Construction work on what would be Jamaica’s first integrated casino resort is expected to start in 2016, local media reported. Celebration Jamaica Resort & Casino will feature 2,000 hotel rooms, a casino, as well as a number of entertainment and food and beverage options.
The complex will occupy a 75-acre parcel of land located in Rose Hill, in the Montego Bay Area. The project will be rolled out in several phases. The amount of $500 million is expected to be spent on the completion of Phase 1.
At first, the resort will offer 1,000 hotel rooms, with 1,000 more to be added later on. And as mentioned above, it will also feature a 100,000-square-foot gambling venue with casino games and sports betting options, retail space, a Caribbean World Music Entertainment Complex, and a number of other amenities.
Businessman Robert Trotta, who is behind the multi-million-dollar project, explained that the integrated resort will aim at celebrating Jamaican music and everything Jamaican. The whole complex is expected to cost $1.8 billion and once fully operational, it will employ up to 12,000 people directly. No completion date has been announced yet for Jamaica’s first integrated resort.
Last year, Jamaica officials approved the development of two such integrated resorts – Celebration Jamaica and Harmony Cove. Construction on the latter is also expected to start by the summer of 2016. Both venues will be the first to be managed under Jamaica’s newly adopted gambling regulations.
Harmony Cove Ltd., the company behind the hotel and casino complex, revealed today that Phase One of the project would cost $1 billion, up $30 million from the previously announced investment of $970 million.
The first phase of the development is expected to feature 1,000 hotel rooms, food and beverage options, and retail space. Once fully operational, the complex will occupy a 2,300-acre site in Trelawny and will feature a casino, a spa, numerous marina amenities, golf courses, a total of 5,000 hotel rooms, “multiple lodging” options, and various entertainment facilities.
It is still unclear when exactly the first phase of the complex will be launched. Yet, officials for Harmony Cove explained that the project has been redeveloped so as for the integrated resort to be more “environmentally sensitive and responsible.”
