The South Ocean Golf & Beach Resort has been sold to a New York-based real estate developer, which has plans to invest $500 million in transforming the site into a five-star, 1,000 room hotel with a casino, The Tribune can reveal.
The Stillman Organisation is acquiring the still-closed resort, located on New Providence’s south coast, from its Canadian pension fund owner in a move that could “finish the triangle” of major resort developments on the island, in conjunction with Paradise Island and the proposed $1.6 billion Cable Beach revitalisation.
The acquisition, which is expected to close by year-end 2006 and is still subject to due diligence, is understood to involve a purchase price of-more than $50 million.
The size of the purchase price is likely to raise eyebrows in some quarters, with many believing South Ocean was worth at most $10-$15 million. However, the Stillman Organisation is planning to demolish most of the existing buildings to make way for its planned resort, and it is this development potential that has enabled the vendor, the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan (CCWIPP), to realise this price.
One source familiar with the situation said: “The pension fund will recover its investment with some upside, the Government and the country will get a beautiful hotel, newly-opened with the best of developers and brands.
“It will finish the triangle of New Providence – Paradise Island, Cable Beach and South Ocean. Most of what’s there will be raised and there will be a new hotel. For the most part, it’s a new development.”
South Ocean has a casino licence that will kick in if the resort gets up to 500 rooms in size; it presently has just 279, plus six oceanfront houses. The current resort also has a golf course that it leases from New Providence Development Company, and the entire complex occupies some 200 acres that it either owns of leases.
The Stillman Organisation’s plan for South Ocean, apart from the 1,000 room hotel, also includes 1,000 residential units, an expanded marina featuring at least 60 slips, a marina village with retail stores and restaurants, and Greg Norman championship golf course.
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor
