Yet Another West Coast Hotel Lost To Condo Conversion

Word on the street is that Escape Hotel in Prospect, St. James is about to close it’s doors and the property converted into luxury condominiums for the very wealthy. It is not yet known whether Escape is doing the condo conversion itself or whether the property has been sold to be razed to the ground and started over. In any case, staff is very jittery and have already begun dusting off resumes and testing the employment waters - a difficult task in Barbados even without the looming recession. Many are in a wait-and-see mode hoping to collect a tidy severance package before jumping ship.

This follows on the heals of the announcement a few weeks ago that Chefette Restaurant in Holetown has been sold and the likelihood that condominiums being built at that location. It is particularly sad to see yet another moderately priced west coast beachfront hotel lost to condo conversion with Sandridge Hotel also closing early next year and Kings Beach on the auction block.

Sir Charles Giveth...

Sir Charles Williams, the mover and shaker behind Apes Hill who recently stirred up a hornets nest with his remarks calling for the shutting down of the cement plant at Checker Hall, is in the news again but this time in a more charitable frame - donating a parcel of land in Redmans Village, St. Thomas to the University of the West Indies. It does not sound like either the university or Sir Charles knows what to do with the land other than that he wants the “Mandela” name associated with it in perpetuity. Although a lot of Christians in Barbados will have trouble with his apparent comparing Mandela with Jesus Christ, I am sure the vast majority of all Barbadians appreciate the gift all the same.

Of course, it cannot hurt too that the land is in the same neck of the woods as the plot where Sir Charles wants permission to build the largest mall in the English-speaking Caribbean next door to his Millennium Heights high end residential development, and down the hill and up the road from all those luxury villas and whatnot he is building at Apes Hill. After all, those people have to shop too like everyone else, right? Even Rihanna shopped when she came to Barbados around Christmas last year and she now owns a spread at Apes Hill, thanks again to Sir Charles and the Government of Barbados. Perhaps when she gets tired under her umbrella-ella-ella at Apes Hill she can shop till she drops at Welches, St. Thomas. But, of course, any connection with Redmans Village, St. Thomas would just be tangential, right?

Updated Project Outline

Developer Michael Pemberton with masterplan - excavation in background

Location: Paradise Beach, Black Rock, St. Michael (32 acres)

Hotel: Four Seasons Private Residences Barbados (106 rooms, 36 villas)

Amenities: Spa, 3 Restaurants, Tennis, Olympic-size pool, Cinama (50 seats)

Developers: Cinnamon 88

Date: 2009-2010

Jobs: 800

Price Tag: US$380 Million

Status: Under construction

Click image to enlarge

Will The East Coast Go The Way Of The West Coast

In an interesting article yesterday the Nation newspaper examined concerns surrounding issues of development along the east and southeast coasts of Barbados. The focus of the article was the familiar west coast concerns about beach access and the preservation of "windows to the sea." One of the persons interviewed for the article asked - "why can't Government decide to buy a strip of land along the coast and just leave it for the people of Barbados?" This is the same question raised on another west coast blog recently concerning the property at Kings Beach in Road View, St. Peter which Government has placed on the auction block for recovery of half a million dollars in back taxes.

The article continued: "Nature lover and businessman Andy Armstrong, who resides on the West Coast, recalled that in the 1970s one politician claimed a virtual "shut-out" of the West Coast would be unlikely, but history had told an entirely different tale.

"It's too late to do anything on the West Coast, but let's not wait until it's too late for the rest of Barbados," said Armstrong, noting that the last administration had specified St Philip and St Lucy for major future development."


Click here for full article.

Royal Westmoreland Launches Petrea Heights

The explosion of villas, condos and townshouses on the west coast and adjoining areas aimed at wealthy Europeans and Americans continues unabated. Click on the link below to learn about one of the latest developments.

Westmoreland Blog: Royal Westmoreland Launches Petrea Heights

Royal Westmoreland Launches Petrea Heights

Construction is full steam ahead on the condos known as the “Royal Apartments” started last year, but a little thing like that has not stopped Royal Westmoreland from launching yet another major development project on its sprawling 750 acres first thing this year 2008. This time they are offering a mix of villas and townhouses starting at US$1.65M which they are calling “Petrea Heights.” As the name suggests this new development will sit on a hill overlooking the west coast and the Caribbean Sea, and is high enough to take full advantage of the trade winds coming in from the east off the Atlantic. Thus all residences will have ocean or golf course views or both. If you are lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of this development, Royal Westmoreland will pay your US$200K deposit or give it to you as a discount.


This latter offer of the discount is testimony to how competitive real estate has become in Barbados even at the luxury high end. Royal Westmoreland is aggressively fishing for clients in the same pool as Sugar Hill, Apes Hill and Black Bess (Banyan Tree) which are all within a few miles of each other (Sugar Hill and Royal Westmoreland actually only across the road from each other). Perhaps the competitiveness of the market was another one of the reasons why Sandy Lane with its 1000 acres recently announced that it was putting on hold its US$1B plan to build over a hundred luxury villas on its latest golf course - the Green Monkey. “Monkey see - monkey [don’t] do[?]”

Mullins Bay Blog Reporting: Episode Of "The Bachelor" Filmed In Area

An episode of the popular North American reality TV show was apparently secretly filmed on a beach in the Mullins Bay area. Click link below for more.

Mullins Bay, Barbados: Episode Of The Bachelor Set In Mullins Bay Area

Should West Coast Beaches Be Widened

Click here to vote.

Should West Coast Beaches Be Widened

Owing to the recent storm many west coast beaches were adversely impacted and narrowed as a result. This has made an already bad situation worse by way of forcing beachfront property owners to put in place measures to prevent further property loss such as laying boulders on the beach and building sea walls. Some popular beaches are also finding it very difficult to accommodate all their patrons on the narrow strips of sand especially on days when cruise liners are in port. This blog is currently running a poll to determine what percentage of its visitors are or are not supportive of the artificial widening of west coast beaches. Scroll to the bottom of the page to take the poll.