A lack of financing continues to keep a $200-million South Shore hotel project from getting off the ground.

And the news means Bermuda might be pipped by a tourism competitor further south.

Bermudatel Limited spokesman Frank Bryant told The Royal Gazette yesterday from his office in New York that plans to bring Ritz-Carlton to the Island had not been "abandoned''.

However he noted that "unfortunately'' there was "certainly no movement'' with them either. "We're still trying to find the capital to do it,'' he said.

Bermudatel Ltd. owns 14 acres on South Road in Warwick and are behind the plan to bring Ritz-Carlton to Bermuda.

The local company was created for foreign owners Ritz-Carlton and Related Crismark Ltd. but was crippled in 1991 when Japanese backers withdrew from the project.

The hotel was originally set to open in 1993 with 400 rooms but the project was scaled back when it failed to win planning approval initially.

Plans for the new hotel complex were recently renewed in May by the Planning Department. This new approval does not expire until May 1, 1999.

"The permits are still alive but we are not accomplishing a whole hell of a lot,'' said Mr. Bryant.

However, as far as he was aware, Ritz-Carlton remained interested in operating the hotel. "I have not heard that they are not interested.'' Mr. Bryant said the problem he was encountering was that "everyone wants to buy existing hotels, not build new ones''.

He was "frustrated'', he continued, because he still felt the Island needed the development. "I think it would be a home run,'' he said.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement that a Tennessee-based company has submitted plans for a $200 million Ritz-Carlton resort to be built on Grand Cayman island.

The Associated Press reported that plans were submitted by Humphreys Cayman Ltd. of Memphis, which owns the Holiday Inn in Grand Cayman's Seven Mile Beach area.

The Ritz-Carlton proposal calls for the 220-room Holiday Inn to be razed and a larger, 378-room Ritz to go up in its place.

About 120 acres of adjacent island property would be transformed into condominiums, villas and a golf course.

The proposal hinges on government approval and the sale of the Holiday Inn property to a Canadian company which would build the Ritz-Carlton complex.