Update provided on possible casino project

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Spanish hotel chain Unico is coming to Jamaica with plans to break ground later this month.

Unico will be building an all-inclusive resort in St James, which will have over-the-water bungalows, as part of its accommodation options. Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who made the announcement during an exclusive interview with Travel Market Report, said Unico Hotel will represent the third and final hotel to be announced, as part of a massive destination resort project in St James.

The AIC Hotel Group first launched the adult-only, all-inclusive Unico hotel brand back in 2016 in Mexico. According to Bartlett, “the brand is very popular amongst millennials and Generation-X… so it signals the start of a very strong move toward that demographic”.

The other two hotels will be a Hard Rock Casino & Resort and a Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company property. The Hard Rock was the first of the three to be announced earlier this year, while the return of the Ritz-Carlton brand to Jamaica was announced at the recent Caribbean Marketplace conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Details of the two other hotel projects

Ritz-Carlton left Jamaica nearly a decade ago when it stopped operating the Rose Hall resort in Montego Bay, St James. Ritz-Carlton had managed the 427-room resort for the 13 years it had been in operation.

The new hotel to be operated by Ritz-Carlton will also be located in the Rose Hall district, not too far away from Ritz-Carlton’s previous location. All three hotel projects will make up about 2,000 hotel rooms.

The groundbreaking for the three hotel projects will happen in phases over a three-year period, with Unico being the first one to break ground this month-end. Construction is planned for the Hard Rock hotel even though it has not been officially awarded a casino gaming license for which it has applied.

The tourism minister has disclosed that projects that have applied for a casino licence and started construction will be judged by how well the construction progress is going and if all requirements are being met. He added that casino licences are expected to be awarded soon to three hotels as there will be no standalone casinos in Jamaica.

First casino licence soon to be awarded

Bartlett hinted that the first casino licence in Jamaica could go to Princess Hotels & Resorts property, which is under construction with its first 1,000 of 2,000 rooms near Negril.

“It is well on its way and it is expected that it will be Jamaica’s first casino,” Bartlett said of the Princess hotel.

As it regards the casino regime, Bartlett commented: “We (Government of Jamaica) have narrowed it down to three licences to be awarded. We are doing our final due diligence, but they are one of the three.”

He declared that the Princess Hotels & Property announcement could come as early the end of this month with the other two licences also granted soon.

Hard Rock is an obvious choice set to be awarded one of the three licences, but the third hotel project that could be awarded a casino licence might come as a surprise to some. Harmony Cove, the much-anticipated luxury project that is already expected to house a Tiger Woods-designed golf course, is the third project Bartlett said that will most likely be allowed to operate a casino.

Located on Jamaica’s northern coast between Ocho Rios, St Ann and Montego Bay, St James, Harmony Cove is a 2,325-acre oceanfront resort. March 9 was the deadline for responses to the government’s request for applications for its multi-billion-dollar integrated resort developments through which casino licences will be approved.

This move could see up to $1 billion invested in Jamaica.

Integrated resort developments, which are made possible by amendments to the Casino Gaming Act, must have at least 1,000 hotel rooms, of which 500 must be luxury rooms.

The plans for a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino development represent about an $800-million investment. The Ritz-Carlton will be a new build, but no other information regarding groundbreaking or a scheduled grand opening was available.