Unfinished hotel now wants licence for 7MB dock

(CNS): The developers of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, a ten-storey hotel currently under construction at the southern end of Seven Mile Beach, have made an application for a watersports dock, which was not part of the original project. Although there is no specific policy against docks along Grand Cayman’s famous beach, they are very rare due to their potential impact on marine life.

The application for a coastal works licence has been made by Pageant Beach Hotel Ltd, which claims that when the resort is finished, it will be the largest hotel in the Cayman Islands.

According to a recent print advertisement placed in the Cayman Compass, the application submitted to the Ministry of Sustainable Development is for a dock that is 10 feet wide by 138 feet long seaward of the high water mark. Anyone wishing to comment has until 28 August to do so, including those who object to the proposal regardless of where they live. The work, if permitted, will be on crown property, which belongs to everyone.

Few other details about the proposed concrete dock have been revealed, but the application indicates that the developer wants to use the dock for the hotel’s watersport operations, including docking a large catamaran which will offer trips to guests and visitors.

Although there are a number of docks currently in the area and more applications being made at the very South End of Seven Mile Beach on the edge of the George Town Harbour area, this addition to the hotel project would be north of those existing docks.

While the application states that vibratory hammers and silt screens would be used during construction to mitigate impacts on the marine environment, as noted by the Department of Environment on numerous occasions, such measures can only offer limited protection, and as a result, the marine environment will be impacted during construction.

Once finished, the dock is likely to limit light and interfere with water circulation. The noise of watercraft and heavy activity around the dock will have a direct impact on the marine life in the area.

The hotel project has been under construction for more than six years after it appeared to stall following the initial clearance and ground breaking due to financial issues. Then, with the arrival of COVID-19, work ceased altogether and did not begin again until 2023, when the developers secured new financial partners.

The 190-room hotel’s opening date is now proposed to be 2025. There is also a residency section with 88 ‘condo-hotel’ guest rooms and 76 one-, two- or three-bedroom suites, which could also form part of the available rental stock for the tourist sector.

The developers have said in promotional material that there will be six restaurants, three resort-style swimming pools, a 12,000-square-foot spa and fitness centre, as well as a 25,000 square-foot indoor-outdoor conference area.