Ground looks set to be broken at the St Regis hotel resort in St George’s next week.

The Royal Gazette understands that invitations have been sent out stating the official ground breaking ceremony will take place at St Catherine’s Beach on Thursday afternoon.

The beginning of construction work would signal an end to nearly a decade of dashed hopes and false dawns for the East End community since the Club Med property was destroyed in August 2008.

Mayor of St George’s, Quinell Francis, told The Royal Gazette she was very confident that progress would be made on the development in the coming week.

“I have spoken with the general manager and the project engineer and it seems that the revised road alignment has been set out,” Ms Francis said.

“I understand that the permit should be coming in the next couple of days.

“I am very confident that we will be moving ahead with this project in the new week and progress will be made.

“There is a genuine feeling of optimism in the community; we have been through this process before but now we are seeing this project move forward.

“The general manager and project manager have now relocated to the island and this shows again commitment to this project. We are feeling very positive that it will go ahead.”

Plans to build the new St Regis hotel were approved by planners back in January

The development, which will overlook Gates Bay, will feature a 122-key resort with 97 hotel rooms and 25 suites, as well as a casino, restaurant, bar, golf clubhouse and other amenities.

The first phase of the project would also include two residential buildings, containing 28 condominiums. Later phases would include another three residential complexes.

In March, Michael Dunkley told MPs that he had been assured by a principal of the St Regis development that the hotel would be built before the residences.

The Premier was responding to repeated claims by Progressive Labour Party MP Zane DeSilva that he had heard the residences would be built first.

St George’s MP Kenneth Bascome would not comment on reports that ground would be broken on the project next week.

“There are a lot of rumours whirling around that something significant is going to be announced in St George’s next week,” he said.

“At this stage I am not in a position to make any official comment on that or verify those rumours.”