Above: Dominica (CJ Photo)
By Alexander Britell
Global hotel firm Kempinski is planning its first Caribbean hotel.
The company signed an agreement last week with Dubai-based Range to manage a soon-to-be-built hotel in the Cabrits area of Dominica. The two sides first signed a memorandum of understanding on the project earlier this year.
The The property is slated to feature 100 suites on Cabrits’ Douglas Bay, according to Mohammed Assaria, who is representing Range Capital Partners Dominica, Ltd, which will be building the project.
“The objectives of this particular project are clear: in the first place, it is for the construction of a high-end hotel capable of attracting clients who are of high value,” Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said. “This facility will add to the number of high-quality rooms in Dominica particularly in the north and will no doubt support the other investments in the north of Dominica and indeed the entire country.”
Range is also developing the Park Hyatt project in St Kitts.
The announcement comes as another project in Cabrits funded by the government of Morocco is still in search of a management company.
That smaller project is located near Purple Turtle Beach.
“We believe Douglas Bay in Cabrits is one of the finest beaches in this part of the Caribbean,” Asaria said. “It’s a site which has privacy and allows for the creation of a unique hotel product; a hideaway resort. We will be developing a 100-room romance suite hotel there which will be one of the finest in this part of the Caribbean.”
Asaria said design work on the project would commence immediately.
“[We will] ensure that what is designed and built is something which has harmony between land and sea, waves and wildlife and ensure and experience from sunrise to sunset which is unrivaled,” Asaria said.
The project will be funded under the island’s Citizenship by Investment programme.
“we will make sure we bring all our know-how from Europe for the training and we would like to make sure that in Dominica, we will have the Kempinski spirit and the European heritage of luxury,” said Kempinski Group Vice President Xavier Destribats.