Construction work on the five-star St. Regis hotel at the former Club Med site is to begin this year, Premier Ewart Brown pledged at a public meeting last night.

Dr. Brown said he wanted to reassure “pessimists” that ambitious plans to transform the derelict building would not go the same way as a string of similar proposals which have collapsed in the past few years.

Speaking at the Progressive Labour Party meeting in Clearwater School, St. David’s, Dr. Brown told a crowd of about 50 people that the luxury resort could help rejuvenate St. George’s.

“The pessimists among you will say: ‘So what, there have been others who said they were going to build.’ I appreciate and understand your pessimism, but let me tell you I made a commitment: in 2007, construction will begin on the new hotel in St. George’s. I can promise you it will be delivered.

“Bermuda now has some buzz. Bermuda is popular again with the Wall Street companies, who invest hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s why that site is going to be developed.”

He said work would begin as soon as Carl Bazarian, of Bazarian International, the investment banking firm behind the scheme, completes negotiations over a lease with the Ministry of Works and Engineering.

Carl Bazarian is a very serious and committed developer.

“I’m very confident that he will keep his word.

“We need to see that building levelled. We need to see it gone.

“That will the very first phase of the work done. I wanted to come here tonight and reassure you that nothing has got in the way.

“The brand that’s been mentioned is St. Regis. You don’t get a much more luxurious brand that St. Regis. Club Med is to St. Regis as a dwarf is to a giant. We are bringing something that can make a difference in the town.

“I have challenged the mayor and alderman to help make St. George’s alive again. It’s been too sleepy. Business doesn’t thrive in a town that sleeps.”

In recent years, a succession of developers have been lined up for schemes at Club Med, which closed in 1988. Proposals for a $210 million five-star hotel with piazza-style colony housing fell through two years ago, while plans for a five to seven star hotel with a Nick Faldo signature 18-hole golf-course were scrapped last November.

A storm of controversy has surrounded the derelict site in recent weeks, after a dozens of homeless people moved in as squatters.

The new St. Regis resort is expected to be completed in three years. It is likely to have up to 150 units, comprising one- two- or three-bedroom apartments and villas, and will be a maximum three storeys high.

St. George’s North MP Dame Jennifer Smith also spoke at the meeting. She described St. George’s as a “unique and historical area” but said it had been “overlooked and underrated”.

Dame Jennifer acknowledged a general election had not yet been called, but said she was looking forward to “an exciting time in politics” and hinted that she would be representing St. George’s North again.

She said her party needed another term in power to achieve everything it wanted to achieve.

“As we approach our third expedition, we need all of you to help us succeed,” she said.

Hotel scheme to ‘begin this year’