well as the Bullitt Hotel and Little Wing restaurant chain, directly employing 670 people.
“We knew what we were doing here, and we begged and borrowed as much money as we could,” he said.
“We gambled that we could run this spectacular building successfully as a hotel, and that on the back of that, things would change.
“Shaftsbury Square was where a lot of people went then, but now Cathedral Quarter is absolutely the place to come. That rise in footfall on a Saturday night from 300 to 15,000 says a lot.
“We bought a lot round here when no one else was thinking about this as a quarter. We’ve had a reasonable impact on the city.”
Mr Wolsey is looking forward to opening a second Bullitt Hotel in Dublin, expanding his group’s Raging Ramen eaterie in Belfast, and opening an Indian restaurant with a modern twist.
The group is also planning a new bar where the United Irishmen political movement was formed.
“It’s probably one of the last things I’ll do personally. My two sons think I’m mad, but I don’t want any background music, any televisions, I want silence like an old pub used to be, I don’t even want air conditioning if I can get away with it,” he said.
Looking back over his 50-year career, Mr Wolsey said he would not have believed when he was starting out where the industry would take him.
“I never dreamt I would be here, but you do one, it becomes successful, and then you see something else, and think maybe I can do that better, and it grows,” he said.
“I’m most proud of keeping people working for me for a very long time, we’re proud to see them going on to buy a house and give a living to their kids.
“My mum did office cleaning and my dad fixed machines, they were both old school socialists, and I think they would be pleased at the way I run the company. That shaped this company.”
