After years of negotiation, a new hotel development at Par-La-Ville Road car park is set to break ground next spring. MARINA MELLO takes a closer look at who's involved.

Unified Resorts Ltd. was invited to put in a bid four years ago to get a hotel built at the site of the Par-La-Ville Road car park.

That was after the Corporation of Hamilton as landowner had invited fresh bids for the project after rejecting a $110 million bid from The Carlson Group, a decision criticised at the time by Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown.

Unified Resorts officials American Ted Adams and Bermudian partner and shareholder Donal Smith secured a Special Development Order (SDO) from Government and have been in discussions ever since with the Corporation and others to finalise the plans, necessary agreements and financing.

Some of the major issues were traffic and the loss of parking slots in the short-term until the hotel project's underground levels of parking were constructed.

In March, a source told The Royal Gazette Ritz Carlton was no longer involved in the plans for the new city condo/hotel.

Mr. Adams said he recently secured a 120-year ground lease of the land from the Corporation as landowner, plus other agreements including the deal with Starwood's St. Regis brand.

Yesterday, the Corporation of Hamilton was conspicuously absent from the Government's press conference.

Former Corporation counciller Graeme Outerbridge called it a "massive slight". Mr. Adams said he himself was surprised they were not there; he put it down to a "miscommunication".

Sources questioned whether the slight may have had something to do with the Government's announcement this week that it was planning to get rid of the corporations of Hamilton and St. George's altogether.

But the Premier's press secretary Glenn Jones said neither the Premier's Office or the Tourism Ministry was responsible for arranging participants to attend the press conference, but that it was the development team which made the decisions on invites.

In April, The Royal Gazette heard from sources that architects involved in the project had been told to "dust off the plans" because the project, estimated to cost at least $200 million, was moving ahead.

When contacted at the time Linberg & Simmons had no comment.

Donal Smith, vice president of Par-la-Ville Hotel and Residence Ltd., said the following back in April, when asked if there was any movement on the plans: "We, Par-la-Ville Hotel and Residences Limited, the Corporation of Hamilton and the hotel company are sworn only to make public announcements on an agreed basis.

"Any comments outside of this agreement violates the commitment by all parties and places in jeopardy ongoing dialogue directly associated with our signed agreement."

That agreement looked to be cast aside with yesterday's news conference.

Mr. Adams, whose company has been mostly a US government defence contractor, said he expects to break ground next spring or summer, with completion scheduled for 2013.

Asked about the date being so far off, he said, "There is a lot more that goes into hotel development versus a commercial building. The level of finish we have planned to make it a five-star resort takes time."

Mr. Adams declined to give the cost of the project at this stage, saying only US company Sagewood is Unified's investment/equity partner.

Sagewood provides equity on hospitality and residential projects that meet its investment criteria.

The company website notes it's been involved in the development of some of the world's signature hotel and resort developments including the Mandarin Oriental, Boston, and has negotiated sales and acquisitions for such landmark establishments as The Carlyle, New York and Jumby Bay, Antigua.

Mr. Adams added: "One of the things that Unified does very well is logistics, we do construction skills training, we do quality assurance that's probably a hallmark.

"In this case we have the best location, and we have the best brand we could possibly ask for."

He said Government and Tourism Ministry had been monitoring the plans all along and had been very supportive. And he said Unified was not looking for any funding from the Government, but there could be some concessions allowed. He declined to go into detail.