The purchase of a Southampton cottage colony by an American real estate firm will not happen, it has emerged.

New Jersey-based James M. Dwyer, Real Estate Investment & Development, (JDREID) was interested in buying the Lantana property which closed its doors last July but has pulled out.

The news was confirmed by the firm's owner, James Dwyer, who was in Bermuda yesterday visiting the White Sands Hotel which he bought last year.

"We did not come to a final agreement.'' JDREID chief financial officer and controller Michael McKeever elaborated further.

"The deal will not go down because Lantana have decided not to live up to the original terms of our agreement which concerned the use of the property.'' But the company is still interested in purchasing Bermudian property, including the Belmont Hotel and Golf Club in Warwick which closed its doors in November.

Mr. Dwyer noted: "Yes, we are interested in the Belmont property and we have made an offer. We maintain an interest in it.'' Elbow Beach Hotel, through a separate company entitled Elbow Beach Golf Club Ltd., is also looking to buy the Belmont.

However, whereas the Elbow Beach group are looking to tear down the Belmont Hotel, expand the golf course and build a new golf club and 50 villas at the site, JDREID had a new type of accommodation in mind for Bermuda. "Our intent is to do a hotel condominium there,'' Mr. McKeever said.

This idea follows in the mould of JDREID's development of The Flanders in Ocean City where the company purchased an historic hotel on the brink of being torn down and transformed it into a collection of suites which are each owned separately.

Mr. Dwyer explained: "A hotel condominium is only different from a conventionally owned hotel in that there are more owners thereby spreading the risk of the development but also ensuring the upkeep and improvement of the asset.

"What is great for Bermuda is that it is a hotel condominium not an apartment or year-round condominium.

"This ensures a continual room and bed supply in the Island's hotel industry which is its most important industry because it employs a major part of the population.'' Mr. McKeever added: "What we plan on doing with it is for the benefit of Bermuda. It shores up the industry and causes no more volatility with the product.

"It cannot be sold every other year because it is owned by a multitude of owners and the risk is spread between them.

"If a property has one owner who has a problem elsewhere, there is a risk that he may rob from Peter to pay Paul. That cannot happen here.'' And keeping the Belmont standing also meant more jobs and maintaining the memories of people who had stayed there, he continued.

James Dwyer