Tennis ace Murray buys a hotel in plan to repay his home town
BRITAIN’S No1 tennis player Andy Murray has splashed out £1.8m to acquire a hotel in Dunblane, the planned development of which he hopes will provide a major boost to the economy in his home town.
The Cromlix House Hotel, where his brother Jamie married wife Alejandra Gutierrez in 2010, is a Victorian Mansion, which Murray plans to transform into a 15-room, five-star hotel, creating 40 new jobs in the local area.
The US Open and Olympic champion said: “I’m pleased to be able to give something back to the community I grew up in.
“By re-establishing Cromlix as a leading luxury hotel at the heart of the Dunblane community we will be able to attract new visitors to the area, create a number of new jobs and focus on supporting other local businesses.”
The project to refurbish the Perthshire hotel is expected to be finished next spring, in time for the 2014 Ryder Cup at nearby Gleneagles.
The Cromlix will be looked after by Inverlochy Castle Management International (ICMI), who already manage eight properties around Scotland, including Inverlochy Castle, near Fort William, Greywalls Hotel in Gullane and The Atholl, in Edinburgh and will boast a Chez Roux branded restaurant.
On court, Murray is currently preparing for next month’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.