The new Pink Beach Hotel is on course to open its doors before the end of the year, according to developer representative Stephen King.

“We think we are well on schedule to open by Christmas 2016,” Mr King told The Royal Gazette.

“It’s going to be ready well in advance of the America’s Cup, and so we are looking forward to that. The hotel will be the first part of the development that will be open. There are seven residential units that will be marketed. One has been completed, two should be done this year and another four will come next year.

“The first thing we were focused on was getting the hotel ready.”

The Pink Beach Club, on South Shore in Hamilton Parish, was purchased by Sardis Developments in early 2014, four years after entering into receivership.

It subsequently announced plans to raze the existing cottage colony and erect a boutique hotel on the property, along with a series of residential units whose sale would help cover the costs of the $51.4 million project.

The residential units are designed so that they can be broken into multiple hotel rooms if needed, essentially creating a further 21 hotel rooms on the property.

Less than two years later, most of the structural work on the hotel building has been completed. Mr King said that the building was designed to be “sympathetic” with the land, reducing the visual impact of the site while giving each room an ocean view.

“We pushed a lot of the back-of-house stuff underground,” he said. “Rather than having a large, open, expansive area, we decided to contain everything in a small area so we can be highly efficient and highly competitive.”

He added that the compact size of the hotel would allow elements such as the beach club to be open year round as they would share the same kitchen as the hotel’s main restaurant.

“At a lot of places when you get to January or February, the beach clubs close,” he said.

“We might not have a beautiful summer day every day, but we have days this time of year that are beautiful.”

Mr King accepted that the development had encountered some criticisms, particularly due to the plan to restrict one of the property’s two beaches for a luxury home, set to be erected on the eastern side of the property in the future. Asked about the beach, he said: “As you can see walking around the property, that beach is a long way away from the hotel. It isn’t accessible from the beach club.

“The number of staff to operate a hotel over there as well would have to increase significantly.

“Right now we have a capacity of around 60 or so full ocean-view rooms.

“I didn’t want to build something bigger than 60ft, and we wanted to keep it very contained, so we thought this was the right way to do it.

“Also, the reality is we needed some of the residential product to help pay for the hotel. It’s an expensive development, and that’s how we did it. The hotel has a newly developed beach club with access to the beach. We have more than enough capacity for the hotel.”

He said that he is optimistic that the hotel and the Island will be able to attract the visitors necessary to be successful, although he said that more must be done to market Bermuda.

“We are hopeful that we are going to be able to work with the tourism authority to help market the Island, and the America’s Cup will be an opportunity for the Island to showcase itself,” he said. “This, combined with the America’s Cup, should be enough to show people what can be done.

“I think there needs to be more marketing, specifically in North America. It’s surprising to me how many of my friends say their parents used to come here but they’ve never been.”