More than half of the $400 million
budgeted by LXR Luxury Resorts to renovate, redesign and upgrade
its 23 properties in the U.S, the Caribbean and London is targeted
at the collections five Caribbean resorts, according to Barry
Lewin, LXRs president for the Caribbean and Hawaii.
The resorts, all
former Wyndham properties, are El San Juan Hotel & Casino and
the Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino, both in San Juan; El
Conquistador Resort & Golden Door Spa and Las Casitas Village
in Fajardo, Puerto Rico; and the Rose Hall Plantation Resort &
Country Club in Rose Hall, near Montego Bay, Jamaica. The
properties will undergo renovations over the next few
months.
To bring these
Caribbean properties up to speed, LXR has brought in great
architects, interior designers, restaurateurs and a spirit of
commitment to excellence and service, said John Tolbert, LXRs
president of sales and marketing.
By the end of the
year, major guest room renovations at LXRs Puerto Rico properties
will be completed, with projects in the public areas set to
follow.
Here is a
rundown:
" Condado
Plaza Hotel & Casino in San Juan. The $65 million
renovation project will begin in June with completion set for
December. Renovations will be done on a floor-by-floor basis with
little interruption to daily hotel business.
Some of the
redone 570 rooms will be ready as early as July and will feature a
color palette of whites accented with bright orange, red and
pink.
The three pool
areas, lobby and restaurant also will be renovated.
" El San
Juan Hotel & Casino. The $52 million renovation
project includes a complete makeover of the resorts 382 rooms, to be followed by enhancements to the pool
areas, the lobby and the casino.
" El
Conquistador Resort & Golden Door Spa. Enhancements to
the 918-room resort include a new ballroom and conference center,
which break ground in April and will open in March 2007.
Officials said
the ballroom will be the islands largest.
Also planned is a
second funicular that will move up to as many as three times the
number of guests between the various levels of the resort from the
Marina Village to Las Olas and Las Brisas levels.
The funicular
will be completed in the second quarter of next year.
A nine-hole,
Arthur Hills-designed golf course will be added to the property,
giving El Conquistador a total of 27 holes of golf on three
courses.
Newly designed
ferry boats will be added to the existing fleet next year. The
ferries carry guests throughout the day and evening from the
resorts marina area to private Palomino Island, 20 minutes
away.
The renovation
and expansion budget for El Conquistador is $80 million, excluding
the golf course investment.
No renovations
are planned for Las Casitas Village, which recently expanded from
90 to 157 casitas with one, two or three bedrooms. It also recently
added an infinity pool.
" Rose
Hall Plantation Resort & Country Club. The $35 million
renovation project at the 488-room resort gets under way in May,
with completion of the guest rooms set for the end of the year.
Additional improvements are planned for the rest of the
resort.
Although LXR owns
and operates each property, there is no LXR identification in the
property name, said Lewin. The individuality of each resort comes
first. Our properties are not cookie-cutter hotels.
LXR was formed
less than a year ago as a spin-off of the Blackstone Group, a New
York-based private investment firm.
To contact
reporter Gay Nagle Myers, send e-mail to [email protected].