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Movement on future of Newstead Belmont Hills resort

Newstead Belmont Hills Golf Resort and Spa

More clarity may be emerging in the prospects for the Newstead Belmont Hills Golf Resort & Spa, after more than three years of receivership.

The Royal Gazette was yesterday unable to confirm that all or parts of the resort will be brought out of receivership.

But it would appear that a new corporate body will control the more than 84 acres of prime Warwick property comprising the Belmont Hills hotel and golf course, separately from the Newstead property.

The Joint Receivers of Belmont Hills Property Limited have given notice of an application to incorporate a limited liability company, BHP Limited under The Companies Act 1981.

A full page legal ad appears on page 45 in today’s The Royal Gazette. Attorneys for the applicant are Conyers, Dill & Pearman. A schedule lists the lots that make up the Belmont properties.

There is no indication when a separate company will be incorporated to own the remaining parts of the resort, mainly the Newstead property.

And while this may mean that the properties could be sold separately, it at least raises hope that there may finally be buyers on the horizon for properties which have been in receivership since January 2011.

The joint receivers are Robin Lee McMahon, in the Cayman office of Ernst & Young, and Robwyn Gill Tucker in Bermuda.

Newstead Belmont Hills Golf Resort went into receivership when Butterfield Bank called in a multimillion dollar loan after 18 months of negotiations to restructure the financing of the property.

Yesterday, the bank would not comment on the new development. Calls to the local office of Ernst & Young were unreturned.

The resort which boasts 104 hotel rooms, 74 residential units, an 18-hole golf course and world-class spa was the first new large luxury hotel on the Island in 30 years when it opened in 2008.

The idea of the properties being sold in pieces was first floated a year ago, through advertisements placed in The Royal Gazette and the Wall Street Journal.

Bids were invited then for the 60-room, four-star, fractional hotel, and/or water shuttle, 18-hole golf course, five adjoining town houses, seven residential lots, and four golf course cottages. The ad stated there were 270 fractions in total and 163 unsold fractional units in three parcels.

It said “offers are invited to purchase all or part of the assets”.

The Newstead Belmont resort arose out of two separately existing hotel properties and the Belmont golf course. Some $70 million was poured into the project to create the resort and spa.