‘D-Day coming’ on Sandals

The $840 million Sandals Beaches Resort development at Heywoods, St Peter, remains stalled, but Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds hinted on Wednesday this would not continue for much longer.

Government and the developer reached a stalemate over the issue of exclusive concessions granted for the project.

While delivering the Budget last year, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley had said: “We have reached a difficult moment in the negotiations. Barbados welcomes the Beaches project, but it cannot be at any price.”

In a statement from Sandals Resorts International, chairman Butch Stewart said in response that the stalling of the Beaches development was “equally disappointing for us”.

“We wish to clarify that we were not asking for anything more than what was promised,” he said. “The Beaches project . . . would have represented not only our largest single one-time development but also the largest long-term hotel project in Barbados.”