CIBONEY HOTEL, now called Beaches Grand Sport, located in Ocho Rios, St. Ann has been sold to Rios Management Limited, a member of the Sandals Group.
The final details of the agreement of sale are being discussed and an announcement is expected to be made by Friday, January 16, 2004. The hotel represented one of the larger assets still held by the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) awaiting divestment.
The Ciboney Hotel, the brainchild of businessman and developer, Peter Rousseau, formally opened on May 1991 but ran into trouble when its parent company, Ciboney Group (carrying heavy debts) fell victim of the collapse of the financial sector in the late 1990s.
In 1997, FINSAC effectively gained control of the hotel through its ownership of the Crown Eagle Insurance Company. Since listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) in 1993, after tax profits of $84 million fell consistently.
In 1997, its shares were suspended from the JSE at $0.40, a dramatic decline from a 1993 high of $7.50. Ciboney was the subject of a bitter legal battle fought between Ivor Alexander and Peter Rousseau against Dr. Paul Chen Young with FINSAC eventually having to pay both Mr. Rousseau and Mr. Alexander US$250,000 to buy out their management contract.
In June 2000, the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, said the hotel would be offered under a lease agreement to Gordon "Butch" Stewart's Sandals Resorts International (SRI). The lease took effect from September of that year for a three-year term.
Under the agreement Sandals had to pay US$180,000 every month for leasing the property but could buy it outright for the option price of US$17.5 million. Rios Management have now exercised that option and will formally acquire the hotel.
On entering this lease agreement, the Ocho Rios hotel was shut down for three months to undergo a US$12 million refurbishment operation.
It reopened on December 23, 2000 under the new name Beaches Grand Sport, Golf Resort and Spa, an all-inclusive luxury resort.
It is currently being marketed as a resort spa and wellness facility with land and water sports activities. Beaches Grand Sport Golf Resort and Spa is a 300-room hotel with a 250-seat ballroom, two boardrooms and a pavilion that can accommodate up to 450 persons.
- A. E
