Transformation to Sandals LaSource has begun

“IT’S a challenge, but we are working together achieving this goal of opening our doors on December 20th, 2013,” said Gordon “Butch” Stewart, Chairman of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), when he provided an update on the status of the Sandals LaSource investment last Friday.

In November 2012 Sandals Resorts International, parent company of Sandals Resorts, Beaches Resort and Grand Pineapple Beach Resort, announced that it purchased LaSource and since then a transformation has begun of the property once owned by Liberty Club and developer, Leon Taylor.

Chairman of the Sandals Resorts International,
Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart.

Work commences on the new swimming pool for Sandals LaSource.

Initially, it was the desire of Stewart and his team to reopen the property in December 2012, but following an inspection of the property, it was agreed that a full transformation will be better before any guests can check in at Sandals LaSource.

Stewart said that once complete, the new design property will have more than 100 rooms added to the existing room count. “Guests will have a selection of more than 200 guestrooms, private cottages and suites that will now form part of the property, and I promise you that Grenada will be getting the best mixed representation of all our properties,” he said.

More than EC$70 million is expected to be invested into the construction and renovation as the SRI team seeks to make its latest investment be a reflection of standards within the Caribbean properties. “This project will end up being a five-star and if there is a six, we will head there too,” Stewart told a selection of the media and stakeholders in the travel industry during a luncheon.


“You are probably going to have the best hotel in the Caribbean,” said Stewart, whose company also owns properties in other Caribbean destinations including The Bahamas, Antigua, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos and Jamaica.

Heavy construction work is scheduled to commence on February 15 and during the peak production period between 400 and 500 persons will be expected to gain employment. The workers will be directly working with Sandals Resorts or through construction companies, which will be contracted to build a five-storey village.

Group Project/Engineer, Andre McDonald, said that one large firm will receive the contract for the five-storey building and that company will decide the best format for construction. “It might just be a case of having its own construction team or teams or subcontracting to other smaller companies; what will be important are all of us working together to realise one goal, opening day of December 20th,” he said. (LS)