The failed Four Seasons Hotel and villa project at Paradise, St Michael, which has been a concrete eyesore on Barbados’ famed coastline for 15 years, is in the process of being sold.
Senior Minister Dr William Duguid, who is responsible for Planning and Development, confirmed that Government had struck a deal with the same developers who were in the process of constructing the Pendry Hotel in St Peter.
Pendry Hotels & Resort is a chain of luxury boutique hotels owned by United Statesbased company Montage International. That company has apparently entered an arrangement to purchase the 32acre site and work has already started on the site as the land is cleared to make way for the development of a new multi-million dollar tourism project. When contacted by this newspaper, Duguid said: “The Four Seasons property is being cleared by an entity who is going ahead to purchase the property and they will be doing a new development there. They will have to demolish all of the existing structures and then look to redevelop it with residences and a hotel.”
Earlier this week, a Nation team spotted heavy-duty equipment from C.O. Williams Co. on the site clearing the vast area of land which overlooks Paradise Beach. Reports indicate that the burnt-out concrete structures will soon be demolished.
Duguid explained that the developers would not have to go through the entire planning process and only submit a revision in order to get the project back on stream.
“They are the same people who are doing the Pendry,” he said. “They are purchasing the land from Government over a deposit and payment terms and while they go through that process, they are going to redevelop the land,” he further revealed.
While Duguid reserved the details surrounding the purchasing agreement for the Prime Minister to speak on, he stressed that the project would be good for the economy.
“We are definitely welcoming this because there will be a significant number
of jobs during construction and, of course, with residences, a hotel and villas, there will be lots of jobs available after construction.
“It will also take away from the environmental health risks and problems with all of that area – totally overgrown – so a tremendous benefit to an area that had not been in production for a long time, adding to the number of rooms and our tourism product” he added.
The controversial US$160 million Four Seasons project got underway in 2008 by British developers Robin Paterson and Michael (Mike) Pemberton, as a playground for the rich and famous. Some of the global investors who deposited monies for the villas, which were priced at US$20 million, included British mogul Simon Cowell, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and former Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan.
In 2010, the Barbados Government secured a US$60 million loan from the ANSA Merchant Bank to get the project going again but that, too, never materialised as most of the money was spent settling debts and paying creditors.
Over the years, both the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Governments announced at various times that they were seeking new investors to get the project started, with former Minister of Finance, Chris Sinckler, of the DLP announcing in 2016 that they had secured an investor and the project would definitely get off the ground. However, that, too, never materialised and resulted in the investor taking this current BLP Government to court over the land. (MB)
