Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

A section of the Half Moon property. - Contributed

Half Moon Club, a luxury resort in Montego Bay, has been jazzing up its product to offer even more pampering to its clientele, starting with a 68,000-square-foot spa that costs US$4 million ($280 million) to develop.

The Fern Tree Spa - the third project to be finalised under a five-year development plan overseen by Managing Director Richard Whitfield - was preceded by the refurbishing of several suites that front the sea, and the rejuvenation of Half Moon's 18-hole golf course.

The spa opens for business in early November.

"It's another component of our service," said public relations manager, Marcia McLaughlin.

Half Moon built the spa on 1.5 acres of land space that houses its guest villa, Fern Tree House, under a 15-month project.

The original Fern Tree House villa remains, and was incorporated in the new complex, said McLaughlin.

Treatment rooms design

The design of the treatment rooms borrow from Fern Tree House's original colonial hardwood floors, grand entryways and opulent furnishings.

The Half Moon property, which sits on 400 acres stretched along two miles of beachfront lands in Rose Hall, already boasts a shopping village and 26,000-square-foot conference centre, 398 rooms that include sequestered villas of four to seven rooms, an equestrian centre, dolphin lagoon and the 72-par golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr.

The golf course, which is separated from the hotel by the highway, was built 41 years ago. The hotel has been around for 53.

Expansion funding

McLaughlin told Wednesday Business that funding for the expansions is from the company's own revenues.

Having wrapped up development of the spa, the hotel says it will be investing another US$250,000 ($17.5 million) to build out two gazebos offshore which will also offer what Half Moon describes as unique maritime spa treatments.

The resort has also added six beachfront spa suites furnished with guest accommodations that the operators say are the first of their kind in the Caribbean.

"We are trying to attract the high end of the market," spa director Stephen Phillips told Wednesday Business. The formal ribbon-cutting on the property was done October 6, but Phillips said its start-up was pushed back to prepare additional exterior space for guests to relax at Fern Tree.

Phillips said the rates for the new spa suites would run between US$1,200 to US$1,500 per night, with treatments on offer hourly.

The facility, particularly the gazebos to be erected by November 15, will also be used as a pull for the wedding/honeymoon market.

"This should attract weddings ... and should double our existing spa treatments," said Phillips.

The Fern Tree House Spa contains a relaxation lounge, yoga pavilion, hydrotherapy, pool and sculpture garden, as well as the usual treatment rooms.

'Spa elder'

As part of the service, clients will be introduced to a 'spa elder' - "a guide versed in the art of using Jamaica's natural therapeutic remedies, to guide, create and counsel clients on a path to wellness," says Half Moon.

That job falls to Stella Gray, chief spa elder, who has been creating treatments for 35 years, said the hotel, with the majority of her therapies derived from the natural herbs and botanicals grown in an on-site garden that "she personally tends".

Half Moon was originally built in 1954 by a group of wealthy American investors as an exclusive vacation resort.

Eleven of the original cottages remain today as tribute to the founders, whose descendants remain as resort shareholders, says the hotel's website.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com