Bermudian businessman Jeff Amaral looks set to take over White Sands Hotel after applying to set up a new company to run the closed property.

Mr. Amaral, Adriana Kripl, and John Stephen Sands have applied to incorporate a new company, Grape Bay Beach Hotel Ltd., to buy and run the South Shore, Paget, hotel.

Mr. Amaral is the owner and developer of Palmetto Gardens, the luxury condominium project at Flatts Village.

White Sands has been on the market after closing in March when Bank of N.T. Butterfield called in the receivers when James M. Dwyer, the hotel's American owner, failed to keep up with repayments.

A deal to sell the 32-room hotel collapsed in June when receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers pulled out of negotiations with a potential buyer.

The new company is believed to have been the first to have been set up to run White Sands since the hotel was put on the market.

Yesterday, Mr. Amaral said he could not comment because the negotiations are at a "sensitive" stage.

"I can't make any comment right now for a couple of days. It is sensitive and nothing is definite," he told The Royal Gazette.

Receiver D. Geoffrey Hunter said: "No sale has been concluded. It is in negotiations and we are proceeding to determine a suitably qualified purchaser.

"It is our expectation that any purchaser will have the hotel re-opened, at least in part, by tourism season 2003."

Mr. Hunter said the potential buyer intended to keep the property open as a hotel.