Buccament Bay Resort reopening date pushed back

The date for the reopening of the Buccament Bay Resort, originally announced as January 2018, has been pushed back.

Speaking last week, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves said he did not wish to disclose the entity currently working to get the resort up and running, but gave assurances that the new management entity is skilled in these sorts of things.

“It is an entity that has experience in managing distressed assets and assets that have had difficulties in the past, and it is an entity that has some experience in the region in managing those types of assets,” said Gonsalves.

He added that the work on improving some of the aspects of Buccament has not begun on schedule because there are some problems with the sewerage treatment plant at the facility.

Gonsalves said the magnitude of those problems was not fully understood by the investors initially, but when persons from the entity investigated, they found out that the problems are a lot worse than they thought, in terms of the sewerage plant being adequate for the facility.

The Finance Minister also reported that improvements on the resort’s electrical grid, to make it more energy efficient, are being conducted and that, among other things, has pushed back the opening time.

“The work has not begun in earnest, so it will go back a couple more months,” said Gonsalves.

David ‘Dave’ Ames, the founder of Harlequin Property Limited, parent company of Buccament Bay Resort Ltd, fled the country in 2016 after money issues forced the closure of the resort.

On Saturday, December 17, 2016, the East Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) appointed an interim receiver to protect the assets of Harlequin Properties Ltd (HPL), the developers of the resort.(LC)