What would reportedly be the world’s first seafloor resort is said to be in its final design stages, but developers have for now scratched The Bahamas as an ideal spot for the development and have instead focused their attention on a “prime” location in the South Pacific.
The company, however, never submitted a proposal to the Government of The Bahamas.
L. Bruce Jones, president of Poseidon Undersea Resorts, who is also a submarine buff, recently told The Bahama Journal that while Eleuthera’s sub-sea conditions make it the ideal spot for the proposed project there was “some difficulty” in trying to negotiate a purchase from property owners.
“The property owners were just not at all responsive to our request for making the property purchase,” Mr. Jones said from his Idaho office.
“And because we weren’t making any progress and considering that we are now on a schedule to complete the project, we sometime ago started looking for alternatives.”
He said his group had settled on a private island in Fiji that’s about 225 acres and has a 5,000-acre lagoon surrounding it.
“So we’re now in the process of ascertaining the feasibility and putting the resort there,” Mr. Jones said. “We are well along in that process and it looks like it’s going to be an absolutely tremendous location for us.”
Eleuthera’s Island School is located near the site developers had hoped to purchase in The Bahamas.
According to Mr. Jones, the property owners donated the land to the school.
“The director of that school has not been supportive at all of a resort going there and so I think that may have had something to do with it,” he said.
For months, Mr. Jones said he had worked to secure all of the necessary financing for the multimillion-dollar project, a goal he once said his company was “very close” to achieving.
International reports revealed that Poseidon obtained half of its $40 million in construction costs through equity investments from 17 individuals, and the other half from bank loans and private debt.
During an earlier interview with the Bahama Journal, Mr. Jones had said that the next step after securing the financing would be to approach The Bahamas government to try to seal the permits and a heads of agreement.
Mr. Jones claimed that relocating to Fiji is a “much more expensive project.”
“It will cost us an additional $30 million to do this as opposed to having done the project in Eleuthera, but that’s because we’re looking at a little different scenario of more hotel rooms and so the profit in Fiji is better for us,” he explained. “So we’re just going to move on and make the best of the situation.”
The project would reportedly feature 22 rooms underwater with a revolving bar and restaurant combination, a conference room and two larger suites facing coral gardens that light up at night.
According to Mr. Jones, guests can expect to see a large variety of tropical fish, tuna and turtles and with a bit of luck, sharks, from the comfort of their rooms, or even from their private Jacuzzis.
Mr. Jones hopes the resort would still be able to open before the end of 2007. He claimed his company already had reservations from 10,000 people.
Despite altering his plans, he indicated that his group may still have a future in The Bahamas.
“We love the idea of doing business here,” he said. “The water is beautiful. The marine life is great and the access to the Florida coast and Florida’s tourist base is excellent. So surely we will prioritize and try to find another location there when the time is appropriate.”
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
