Bermuda is close to getting a new, world-class resort with 238 rooms and a casino, Bermuda Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell told Parliament this morning, according to the local Royal Gazette. The project will rise on the site of the St. George’s Tourism Development Site (photo above).
A Venezuelan development group, Desarrollos Hotelco, is the likely developer. At this point, however, Crockwell told MPs that the government had entered “an exclusive negotiation period with the developer,” according to the story.
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The deal is said to include the renovation of the St. George’s Golf Course, 16 hotel residences, 24 golf villas and 16 estate residences.
The firm recently received conditional approval to build a 380-room JW Marriott hotel and casino in the Turks and Caicos, the Gazette reported. Desarrollos has a history of developing Marriott International properties: the JW Marriott, Marriott Playa Grande and Renaissance all in Venezuela, as well as the Ritz Carlton Aruba, the story noted.
Some of Bermuda’s top tourism leaders (photo below) were in Washington D.C. on Thursday before the deal was publicly announced during the first-ever Bermuda Day celebration in the U.S.
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Photos: Top, courtesy of the Bermuda Tourism Authority. Bottom photo, by Barb DeLollis, shows [l-r] David Dodwell, hotelier and chairman of the board of the Bermuda Tourism Authority; Bill Hanbury, CEO of the Bermuda Tourism Authority, and Victoria Isley, Sales & Marketing Chief of the Bermuda Tourism Authority.
