- Sandals To Expand Buccament Bay Resort, St Vincent
Sandal Resorts International is poised to broaden its hotel operations in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, while details are still sketchy, Sandals could be potentially focusing on the unfinished Black Sands Resorts at Peters Hope or another location along the leeward coast.
Speculation regarding Sandals’ possible interest in the Black Sands Resorts emerged following Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves’ post on February 23, which featured a photograph of himself alongside Terence Des Vignes, apparently at the location of the unfinished resort, appreciating the surroundings. Des Vignes is Sandals Resorts International regional project manager.
In the post, Gonsalves wrote, “I was once told that deals are done in conference rooms and on golf courses. I find that I work better on beaches, boats, and bushes and barefoot. This one might be big.”
The Prime Minister of the island, Ralph Gonsalves, articulated on NBC Radio yesterday (Wednesday) that Adam Stewart, the executive chairman of Sandals, addressed the topic of expansion in SVG during the recent CARICOM heads of government summit held in Barbados last week.
“I didn’t know he was going to intimate it, but he intimated that he’s in discussion with the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for the further expansion of other Sandals in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I don’t want to get ahead of myself with that. Just that he made it known there that we are talking. I wasn’t going to talk about it yet, though people would have seen him and Camilo down the Leeward coast checking out different places.”
In March 2024, Sandals initiated its hotel operations in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at Buccament Bay, with plans for further expansion of the existing site. This expansion will involve the addition of 20 to 30 rooms, with an estimated construction expenditure nearing US$30 million.
Gonsalves articulated in March 2022, that the land designated for the construction of the Black Sands Resort may be subject to forfeiture by the government, contingent upon the stipulations outlined in the alien landholding licenses.
PACE Developments, a Canadian investment firm, initiated the project in 2017 but has yet to fulfil its commitment to complete the resort, despite having projected a construction timeline of 24 to 30 months, now nearly nine years past that initial promise.
In July 2022, Star8 Corp. announced that it had executed a Letter of Intent (the “LOI”) to acquire Black Sands Resort, which operates under the designation Pace Developments St. Vincent Inc.
