Anguilla’s Chief Minister and Minister of Tourism, Mr. Victor Banks, is pleased that Cap Juluca has had what he describes as “a very smooth transition” to new ownership of Belmond Ltd, the British chain of luxury hotels and other luxury properties including the Orient Express.
Last month Belmond acquired the iconic Cap Juluca resort from the former owners, Charles and Linda Hickcox, who established the property in Anguilla some thirty years ago at Maundays Bay, one of the island’s world class beaches.
“As I said earlier, we learned a lot of lessons from the experience we had during the negotiations with the Carlton Group which fell through,” Mr. Banks told The Anguillian. “This enabled us to move forward quickly with the negotiations with Belmond because a lot of things were already in place. From that standpoint we already had an idea of what was required for a company out of the United States and the United Kingdom purchasing a property in Anguilla in terms of insurance, security guarantees and so on, as well as some concerns that companies have about leased property.”
Mr. Banks went on: “In addition, Belmond is a Group which has already been operating in the Caribbean. It owns La Savanna in St. Maarten which has been operating for years and La Savanna is a property which is in the luxury class and fits well with the Cap Juluca project.”
He was delighted that Belmond was able to reunite Cap Juluca, bringing the closed three-and- a-half villas, formerly owned by the Brilla Group, into the rental pool with all the other villas. Those villas, which are still closed, will later be refurbished and commissioned. There are also plans to refurbish the entire property as well as to eventually expand the resort.
The Chief Minister welcomes the planned expansion, saying it would provide additional employment for Anguillians in the tourism sector.
Meanwhile, administrative and technical teams have already been to Anguilla to take control of the property and plan its forward movement.
