A sign at the entrance to Morgan's Point on George's Bay Road warns visitors: "No trespassing." But most people would not want to go to the former US base land, which straddles the Southampton and Sandys parishes.

It is heavily polluted with oil, jet fuel, asbestos, metals and other chemicals and there is little to attract the average visitor, unless you're a fan of dilapidated prefab buildings, huge piles of post-hurricane rubble and ugly iron cladding.

Still, according to Craig Christensen, who gave The Royal Gazette a tour of the land: "People fly in and out of here every five seconds."

We see several individuals as we drive around the peninsula after being waved in by security — most in trade vehicles or SUVs, some operating cranes and other machinery, the majority bearing the name Correia Construction.

The area — owned by the publicly-funded Bermuda Land Development Corporation (BLDC) — has not been used for much since the American military left Bermuda 15 years ago.

But BLDC chief operating office Andrew Swan explains in an e-mail: "We do lease land at MP (Morgan's Point) to Correia Construction. However, I am not aware of the specific projects that they are working on.

"The lease is old and for a designated area, not the entire MP property. It originated years ago when Correia did marine work at Rockaway Ferry.

"The lease is a BLDC-issued lease and rent is paid to BLDC, not GOB (Government of Bermuda). We do not release our rental rates for individual tenants."

Mr. Correia doesn't respond to E-mails asking what use his company has for the land, though it looks like excavation work is being done close to the entrance and vehicles are being serviced in a workshop elsewhere.

The BLDC website describes Morgan's Point as a "majestic 250-acre property" which is the "last large development opportunity available in Bermuda".

"Quiet and lovely, the lush terrain of Morgan's Point possesses a haunting beauty that has the power to captivate even casual visitors," it states. "Panoramic views across the Great Sound and over three miles of waterfront add to the already considerable allure of the property."

On the day we visit, the buzz of machinery destroys the quiet. But haunting is certainly the word to describe the rotting buildings we view: decaying shells with shattered windows pockmarking an eerie ghost town.

These properties were once at the heart of the military community which was here for more than 50 years: family homes, a bowling alley, nursery, cinema, nightclub and much more.

But now they are barely visible beneath the casuarina trees which run riot across the landscape.

Six of the buildings are listed for their historic or architectural value: four former officers' quarters and two properties known as Glebe Cottage/Quarters Q and Sound View.

Author Don Grearson, who worked for BLDC in the 1990s and wrote a book on the former base land, says the staff quarters on Lexington Road "were designed at the order of US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Bermudian architectural style, which we understood was unique in the annals of US military base design/construction".

According to Mr. Christensen: "Every building has been wrecked. There are a few listed buildings but they are ruined. You can't fix them — they're toast.

"These things were built in the 1940s — there are houses with Mexican peppers growing up in the roofs. They have just been left derelict.

"It's amazing what 15 years would do with no maintenance and vandalism. You can only preserve what's actually preservable."

He and his fellow Southlands Ltd. partners Brian Duperreault and Nelson Hunt want to turn this isolated wilderness — dotted with concrete slabs, trailers, rusty pipes and upturned old boats — into a multimillion dollar luxury tourist resort.

They are negotiating a deal with Government to exchange their 37-acre Southlands estate in Warwick — an area adored by environmentalists and described by the Premier as Bermuda's "unspoiled jewel" — for 80 acres of Morgan's Point, plus extra leased land.

"We are swapping heaven for hell, but that's OK," says Mr. Christensen. "It's like nothing you have seen in Bermuda but we'd try and pretty it up, I can assure you."

They would need to. Everywhere you look there is rubbish — from the decaying boat Eureka, which has been pulled out of the ocean onto a former sea plane ramp, to huge piles of logs and branches left after Hurricane Fabian.

We wander down a 580ft long pier with stunning views across to Gibbs Hill Lighthouse but a walkway covered in fuel lines once used for naval vessels.

Next stop is a former stores building where a sign daubed in red paint on the wall outside warns: "Danger — do not enter."

We go inside anyway and after treading tentatively up the collapsing staircase, reach the third floor — a cavernous room with a toxic atmosphere where the ceiling hangs down in shreds and the floor is covered in debris, water and slushy sea salt.

The whole structure looks like it could collapse at any point and Mr. Christensen quickly ushers us out.

He explains that desolate Morgan's Point used to be two separate islands — Tucker's and Morgan's — but the US military connected the pair when they took possession of the land in the early 1940s.

The mess the Americans left behind is evident everywhere you look, though much of the worst pollution is underground.

But Mr. Christensen points out that there is beauty among the devastation.

A small lagoon teeming with fry around Miss Wendy — an old boat which once belonged to underwater explorer Teddy Tucker — is a case in point.

So is a charming 19th century building called Tucker's House, which is not listed but which Southlands Ltd. hopes to save.

The ocean views from the peninsula are awe-inspiring, as the development team appreciates. They want to wrap a hotel around the Point to take full advantage.

Mr. Christensen and his partners have big plans for Morgan's Point — if the land swap happens. "You need a lot of vision," he admits. "It's such a long fight to get to the start and that's not the end of the road. That's the beginning."

• Mr. Christensen spoke to The Royal Gazette on March 12, before agreeing to Government's request for the Southlands Ltd. directors not to talk to the press about the land swap.