Royal Palms falls into sea ahead of renovation
(CNS): Pictures and videos circulating on social media over the last few days show the derelict buildings at Royal Palms crumbling into the sea following the Cayman Islands’ brush with Tropical Storm Helene, as the erosion on the southern end of Seven Mile Beach reaches unprecedented levels. However, Dart officials say the building, which is literally falling into the sea and polluting the marine environment, was declared unsafe this week and is due to be demolished.
Royal Palms was once one of Cayman’s most popular beach bars, with an excellent restaurant and a full beach in the heart of Grand Cayman’s tourist district. But over time, the impact of hard structures from neighbouring beachfront properties has caused the beach to dissappear.
Dart acquired the property in 2017 when it still had a full beach but closed it in 2020 during the pandemic. Since then, the buildings have been left to deteriorate, and the erosion has accelerated.
In 2022, Tropical Storm Ian destroyed a seawall on the site, and after consulting with the Department of Environment, the developer embarked on a clean-up operation. At the time, the DoE advised Dart that, with the property severely eroding and the business no longer in operation, there was an opportunity for a managed retreat. The experts said the old bar should be torn down and the beach allowed to recover.
However, two years later, the site remains derelict, and the crumbling structures were hit once again during this week’s bad weather.
Last year, Handel Whittaker, the former manager of Calico Jack’s, another once very popular beach bar next to the public beach, announced he intended to lease the site. But Dart, which had acquired that site more than a decade before, notified Whittaker that it would be terminating the lease in 2020.
Handel then looked for another location for his popular beach spot. After attempts to do something on Dart’s land in Barkers failed, Whittaker opted to recreate the famous beach bar at Royal Palms. But more than a year on, Dart officials said the planning application was still going through the process.
“We have an agreement in place with Mr Whittaker’s company to refurbish the property,” a spokesperson from Dart told CNS in response to our inquiries about the future of the property. “As such, an application has been submitted that includes demolition of the two-story structure on the beach.
“This is subject to planning approval and requires a review by the National Conservation Council because of the sensitive nature of the location. Once we have permission to proceed, the demolition of the building nearest to the beach can begin, along with other works to enhance the overall property,” they added.
However, the planning department has now issued a notice warning that the site poses a danger, and as a result, the process is expected to be expedited. While the DoE recently sent its advice regarding the renovation project, the actual application for demolishing the old bar building was only received by the DoE on Wednesday of this week, officials have confirmed.
This means that the department cannot be accused of delaying this project, especially after advising Dart of the need to tear down the building more than two years ago, well before it struck a deal with Whittaker to lease him the site.
The new push to demolish the old bar is likely to be due to its deterioration after the latest storm and the resulting planning declaration that the site is now unsafe.
Royal Palms is one of many properties along the southern end of Seven Mile Beach where the beach has disappeared, hard structures such as seawalls have been destroyed or pool decks and bars inundated by the sea.
Despite the severe impact on places like the Marriott Hotel, property owners appear to have no will to engage in a managed retreat.
But as the sea gets ever closer to the structures built on the dynamic beach in this area, including Ken Dart’s own private family next to the Royal Palms site, these oceanfront structures will need to be removed. If not, it is clear from the situation at Royal Palms that the sea will do it for them at a significant cost to Cayman’s marine environment and its famous beach.
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Category: development, Local News, Marine Environment, Science & Nature
No construction company in the world can match the centuries of experience Water has in demolition. Need land cleared? A canyon created? Water will get the job done with precision and patience. Our elite team of oceans, rivers, and flash floods guarantee complete, natural removal of any structure—no permit required! Just sit back and let nature’s most experienced crew take care of the heavy lifting (or eroding).
Shameful.
Laguna Del Mar is probably next. Most of have (or can) seen pictures today in the Compass and social media today of the water lapping right up to the front building, heavily eroding the beachfront and eating into the foundation.
I could seen this primed for redevelopment (ala Lacovia). Laguna is 37 years old, but the property is very deep (from water to road) so could accommodate a large, set-back redevelopment. No doubt the condo unit owners have at least discussed this, but it take agreement with a large percentage of owners.
(Redevelopment takes A LONG time. Watermark for example has now passed the 5-year mark in its construction).
Dart hasn’t been forced to do anything with the old Hyatt building either! It’s an eyesore that needs to be demolished.
Maybe Mark VanDeV can tell us what’s delaying these? Maybe you could use the same equipment/contractors & get a 2 for 1 deal if you are looking to save $’s LOL
I don’t get it. Why buy it only to leave such a mess? Is it even legal to allow structures to sit in that state for this long? Clear it, replace it, do something with it for god’s sake. Even the new Calico’s is an improvement on the derelict old one. OK it’s the worst bar on 7MB now but at least it’s not a horrible eyesore. Dart bought the 2 best bars in Cayman and destroyed them. For what? So that we’d all go drink in his lifeless, characterless, overpriced hotel bars? I think not.
Very sad to see. A lot of great memories at Royal Palms.
The Marriott’s pool needs to be removed and located back to the courtyard where it was when the beach was plentiful.
There used to be at least 50 feet of beach in front of that place! Our silly government has let so many developers build on the beach that is completely destroyed the water line. 7 mile back is going to take it all back! and IM GLAD!
I wish we had actually accountability on this wonderland so we could jail the main people responsible.
LTD Da Unboozler
Disgraceful.
Shows much they care! Look at Paradise in GT, also left to rot!
Isn’t there a $25k a day fine that should be imposed on derelict building owners in the SMB area? Where are our politicians? If they could get out of his pocket and do their job, that’d be awesome!
Government won’t allow (via CPA) any of the southern properties to protect their buildings.
Those same properties were built 30+ years ago when the beach was 200 feet out. Up until 4 years ago the properties from Regal Beach North still had 200 feet of beach.
This isn’t a seawall issue (although they do restrict replenishment once you get to this point), it is an environmental issue. Increased storm frequency on the west side of the island pushing the sand North during hurricane season and less storms in the Winter pushing the sand South.
The bigger issue is that this started at Plantation Village/Marriott etc and is slowly moving North. If this continues the beaches past Royal Palms will start falling victim as well. Seems out of reach but remember the likes of Royal Palms etc used to have 100’s feet of beach and its just gone.
Super sad, and especially sad for those homeowners who everyone assumes are rich expats. Everyone also assumes that these are new developments which they are not. So much negativity when we need to be looking at a solution before we end up with 1 mile beach.
Correction. It is also very much a sea wall issue. If you have a solid structure jutting out on any coastline then any resulting wave action turns from a depository force to an erosive force. Yes, we are getting more powerful storms, however, the presence of these manmade structures is the main cause of this beach loss.
honestly, knock down everything on the beach. no more building on the beach, you want to build on the beach? buy land on the land side of 7 mile beach road. this cant continue any longer.
This is all false news because Mr. Darts great organization always does great and fantastic work. Those applications were lost by planning. CPA chairman, ram this thru as Mr. Dart is our greatest recourse.He can get some more foreign companies to come in and do the works very reasonable.
Isn’t Handel on the CPA board? and why didn’t CPA serve notice on the landowner and fine them for having an slightly property in a tourism zone? Same goes for the old hyatt? Deckers, Britannia golf club? (Calicos) now refurbished….
because there is nothing in the planning law about derelict properties. So long as no one is in them its perfectly legal to let it rot.
That’s funny, because when I reviewed the planning submission as an interested party a few weeks ago, I’m quite sure it included the demolition of the building. CNS might want to do a little fact checking.
If I was the island’s primary resident billionaire and owned a large part of the eroded beach, I’d be minded to spend some pocket change, buy up the various properties causing the problems and demolish all of them. Then I could sit on my porch and watch the beachfront come back.
That honestly sounds lovely.
why is this still there? Dart should be forced to remove it.
Sure, once Seagull, Vista Del Mar, The Marriott and others are required to do the same. Have at it.
Under which law or authority.
Missing in the Cayman Islands is an elite assembly of concerned accounting professionals to re-read past agreements, note lapses in supervised performance, assess values of missing duty and interest, and compel the regime du jour to deadline delinquent actors to do what they said, or were required to do, suspending all CPA applications and approvals until they execute on previous promises and commitments in good faith. A strong CIG regime might put a timeline of 90 days to propose a full plan for tunnels and bridges, old Hyatt, Royal Palms, or remove these structures at their cost. Published public proposals. The power and control dynamic needs to be reversed back onto the developers that benefit greatly from being located here – or they can go. CIG needs to change how they deal, eliminating backroom dealing, ITTT extortion, and other usual business tactics. They have no place here, if we are genuinely striving to demonstrate resolve to stay off the FATF blacklist.