Harmony Cove casino resort costs rise

Bahamas-based private investment company Tavistock Group has partnered with Harmonisation Ltd to construct Harmony Cove, a casino resort project.

The resort will include 75,000 SQ. ft. of gaming space, located near Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. The project, which was estimated at $970 million initially, has risen to a new estimated cost of $1 billion.

The executive director of Harmonisation Ltd, Dr Lorna Simmonds, noted that the revised estimated cost includes the first thousand rooms. Law holds that only after the completion of the first 1,000 rooms, a developer in Jamaica may apply for a casino license. The total number of hotel rooms required amounts to 2,000.

Aside from the casino, the development will also include a golf course, a luxury spa as well as other entertainment centres and hotels, which different type of lodging options. The Government-backed project near Jamaica’s second largest city in the parish of St. James is modelled on Las Vegas's resort type of gambling hotels. The area is, with Jamaica’s largest airport, the Sir Donald Sangster International Airport, well-connected and reachable from Miami within 70 minutes.