Senator Walton Brown would like to sit down with the United Bermuda Party to discuss the controversial Coco Reef hotel lease.

Sen. Brown, who heads the Bermuda College board of governors, helped renegotiate the lease last year.

He believes a meeting the move would be more beneficial than a "point-counterpoint approach".

"I would like to invite the UBP to sit down with me and to share their concerns about any and all matters relating to Coco Reef, with a view toward identifying common ground on which we can both stand," he said. "The only parameters I would set for this meeting is that one, we share a commitment to facilitating the redevelopment of our tourism product and two, we want to ensure protection of the public interest."

The publicly-funded Bermuda College owns the Paget property the hotel sits on.

Government granted former Elbow Beach managing director John Jefferis a 50-year lease to manage the former Stonington Beach Hotel in 2003 after it became financially untenable as a hospitality training facility.

After winning the tender, Mr. Jefferis was able to renegotiate the terms of the lease, it doubled from 21 years to 50 while the rent to Government was reduced.

A 2004 Auditor General's report recommended the lease should be re-tendered because it was "considerably more beneficial" to Mr. Jefferis than the tender document specified. The details of the lease were never tabled in the House of Parliament.

Earlier this year it was revealed that the lease had been renegotiated in 2009 to extend the period from 50 years to 120 years. Several other changes were made as well. The new lease has not been made public or tabled in the House and parliamentary questions have gone unanswered.

Sen. Brown added: "I invite Mr. Kim Swan, Dr. Grant Gibbons or anyone they delegate to a meeting within the next two weeks at a mutually convenient time."