Potential buyers of the Lantana resort are reported to be lining up hoping to secure the Sandys property, which has been put on the market for $18.5 million.

Would-be developers both on Island and overseas have been expressing interest in taking over the resort, which has been closed for the past eight years.

And underlining the increasing value of real estate on the Island, the 9.6 acre resort is being marketed for what is believed to be around $7 million more than its selling price in 2004.

It was confirmed yesterday that a two-year old plan to re-open the former cottage colony resort as an exclusive spa and resort has been scuppered by the withdrawal of one of the original financial backers which has since made a US bankruptcy filing.

As reported in Tuesday?s the Lantana was one of the properties being promoted as a future vacation resort for members of the Abercrombie and Kent Destination Club but the company, which is now known as Tanner and Haley, voluntarily filed to re-organise under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code last month.

Douglas Tufts, a spokesman for a number of the investors involved in the Lantana, confirmed that Connecticut-based Tanner and Haley had been a key backer of the resort project but pulled out around six months ago.

Tanner and Haley sold its interest in the scheme to a third-party which had subsequently decided it had no interest in pursuing the Lantana project.

As a result of losing one of the original shareholders the remaining members of the development group have decided not to go ahead with their redevelopment plan, which was to have transformed the resort with 40 hotel suites, 17 beachfront villas, a 25,000 sq ft spa and conference centre, a marina and an expanded man-made beach.

A ?breaking the ground? ceremony for the future resort and spa ? which had been expected to open in late 2007 ? took place in February 2005.

But there has been little visible alteration to the site since then. The former cottage colony remains locked up and mostly as it appeared when it was closed in 1998 by original owner, the late John Young.

Lantana has been advertised for sale overseas for the past month and is being marketed in Bermuda through realty company Coldwell Banker.

Mr. Tufts, currently on vacation in Canada, said: ?There has been a ton of interest. A month ago it was put up for sale and we have had a pile of interest from local developers and particularly people around the world. We?ve even turned down a few of the offers.?

He said all the planning permission that has been approved for the site would be passed to the eventual new owner.

Explaining the reasoning behind the decision to sell rather than follow through with the resort and spa plan, Mr. Tufts said the remaining members of the original development group had felt that, after losing the support of Tanner and Haley, they did not want to go ahead with the scheme but preferred to sell the property so that someone else could take it forward.

Lantana was one of the first cottage colony resorts when it opened in the 1950s and it retained a reputation for friendliness and excellent service until it closed in 1998.