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Hotel yet to break ground

Photo by Glenn TuckerDevelopment on track: Gilbert Lopes at the Grand Atlantic Condos develpment on South Shore

The affordable condos on South Shore, Warwick are built but where is the hotel that was promised?Developer Gilbert Lopes will have the first phase of the Grand Atlantic condos finished this month, just a few weeks off schedule.A new 100-room hotel and fractional units was planned as part of the highly-publicised development agreement with Government.However, Mr Lopes said there’s no firm date right now for his company Atlantic Development Ltd to break ground on the hotel though it is “definitely still planned”.“The hotel comes after the residential,” he said. “They were never going to be built together.”Mr Lopes said he can get the financing and still plans to build what he terms a small, mid-range, affordable hotel but the economic and business climate in Bermuda needs to improve.He pointed to media coverage of work permit reductions and transport issues facing cruise ship passengers in Dockyard as examples of the “wrong message” being sent to hotel investors and brands.“We need to be encouraging people to stay here,” he said. “We need to be sending the right message. It has to be more positive.”