Wyndham starts

 

Work has officially commenced on the Wyndham project at Sam Lord’s Castle.

 

With a price tag of US$200 million, construction is expected to take two years to complete.

 

Speaking to the media as a bulldozer tore down one of the outlying buildings surrounding the gutted castle, Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Investment Incorporated (BTI), Everton Walters explained that the initial preparatory work will take approximately five months.

 

“The project has started with the commencement of civil works this morning, the demolition of the old buildings... and indeed the actual contractors have indicated to us that it will actually be 22 weeks that it will take, but while that is going on we will also commence any other works in terms of construction as soon as we have completed the drawings, which should be done in another month’s time,” he said.

 

 

He made the comments as Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy, along with several representatives from the BTI, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Incorporated, the Barbados Tourism Product Authority, representatives of the China-based Complan and members of the media yesterday morning during a short tour to view the works.

 

When finished, the property, which will be officially known as the Wyndham Grand Resort will add 450 rooms to the island’s hotel stock.

 

Sealy highlighted that the bulk of the sub-contracts would be done by local contractors and Chinese labour would be involved by “the least possible extent”.

 

“We did sign the 60/40 arrangement, but we have been assured by Complan that they will not necessarily use that level of Chinese labour,” he said, noting that already there was a large component of labour in the design, technical and labour teams.