Government and Southlands Ltd. buried the hatchet yesterday and signed a land swap deal which will allow a $2 billion tourism resort to be built at Morgan’s Point over the next 20 years.

The agreement — which comes almost seven months after the two sides fell out publicly over the negotiations — means the private Southlands estate in Warwick will become public property and be turned into a national park.

Morgan’s Point, meanwhile, will be handed over to Southlands directors Craig Christensen, Brian Duperreault and Nelson Hunt and their overseas partners John Ryan and Egbert Perry for a luxury development.

The deal was signed at a press conference at the Cabinet building yesterday, when colourful plans for the former US Naval Annex on the Southampton/Sandys border were unveiled to the press for the first time.

They include a 325-room main resort hotel on the Point, an 80-room boutique hotel, condominiums, beach villas, a golf course, a boat club and a retail plaza. Fractional units for sale to foreigners are likely to be involved.

Premier Ewart Brown, who is Tourism Minister, told the media the agreement — first mooted three years ago — had been signed “in record time” against a background of global economic challenges.

”Bermuda is on its way to positioning itself for significant tourism success,” he said. “Projects like this at Morgan’s Point will lead the way in that effort.”

Insurance chief Mr. Duperreault claimed in February that the Premier did not want the land swap to take place, complaining that endless delays over the deal had damaged Southlands Ltd. and cost the company “a lot of money”.

Government responded by saying the Southlands directors were “running around pretending to be hotel developers” and had failed to come up with a viable plan for a five-star resort at Morgan’s Point.

Less than a month later, Southlands Ltd. agreed not to talk to the press about negotiations after presenting a detailed plan for the 243-acre site to Cabinet and other PLP politicians.

Dr. Brown said yesterday such spats were what “happens in politics all the time”. “That’s why I loved it,” he said, referring to the fact that he will step down as Premier and Warwick South Central MP next month. “We had differences and good things came out of it.”They saw it one way, we saw it another, but that happens. We are talking about a $2 billion product. That’s how things get better. Intelligent people have differences and that’s what we had, clearly.”

Southlands CEO Mr. Christensen said Morgan’s Point would be “a significant development that all Bermudians can be proud of”.

”It is also gratifying knowing that we are able to play a role in retaining the beauty of Southlands for all of Bermuda to enjoy,” he said. “We would not be here today if not for the cooperation and effort by the Bermuda Government.

“They played a key role in ensuring that the right things are being done for Bermuda and we want to thank them for providing their confidence in us that we will deliver.”

Mr. Ryan said the deal signified that Bermuda was seizing the opportunity to “again become the most outstanding resort in the Americas”.

He said the project would create about 1,000 construction jobs in the first three years and would continue at that level during the full 20-year development period.

It would also result, he said, in more than 1,000 hospitality jobs and $115 million being paid to Government in fees in the first five years. “This project is actually probably in the neighbourhood of $2 billion,” he said.

Mr. Ryan said three major hotel chains had approached the development team about Morgan’s Point. “We are in deep negotiations with them,” he revealed.

“But until we actually had possession of the property we were not in a position to finalise the transaction. We’ll be making an announcement reasonably soon.”

He added jokingly: “Negotiating with the hotel chains makes working with the Government seem easy.”

The developer said the resort would be built in phases with the first phase focusing on the boutique hotel.

Construction would start, he added, once the first stage of the clean-up of pollution left behind by the US military at Morgan’s Point was completed. The first hotel is likely to open two to three years later.

Dr. Brown said Bermuda was in discussions with the US Government to see if it would assist financially with the multimillion dollar clean-up and that other plans would have to be made if it didn’t agree to help.

”We have told the developers that we are principally responsible for delivering the land clean,” he added.

He said a bill would go before the House of Assembly in the autumn to make the land swap agreement official.

That should satisfy environmentalists, who campaigned vociferously against a tourism resort being built on the greenfield 37-acre Southlands estate. Morgan’s Point was suggested as an alternative site.

Dr. Brown said yesterday: ”I am proud to fulfil our promise to the people of Bermuda to preserve Southlands and take another step forward to formally make that land a national park.”