Janet Silvera,Gleaner Writer

Ezzat Coutry, senior vice president of the Ritz-Carlton hotel group. - contributed

Ritz-Carlton, the luxury hotel chain, is to open four new properties in the Caribbean over the next three years, starting with a US$500 million resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2009.

The other developments will be in The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and St Lucia, bringing the hospitality company's Caribbean portfolio to 10 managed properties, including a five-diamond 427-room resort at Rose Hall on Jamaica's north shore.

It was not immediately clear how much the developments would cost overall or who are Ritz-Carlton's partners in the developments, but Ezzat Coutry, a senior vice-president of the hotel group, said that the company is focusing on the Caribbean because the region is offering good business prospects.

"The Caribbean is attractive to us because of its proximity to the United States," Coutry said, despite stressing that even so, it doesn't go everywhere it is invited to invest.

"Who owns the project is very important to us," he said. "It's an issue of finding the right partner."

Collaboration

The Turks and Caicos Islands development, at West Caicos, will begin with a 125-room hotel and 75 villas, but will eventually include secluded single-family homes, custom homes, cottages and marina townhouses.

Dr Michael Misick, the chief minister of the islands, a British dependency in the northern Caribbean, described the project as "a unique, comprehensively planned public-private collaboration".

The development, known as Molasses Reef, will be the first for West Caicos.

The hotel is being marketed as a retreat to a private island that Ritz-Carlton has indicated will also include a wildlife sanctuary, two national parks and archaeological and cultural sites.

In St Lucia, the plan is a for 275-room ocean-front resort at Half Bay, which the island's tourism minister, Allan Chastanet, said would help to further open the spectacular with its two Pitons peaks and gurgling hot springs. This property is to be ready in 2010.

Chastanet said that Ritz-Carlton's presence brings St Lucia into the higher end of the tourism market "with the introduction of golf and residential properties".

"The Ritz investing here has huge implications, as it relates to the opening of the southern side of the island," Chastanet said.

Additions

The other development, at Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic, will be a golfing resort, with courses designed by famous names such as Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els and Nick Faldo.

"The lobby was completed renovated and there are tentative plans to make an addition to the swimming pools," noted Ezzat Coutry, adding that renovations to the pavilion and banquet areas were part of the long-term master plan with the owners.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com