TEN Arquitectos of Mexico City and New York have been announced winners of Beach Bay Land Ltd’s design competition for the St. James Point, Beach Bay Resort.
The US$250 million luxury resort in Bodden Town was unveiled Saturday 5th December at an event in at the Art Basel Gallery in Miami Beach. The project is set on a lush 16-acre property fronted by a 1,000 foot secluded and private natural beach, and features a 200-room hotel and 90 residential units, spa, shops, restaurants and water sports.
John Layton, managing director of the development company, said he was impressed with the firms “bold ideas” as well as being impressed with their past projects.
The lead architect for TEN Arquitectos, Enrique Norten, said “We have a unique concept here that will fit harmoniously within the landscape” and creating buildings that sync with the natural environment was key to the project.
TEN Arquitectos competed in the design competition with two other firms, Garcia Stromberg and SB Architects.
The developers have been talking with successive administrations for around seven years and only reached an agreement with the government on concessions in September.
The resort, which is the first of its kind for the district, has been described as “momentous” by Premier Alden McLaughlin, and that “the government was devoted to the development of the country’s high-end tourism product and the project and all the districts have to be a part of the country’s economic future.”
The government have struck a deal that will see them give up $25 million in import duties, stamp duty and non-consumable material for the start-up of the facility.The pay off will come from the income in the future from hotel room tax, visitor spend and, among other things, duty from the sale of the condos.
The overall project is expected to increase the Cayman Islands Gross Domestic Product by nearly 2%.
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