Plans are under way for a $1 million development of the restaurant and beach facilities at Shelly Bay.

The owners of Snorkel Park Beach, Tom Steinhoff and his business partner, have submitted detailed proposals to the Department of Planning.

These include the creation of a family friendly restaurant and bar at the existing building, water sports facilities, rentals and a beach shop, and a single unit vacation rental.

The business could create up to 20 jobs and they are in talks with two parties — a “very experienced semi-celebrity chef” from overseas, as well as a local chef with success in the Bermudian market, to head up the kitchen.

Mr Steinhoff said that while he had hoped to have the facility up and running in time for this summer, the permission phases had taken longer than expected. He predicted that the project would be completed within six to eight months, although some of the beach concessions could be available sooner.

He told The Royal Gazette: “It is exciting. We will have a full family friendly restaurant on the beach with a bar and good food. There is a huge outside deck and the sunsets are going to be spectacular.

“We are hoping to do some bike rentals to take advantage of the new railway trail and extension — it is a great central hub for that.

“We want to create community events there, whether it is bike racing or paddleboard racing, maybe an enhanced Good Friday event for the neighbours.

“We would certainly like to work with the people who have the sporting events there, too.

“We’ve got the kid-friendly playground and we are certainly looking at it being very local friendly.

“We will cater to some tourists but our primary market is our neighbours — I look at it like a club for the Hamilton Parish residents to come and enjoy the facilities.”

Mr Steinhoff said the restaurant would offer food for all budgets and he hoped to use local produce.

“We want to serve great local seafood but I’m a meat guy so we will have amazing meat dishes,” he said.

“Certainly, the lunchtime menu will be more casual beach food but with a little Bermuda flair and I’d like to see good use of local produce.

“We are in talks with two parties — one is a very experienced, semi-celebrity chef from overseas who has won several TV show cooking competitions, and the other is a local vendor who knows the local market and has been successful.

“There have been successful restaurants at the facility but it has been a struggle for others. Part of it was that it is a Government building and Government wouldn’t allow alcohol in their buildings, but now they do.”

The business partners are in talks with two local contractors to carry out extensive construction work on the building, which has been sitting empty for several years.

“The building needs a face-lift and some structural repairs,” Mr Steinhoff said. “It’s quite a serious undertaking.

“Everything has taken longer than we hoped for in terms of getting permission for a liquor licence for the dining facility and we wanted to improve some parking in the area.

“We have worked through those and we are full steam ahead now.

“Parks has granted us a temporary permit to put some water sports down there — lilo rentals, chairs umbrellas, paddleboards, kayaks, peddle boats. We are working on trying to get the public bathrooms running so we can have some amenities down there, and we can sell juices and waters, just no liquor yet.

“There are probably not enough waterside beach facilities in Bermuda. If we are utilising the area then maybe it will generate added interest in the facility and maybe it leads to upgrades in the park. It is a great park facility and hopefully it will encourage people to use it more.”