Prime Minister Gaston Browne says the planned Long Bay Zen Resort will be built on the site of the former Long Bay Hotel and will not affect public access to Long Bay Beach.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne radio programme on Saturday, Browne sought to counter claims that the development would take over public beachfront property.
“For those who are concerned about whether or not we’ll be taking up Long Bay, and that people not have access to the beach and other beach users, that’s not the case,” Browne said. “We’re talking about the old Long Bay Hotel.”
The prime minister said the property has accommodated a hotel for decades and that the current project is a redevelopment of an existing tourism site rather than a new encroachment on public lands.
“There has been a Long Bay Hotel that existed for over 50 years,” Browne said.
According to Browne, the developers acquired the former hotel property approximately 11 years ago and initially planned a larger project. He said the development was delayed after the investors lost “tens of millions of dollars” through an offshore bank that later encountered financial difficulties.
Browne said the investors remained committed to the project despite those setbacks.
“It’s not a new project in the sense that this was planned before,” he said.
The prime minister also rejected allegations that the resort would consume the remaining public beach area at Long Bay.
“What people like Comrade Knight are trying to do is to fool the Antiguan-Barbudan people to say to them, that the remaining Long Bay Beach, the public access, that that will be taken up by this hotel. That is not true,” Browne said.
Browne further addressed criticism surrounding a one-acre beachfront parcel formerly owned by his son, stating that the land was purchased from former Long Bay Hotel owner Chris LaFourie in 2014 before later being sold to the Chinese investors involved in the resort project.
He said LaFourie had publicly advertised the hotel property for sale since 2010 after inheriting it from his family, which had operated the establishment for decades.
According to Browne, a previous proposal supported by the former United Progressive Party administration sought to acquire the beachfront acre as part of a larger hotel development. He said the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party opposed the plan at the time because it would have reduced public access to the beach.
“The Labour Party at the time said that, look, the people should not be displaced,” Browne said.
Browne said the proposed transaction never materialized and the land later returned to the market, attracting interest from several prospective buyers.
He said his son ultimately purchased the one-acre parcel for US$750,000 and later sold it to the Chinese development group for US$1.5 million.
“So one private person to another private person,” Browne said, describing the transaction.
The Long Bay Zen Resort recently broke ground and is expected to feature 120 rooms as part of a luxury tourism development on Antigua’s eastern coast.