The Club Med/Holiday Inn Bermuda has closed. This article is for those readers still searching for information about its status.
Bermuda’s Holiday Inn opened in 1973, enjoying a great location in St George’s Parish, overlooking St Catherine’s Beach and Tobacco Bay.
The venture was not successful and in 1981 the hotel was purchased by NY-based Loews Hotels and reopened as the Loews Bermuda Beach Hotel.
In 1985 it was sold to Club Med and reopened as the 630-room Club Med – St George’s Cove. 2 years later it was severely damaged by Hurricane Emily and closed for good in 1988.
The hotel then lay derelict for 20 year before being demolished in 2008. Plans to redevelop it have repeatedly stalled:
- November 2003 – The St George’s Renaissance Consortium (led by the Quorum Group) is given a 6-month exclusivity deal by the government to develop a plan for the site.
- March 2005 – The St George’s Renaissance Consortium name Four Seasons as operators of a European-style cultural village with 126-room hotel, theatre, and homes.
- January 2006 – Government drops the St George’s Renaissance Consortium as developer.
- February 2006 – Connecticut-based KJA Development Inc is named by government as new developer and announces plans to build a 5-star hotel and 18-hole golf course on the site.
- November 2006 – Government announces that KJA Development Inc was dropped as favoured developer in September 2006.
- April 2007 – Bazarian International named as new developer.
- August 2008 – Club Med is demolished by implosion.
- December 2008 – Bazarian International and Hyatt sign a management agreement. Carl Bazarian announces the Park Hyatt Bermuda will be complete by the first quarter of 2012. An announcement is also made that Nick Faldo, a former resident of Bermuda, will design a new golf course to replace the St George’s Golf Course. Beach It, the beach bar on St Catherine’s Beach, is town down to make way for the new hotel.
- January 2009 – Carl Bazarian named as one of the passengers on the US Airways plane that is forced to land in the Hudson River after a collision with a flock of birds.
- March 2009 – Premier Ewart Brown claims construction work on two or three new hotels will commence before the end of the year. He states one of these will be the Park Hyatt.
- April 2009 – Carl Bazarian states the design for the new golf course has been completed. Ewart Brown claims construction will begin in the autumn of 2009, but Carl Bazarian says he is not sure.
- June 2009 – Premier Ewart Brown tells a Progressive Labour Party (PLP) meeting in St George that financing for the hotel is at an advanced stage and the final documents will be signed in July.
- August 2009 – Carl Bazarian claims HSBC Bermuda will provide $120 million of funding for the Park Hyatt.
- September 2010 – Plans for the hotel are submitted to the Department of Planning.
- October 2010 – Premier Ewart Brown claims Bazarian International now have funding for the hotel and construction work will begin by November 2011.
- July 2011 – Plans for the hotel go on show at the offices of the Department of Planning. The Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Task Force (BEST) expresses concern over the designs.
- March 2012 – UBP MP Charlie Swan raises a concern in the House of Assembly that the developer has, by missing the deadline to start work, breached the terms of the agreement with the government to develop the property.
- July 2012 – UBP issue a statement expressing concern that construction has not started and the St George’s Golf Course remains closed. Bazarian International asks for extension to construction deadline.
- September 2012 – BEST calls for government to terminate the contract with Bazarian. The organisation states the asset is ‘tied up in an agreement with a delinquent partner’.
- October 2012 – Bazarian states work will begin within six weeks.
- December 2012 – One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) defeats the PLP in a general election.
- January 2013 – It’s revealed that the PLP government terminated the deal with Bazarian in the final months of their administration.
- May 2013 – Premier Craig Cannonier flies by private jet to Washington DC to meet a group of unnamed investors. They are said to be interested in developing the Club Med site, Ariel Sands, and the Pink Beach Club.
Our family stayed there at Club Med in May of 1988. I had just graduated from high school. I had a blast being able to drink legally! ?. It rained almost the entire time, but it was beautiful there. I’m very thankful to have been able to go and I had no idea that it closed later the same year. Both my parents are gone now, and it all seems a distant memory. A good one though!
This site needs some updating…
Pls have a look in the internet – Regis Complex at St. Catherine’s is under construction.
As it seems… the beach will remain public.
There will be a new golf course – the old one (I played my first golf there… rather I tried to hit the ball…) and the hotel will be Souvenirs, like so many other old things… e.g.
traffic lights instead of the policeman on front street
Well this took the air out of my balloons. I have been searching hotels in Bermuda hoping that it finally opened. I was hoping to go for a long week end and celebrate our 40th Anniversary. We honeymooned at the Holiday Inn in 1977. At 125lbs and my husband at 145lbs, we did a job on the meals you excellent Chefs prepared for us so if you didn’t hear our Thank yous then, Thank you. We went back in 2002 and it was sad to see it closed and abandoned but I can’t believe no one would have re built it. It was fabulous and a great location with breathtaking views. Learning that it has been completely demolished is such a heartbreaker. Guess we will have to rely on our fond memories for as long as we can.
I was wondering what had happened to that hotel so I googled it and found this fantasti little site. I use to stay there often back in the 70s when it was a Holiday Inn and then when it was a Loews, it was a beautiful place back then and could not understand why it closed down and on my last trip back it was completely gone…..what a shame.
We are planning on going back to BDA, perhaps next year or in 2018 (it’s on my bucket list) and would like to stay at the Grotto Bay which is another of my old haunts, but I am little concerned about what is going on behind the hotel. On Google earth tit looks like there is a quarry or a construction site just beyond the caves. Can anyone tell me what is happening there?
Dave
I would always see the abandoned hotel when we docked in St. George on a few cruises I went on in the past. I used to wish they would re-open because the location is fabulous and would love to stay in that area for the week. I went on another cruise in September of 2012, docked on the other end of the island but we took a ferry over to St. George and that is when I saw they took down the hotel. It was actually sad to see and it was also sad that the area was deserted. When the cruises ships docked in St. George it was bustling with tourists/locals. Again, hopefully they will build another hotel because you can’t beat the location and I think it will help the economy in that area.
Spring Break ’78 Memories! It was great!
It was a great place to work. I was the first female Chef patisserie. Shame when I went back for a holiday and found the derelict hotel. The island is a great place for a holiday and has not really changed in 30 years. Lovely friendly laid back approach to life. I do hope it never changes.
Hey Patricia, at least when you went back the hotel was still there. I went back recently to look over the site. My moped couldn`t make it up the hill (my fault, I think I exceeded the bikes weight limit) so I had to walk up the hill and everything was gone. I mean like bada bing bada boom like no more building at all, nothing. The golf course is still there but that’s about it. I never had a chance to stay there but wish I did. Hope they develop this into a nice resort once again, but with less steep hills or more powerful mopeds.
I worked in that Holiday Inn for Two years from 1975-1977. Hubert Heere, Emil Birk, Gerhart ?( Austrian Pastry Chef) just to name a few of the top chefs.. ring a bell?
Stayed in the workers staff quarters, hung out on Front Street in St. George’s, gun powder cavern, watched the filming of the movie, “The Deep” Nick Nolte, starred.. etc. etc. sad to see that hotel gone, what memories..!
I was there is 1986 you know, I learned to break dance at their club. I don`t know what is going on there now you know but it used to be one great resort. I really miss it.