A businessman who ploughed $200,000 into renovations at a beach building later demolished by the Government is still in the dark over compensation.

Tom Steinhoff planned to transform the rundown concessions building at Shelly Bay at a cost of around $1 million, but work on the building halted after structural problems were found before the building was demolished in August.

Mr Steinhoff said he had supplied the present government with details of his expenditure on the building.

He added: “I haven’t heard back from them yet. I sent them some information after they had asked me for a summary of costs. I sent that information to them about a month ago. It was about $200,000 and I am hoping to recoup it.”

Mr Steinhoff said the building was demolished after negotiations stalled with Government on changes to the terms of the lease to reflect the unexpected extra costs.

The businessman, who also owns Dockyard’s Snorkel Park, had planned to open a restaurant on the site with watersports facilities.

The remains of the building are still taped off and a digger used for the demolition work is still on site.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, Minister of Public Works, said: “The equipment will be used for the landscape finishing, which will commence soon.”

Colonel Burch declined to comment on whether taxpayers will have to foot the bill for Mr Steinhoff’s costs.

Area resident Wayne Furbert, a Progressive Labour Party MP, said local people would be updated on options for the site when demolition work started.

He said at the time: “Colonel Burch will beautify this area and make it more of a park for people to camp at with a picnic area.

“We would like to have bathroom facilities in the beach area. We would like entrepreneurs in the summertime to have some hot dog stands or snowball stands, or even jerk chicken.”