Treasure Island up for sale

| 01/03/2015 | 13 Comments

(CNS Business): The price tag for Grand Cayman’s Treasure Island Resort is US$15.475 million, but it’s the alleged black mould problem that has previous tenants speaking out. However, Re/Max Cayman Islands owner Kim Lund said he is unaware of that issue and has only had the chance to view the part of the resort that is opened.

Lund explained that the third of the rooms that are currently out of commission could very well have some issues, and that is something that will need to be addressed.

CNS Business

Treasure Island Resort, Grand Cayman

CNS Business spoke with former residents of the 280-room resort, who said that when they lived at Treasure Island they had a terrible encounter with black mould. One former resident, who did not want to be identified, said she lived there off and on for two years starting in 2010. The former tenant said the living condition were horrible and believes the resort should have never re-opened after Ivan, a catastrophic hurricane that hit Grand Cayman in 2004.

“We were getting sick. We noticed mould behind our headboards, so we called the AC Company to come in, and they opened up our air conditioner and found black mould,” the former resident stated.

The resort has been a part of the Seven Mile Beach corridor since 1986, and Lund stated the side of the resort that is open and operating is in fair shape. He said that like any older building, repairs and work would need to be done.

However, the former resident explained nothing major was done to help their situation, so they moved out and decided they could no longer live at the resort.

The sale of this long-standing resort comes after the company that owns the property, Restoration Cayman Ltd., was put under receivership in November in the face of serious financial problems. The asking price followed valuations from two independent quantity surveyors.

Last week, secured creditor Scotiabank decided to put the resort up for sale through real estate firm Re/Max Cayman Islands.

CNS Business

Mould at the Treasure Island Resort

As for the asking price, Lund explained, “It’s fair market value, and it’s also a very good value for what you’re getting for your money.” He added, “It’s a well-built property, solid concrete and well put together. Obviously there is room for improvement and investment there.”

Lund said the company wants it sold as soon as possible, and right now has multiple offers on the table.

“I think there is value in the building and the structure, and there’s lots of land where they could build even more. Now you can go to ten stories, so very likely, in fact what I’m seeing from the responses we are getting, is that people are willing to work with the structure there and will likely add on to it or improve on what’s already there in terms of height,” the agency’s owner stated.

However, the former resident of the resort told CNS Business it would take more than just a little work to restore Treasure Island back to its former glory.

“It’s perfect and prime location. I believe, as someone who lived there, the new owners would pretty much need to start over from the foundation,” the former tenant explained.

“It will probably be a very good tourist accommodation. There is demand now for more hotels, and I think the timing and where we are in the market right now probably makes the property more suitable to being a hotel than an extended stay for residents and workers,” Lund explained.

Another resort up for grabs is the Marriott Resort. Located less than a mile away on West Bay Road, this resort went up for sale in January, and is expected to sell for just over $100 million.

CNS Business

Treasure Island Resort, Grand Cayman

CNS Business reached out to Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell, who said, “The sale of Treasure Island presents an interesting proposition for potential buyers and is occurring at a time when extensive development is taking place within the tourism sector. Existing properties in the area are being refurbished and several new properties are either under construction, or in the pipeline for development in the near future.”

Minister Kirkconnell added, “It would be wonderful if the new owners of Treasure Island embraced this as an opportunity to transform this property into something that will be both attractive to visitors and complementary to our existing tourism accommodations product.”

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Category: Local Business, Real Estate, Stay-over tourism, Tourism, Video

Comments (13)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    When did regular mold become ‘black mold’? Seems you can’t have regular mold anymore, and has anyone actually tested this stuff to say it’s black mold, and not just mold that’s black? One is toxic, the other isn’t, bit of a difference. Mold rant over!

  2. Skeptikal says:

    Read any of the recent reviews of Treasure Island on Tripadvisor(dot)com. Almost all the latest reviews are now 1-star and complain of the mold and mildew. It’s a big problem.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Everyone does realise of course that the resort does not include the property from the back of Sunset Cove condos all the way to the beach? Thats a separate property not part of the hotel. Its a roadside property and thats it, a big one yes, but not beach front.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, but with guaranteed beach front access between the blocks of condos. In fact when (I think we’re moving beyond if) TI is demolished the condo owners are going to be in a rather interesting situation because a potential developer might easily plan to try and buy them out then clear the whole site to the beach. It could be a good deal because they’ll face at least two years with their whole back lot as a demolition and construction site then, if some of the comments are to be taken seriously, end up in the shadow of a 10-story resort – none of which will do much for their property values.

      It’s going to be fun watching this pan out. In fact CNS it might be worth checking out exactly what land the TI site includes.

      • Anonymous says:

        Indeed – believe me this whole topic is a subject of much discussion amongst condo owners. I’m not sure how the beach access truly works for the hotel site – but I’ll take your word for that.

        • Anonymous says:

          Well put it this way – it was apparently TI who funded the work to restore and improve the beach a while back. I’d guess that they own the whole corridor from Billy Bones to the high water mark. Certainly when I briefly lived there that was the impression given. And yes it’s true about the mould – disgusting!!!

          • Anonymous says:

            No I don’t think so, the beach improvements / reinstatement of the breakwater etc was paid by the Condo Strata. It is possible there may have been a contribution from TI but they didn’t pay for it as such, the Condo owners got hit with a large assessment for it.

          • Anonymous says:

            I should have added that the TI “Hotel” does not own Billy Bones, the main pool or any of that land from the hotel side of the back of Billy Bones all the way down to the beach – at best they have an agreed right of access – but I’m not even sure about that as security is pretty tight at weekends on who can use the facilities – at least it used to be.

            • Anonymous says:

              I think it might be a good idea for someone to check up on all this. When TI was in receivership pre-Ivan (late 1990s – can’t remember the exact year) one of the potential buyers told me that their investigations indicated that the site included a lot more property and land rights than just the resort itself and the two parking lots. I don’t know if any of that has changed since but it was clearly the position as he saw it back then. Knowing the way things work (or don’t work?) on these islands if I was a condo owner I’d now be making damn sure what my position was.

  4. Anonymous says:

    @ Kim Lund

    FYI, this building is not solid concrete. It was built using a process in which concrete is sprayed (commonly known as Shotcrete) onto a framework. The structure is 30 years old and without a detailed analysis of the materials used it would be very foolish to assume that it might be safe to be add another 4-5 floors on to it. In fact the odds are that the building is probably at or near it’s design limits already particularly when I understand that some of the rooms are showing cracks in the walls.

    As has been posted elsewhere, this building is past it’s use-by date and the only practical option is demolition and re-development. Having said that even when you add the cost of pulling the place down $15.475million isn’t bad for a prime location like this.

    • Anonymous says:

      Interesting comment. Considering how badly TI was flooded by Ivan the structural issues do appear to be being played down.

  5. Anonymous says:

    I moved out of there in mid-2008 and back then the mould problems were horrendous. The instructions for my room required that the a/c, which apparently also acted as a de-humidifier, be run 24/7 even if you didn’t need it otherwise mould would develop. I trued shutting it off but as soon as you did that mould started developing on everything, particularly clothing. Staff used to come round regularly to clean what can only be described as c**p out of the a/c unit. I looked at another room where condensation was running down the windows.

    Quite how Kim Lund can say he isn’t aware of the problem beats me.

    But isn’t just the mould, there are just so many issues with this building that the only real value in the site is the land. Realistically TI should be levelled and a new resort built there.

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