slope below its pool next month.

But the Paget resort will not be closing down during any phase of construction, Elbow Beach Hotel Development Company managing director Mr. John Jefferis said yesterday.

The "super-luxury'' one-bedroom suites are estimated to take four to five months to build at a cost of around $4 million.

The plans -- submitted just over a month ago -- were given approval yesterday by the Development Applications Board, which had agreed to consider them as quickly as possible so that the hotel could build during the less busy winter months.

Mr. Jefferis said the property was wasting no time in forging ahead with the project.

Bids had already gone out, he said, and a decision would be made within the next few weeks, with construction beginning in early December.

The hotel's controversial plans for 11 "palace suites'' on the beachfront are still under consideration -- the DAB had not agreed to expedite consideration of them.

Mr. Jefferis said the "master plan'' was yet to be submitted and "under diligent review''.

The hotel had bowed to public pressure in September, pulling its original plans off Planners' desks.

They included palace suites on the beach, a six-storey addition with a convention centre on the ground floor and super-luxury condominiums scattered around the adjoining Fritholme Estate.

Plans for the palace suites were revised in September and moved off the beach before being submitted.

Main objectors included neighbouring hotel properties and the National Trust.

Mr. Jefferis said the hotel decided to pull the old plans and make revisions because it wanted to be a good corporate citizen.

The new plans included several dramatic changes: a river-pool waterway that will meander and cascade through the property, four new tennis courts on the old Fritholme Estate just east of the hotel, three new restaurants, a European health spa around the hotel pool and a small tennis stadium behind the palace suites.

Mr. Jefferis said the spa was added because market research showed travellers today wanted more options.

Mr. John Jefferis.