Bermudian Jeff Amaral has bought the White Sands Hotel, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Mr. Amaral, who owns the Palmetto Gardens condominium development in Flatts Village, is planning to have the closed South Shore property re-opened for business on April 1.

The 32-room Paget hotel has been closed for more than a year after Bank of N.T. Butterfield called in the receivers when former owner, American businessman James Dwyer, failed to keep up with loan repayments.

“I am quite excited about buying something like this and the property presents a lot of potential for us to develop,” Mr. Amaral told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

“We are in discussions with the Department of Tourism seeking the proper licensing and regulatory permissions to open as a hotel and we are hoping to have them in place and open our doors on April 1.”

The hotel is planning to open 24 rooms initially to generate cash flow, and they will be priced at $150-250 per night to attract new business, he said.

Once money starts coming in, Mr. Amaral plans to refurbish the other rooms in the main part of the hotel, and upgrade the restaurant - possibly moving it to take better advantage of the sea views.

In the meantime, dining will be outdoors by the pool - which also needs maintenance work - in a covered area.

“We've got some exciting ideas for the restaurant, which will be open to the public as well, which will be positive, and we are trying to be price-sensitive,” continued Mr. Amaral.

“With it being closed for a year, we are trying to get the business back in the pipeline, so we realised the price issue was important to get the message out that White Sands is back open.”

Mr. Amaral said the 24 rooms which will be opened in April only need a good clean as they were totally refurbished a year and half ago and have new fittings and furniture.

He would not disclose how much he paid for the property, but said he would not have invested a large sum of money if he was not confident about the future of tourism.

“I would be stupid to spend all that if it didn't have potential. I think tourism is on the way up,” he said.

“Everyone is investing physically in plant in Bermuda and I feel very confident about tourism in its current form.

“All these airlines are talking about extra flights and all-year round, so there should be no shortage of seats coming to Bermuda.

“Its just a matter of giving good value for money, and if we can have room rates that are reasonable, then White Sands will be offering value for money.”

Mr. Amaral will begin recruiting shortly, but he said he was not sure if former White Sands staff - who were bitter after pay cheques from Mr. Dwyer repeatedly bounced and insurance payments were unpaid - would want to return to the hotel, even though it was under new management.

Receiver D. Geoffrey Hunter of PricewaterhouseCoopers, also refused to disclose the sale price, but he revealed it did not cover all the monies owed to secured creditors, who include Bank of Butterfield.

“There is a shortfall to the secured creditors,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“It was a difficult sale process and a number of parties expressed an interest. Some of the parties did not have the capacity to operate a hotel,” he added.

“There were a number of potential foreign purchasers, but none of these initiatives came to fruition.

“In the end, it was sold to a group that represents a good operator in terms of hotels and hopefully the hotel will soon be back in operation.

“It has been closed for over a year and it was expensive to keep it closed, and I was quite anxious to ensure that it was sold to a hotel operator and returned to the tourism market, and I expect this will happen early this spring.”

Tourism Minister Renee Webb was off the Island yesterday and the Department of Tourism did not respond to requests for comment.