Work starts on 15 more buildings at Park Hyatt St. Kitts
Basseterre, St. Kitts (CUOPM) – With some 170 persons employed on the Park Hyatt St. Kitts construction site, over 40,000 man hours were chalked up in the month of October.
According to the developers, Range Development said tens of millions of dollars have been spent in the local economy as a direct consequence of Park Hyatt St. Kitts.
The developers have disclosed that the construction of Park Hyatt St. Kitts is rapidly advancing with five buildings up and are reaching structural completion and work has started on another 15 buildings.
The project is to build a 5-starbeach resort at Banana Bay on the south side of St. Kitts, to be operated by the Park Hyatt hotel group.
Park Hyatt St. Kitts’ location at Banana Bay adjoins the Christophe Harbour development, a 2,500-acre resort community being developed on St. Kitts’ southeast peninsula by the same people that developed Kiawah Island in South Carolina, United States.
The peninsula will also support a superyacht marina capable of handling up to 300 yachts, a Tom Fazio-designed championship golf course and an exclusive beach club.
The Park Hyatt itself will boast a presidential villa, a number of restaurant areas including a ‘Fisherman’s Village’, and over 40 percent of the accommodation will be configured as suites, well above the usual 18-20 percent ratio for similar luxury resorts.
The hotel will have 134 luxury rooms and related service facilities, built around a Caribbean village theme.
The site includes a long stretch of picturesque golden sand beach and spectacular hillside views across to the nearby sister island of Nevis.
The main construction contractor on the project is Kier, the leading UK construction and property group which specialises in commercial property development.
Kier has a track record of working in the Caribbean for over 50 years, and has constructed some of the most prestigious resorts in St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Jamaica.
The project has been designed by architect Simeon Halstead, whose company Arcadia has worked on projects including the Park Hyatt Goa, the Shangri-La Phuket and the Hyatt Regency Sharm El Shiekh.
Range Developments’ Mr Asaria added: “Situated about1,300 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, St Kitts is about 60 miles from St. Barts, St. Maarten and Anguilla. It is an English-speaking country which became independent from the UK in 1983 but remains a member of the British Commonwealth, hence the acceptability of its passport.
“The islands, which cover about 65 square miles, have a population of about 50,000 with a 95 per cent literacy rate.
The GDP is US$550 million and the currency, the East Caribbean Dollar, maintains a fixed exchange rate of 2.7 to the US Dollar. “And the fact that St. Kitts enjoys a politically stable and democratic government, makes it an ideal place to invest.