Prospect plan moves forward

Government’s long-delayed plan to transform the abandoned Prospect Reef Resort into a luxury tourism property is gathering steam, according to Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley.

Most recently, Cabinet endorsed recommendations from the Prospect Reef Management Company to accept proposals from firms that have expressed interest in the project, Mr. Wheatley told the House of Assembly last Thursday.

For the next step, he added, the management company will issue formal requests for proposals “in short order.”

Meanwhile, the project will be transferred to the Ministry of Financial Services, Economic Development and Digital Transformation, according to the premier.

Big plans

Plans to redevelop the resort have been plagued by two decades of delays and false starts, but in January 2025 the government issued a request for expressions of interest calling for a four-to-five-star hotel with at least 150 rooms and “modern conference facilities” capable of accommodating 300 people.

Submissions were due by March 3, and last May the premier said in his territorial address that the request had drawn a “strong response” from investors who want to restore the derelict property to its former glory.

Though he has not said how many responses were received or named the companies involved, he provided another general update last October.

“We have a Cabinet paper which will be coming to Cabinet soon, where we will have a number of entities which submitted expressions of interest,” Mr. Wheatley said at the time, adding, “The Cabinet paper will approve for them to be able to submit proposals, and then we will have those proposals evaluated, and a successful tenderer will win the job to develop Prospect Reef.”

The government, he added, was hoping to break ground in 2026.

On Nov. 17, the government also issued a related tender seeking bidders for preparatory site works including “demolition, excavation, site clearance, construction of culverts, drainage, and pavement improvements.”

Submissions were due on Tuesday of this week.

Decades of delays

The 11-acre site, which was once a popular resort, became a source of controversy when the government purchased it for about $6 million in 2005 with plans to turn it into a government-owned hospitality training centre.

That project stalled, as did attempts in 2013 to strike a deal with the United Kingdom-based developer Sir Robert McAlpine Group to build a $100 million hotel on the property.

The next major effort came in 2017, when then-premier Dr. Orlando Smith signed a $90 million agreement with the United States-based ICA Group to finance, develop and operate two hotels, condos, town houses, a marina, a conference centre and parking lots.

But following Hurricane Irma, that deal fell through in 2019 amid recriminations between the government and the developer. The Covid-19 pandemic brought further delays.