Too many broken promises for St Georgians

The Club Med site in St George’s has been plagued by false dawns and broken promises in recent time.

A string of entrepreneurs and hotel chains have showed an interest in developing the property after it closed down in 1988.

But none have stood the test of time, and despite promises that ground was about to be broken, it never has been.

The original Holiday Inn hotel opened in 1973.

After eight years in operation it was sold to Loews Hotels group in New York, and then in 1985 it was sold to the Club Med group and opened as a 630-room grand hotel.

However, the hotel closed down a few years later in 1988.

In December 1993, the United Bermuda Party’s Jim Woolridge became the first in a string of Tourism Ministers from both major parties to claim that good news on Club Med was just around the corner.

He announced that he had met with a group of businessmen from Massachusetts who had viewed the site and were interested in building a new hotel.

In February 1996 Club Med approached Government about reopening the hotel and pumping another $20 million into the property.

Two years later the property was subject to negotiations between Government and the Atlanta-based Camberley Hotel Company, but nothing ever came to fruition.

By late 2000 there was talk that Malaysian development company, Aman Capital, wanted to redevelop the site.

But by December 2001, the plans had effectively collapsed.

In 2003, the St George’s Renaissance Consortium, backed by Canada-based Quorum, led by Wanda Dorosz, got the nod for a limited-term exclusivity agreement.

Four Seasons

The $220 million project would have brought a Four Seasons resort to Bermuda and involved turning the site into a 90-bedroom hotel as well as a cottage complex of 90 condos.

As part of the plans an underground theatre was also to be built, which could hold between 400 and 500 people, for cultural events.

However, the plans were scuppered some years later when Government unveiled that talks had started with US-based KJA Company and Jack Avedikian.

Neither plan was ever acted on.

In May 2007, Premier Ewart Brown announced that construction work on a five-star Regis Hotel would begin ‘this year’. 

It never did and in August 2008 the old Club Med building was destroyed.

US businessman Carl Bazarian was at the centre of plans for the property for many years, but despite ongoing pledges from him and Government and talk of Park Hyatt coming to Bermuda, ground was never broken. The site has now remained untouched since the old hotel’s dramatic destruction five years ago.