The empty Club Med site will have a new hotel, piazza-style colony housing and will attract year-round world-class cultural events, developers selected for the site promised yesterday.

The St. George's Renaissance Consortium has been given a six month exclusivity deal to hammer out plans for the complex next to the Old Town, beating off a challenge from Bermudian businessman Patrick Bean.

The group is planning to demolish the eyesore Club Med building and replace it with a hotel of at least 90 bedrooms, plus a cottage complex of 90 condominiums designed in a European style with public squares and fountains.

The consortium plans to use an underground theatre in the building which can seat about 450-500 people, and to use a smaller disco at nearby Fort Victoria for smaller cultural events.

Consortium leader Wanda Dorosz told The Royal Gazette yesterday her group had canvassed 30 leading cultural institutions in Britain, the United States and Canada about using Bermuda on a semi-permanent basis, and ten had agreed in writing.

This could lead to world class theatre, Broadway shows, ballet, chamber music and even stand-up comedy coming to the site. The consortium of businesses from Canada and Bermuda hope to get cultural tourists attracted by St. George's World Heritage Status to come to the Island to also sample world class cultural productions.

The idea is similar to that used in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, which comes to life in the summer when the Boston Symphony Orchestra decamps there for the season.

And the Harbourfront development in Toronto, which has year-round entertainment, much of it free, is part of the consortium, and the group hopes to have exciting street entertainment.

“Phase one is to have international cultural institutions to have Bermuda as their summer or winter home or on a semi-permanent basis,” Mrs. Dorosz told The Royal Gazette.

“Of the over 30 cultural institutions we have talked to, ten have given us their permission in writing to share with the Government of Bermuda that they are prepared to be associated with Bermuda on an ongoing basis, not just as a booked act.

“When you saw the names, you would recognise them with a big smile, but I am not at liberty to disclose them yet, though we are very encouraged,” said Mrs. Dorosz.

“It could be jazz, ballet, chefs, design symposiums, theatre companies, Broadway shows or chamber music.

“We've tested this with the Broadway Producers Association and we want this to be a mix that is totally fun for Bermuda, yet be a magnet for people who have never been to Bermuda.

“(For these institutions), it would be a little bit of spice for their subscriber base.”

The consortium has until May next year to provide final plans for Government, which will then decide whether to give it the go-ahead.

Mrs. Dorosz said the consortium's rough estimate so far was it would spend a minimum of $80 million, and - given approval - they hope to break ground towards the end of next year and be in business by 2005. The major partners in the consortium are the Quorum Group in Canada which concentrates on transport, marketing and logistics, and the Lancer Group of architects in Toronto.

They will team up with cultural entrepreneurs Artsmart of New York, the Bermuda-based asset management company Bristol Limited, and Bermudian architects Cooper and Gardner.

Tourism Minister Renee Webb said yesterday: “They envision a world-class hotel with at least 90 rooms in phase one, which will be operated by a hotelier of international renown who can integrate the demands of the creation of its facilities, with the ‘destination pull' of the broadly-based cultural activities both existing on the site today and ultimately and new theatre facility.

“Simply put, the cross-sell of the hotel and cultural activities should ‘cure' the short season problem traditionally besetting hoteliers in Bermuda.”