If
the upheaval at Mid Ocean was radical, it is nothing compared to
the mayhem
wrought at two other venerable relics of the 1920s,
Castle
Harbour Hotel and
Golf Club, and the Belmont Hotel and
Golf Club.
The
monolithic Castle Harbour Hotel is soon to be a completely
demolished shell,
eventually to be replaced by The Greenbrier
Spa at
Tucker's Point. Initially the
new luxury "boutique"
hotel will include
61 rooms costing almost $1 million each
to
construct, and a
14,000-square-foot spa. Its second phase will see the
addition of 20
more rooms. The five-star Greenbrier Resort in
White Sulphur
Springs,
W. Va., will provide both operating
and marketing support to the new
hotel. Thus far, what's gone
up in place of the
old Marriott are
stunning, sprawling
residences, a sign of Bermuda's subtle trend toward
privatization.
The
Greenbrier's president, Ted Kleisner, was a former general
manager of the
'70s-vintage Fairmont Southampton Princess
Hotel, the
last luxury hotel to open
on Bermuda. Construction
of the resort at
Tucker's Point is slated to begin late this year.
Merchants and other
locals who
depend on the tourist trade are
growing impatient for the
project to get going.
They have
complained already about design changes
that have reduced the number
of guest rooms significantly.
