The Opposition has condemned the Government’s decision to rent out units at the Bermudiana Beach Resort as residences at prices out of reach to less well-off Bermudians.

Craig Cannonier, the One Bermuda Alliance Shadow Minister of Public Works, spoke out after an announcement by public works minister Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch yesterday that the Government had jettisoned plans to run the development as a hotel at the eleventh hour.

Instead, Colonel Burch said that the 94 units will be rented out — and be targeted at international business sector employees.

He added that rents are expected to start at $3,000 per month for a studio, rising to $7,000 for a three-bedroom apartment.

Yesterday Colonel Burch said the aim was to get “as high a return as one can to mitigate the investment”.

He said the “change in direction” would provide a means to cater to the international business sector “directly“.

At a press conference today, Mr Cannonier accused the Government of repeatedly failing on the project — at a $100 million cost to the taxpayer — and abandoning the people most in need.

He said: “I believe that the promise of making these units for low cost housing should happen. It was a noble thing to do.”

Mr Cannonier said he had called on the minister months ago to “go back to your original plan” of low-cost housing, adding: “Don't spend $100 million going forward. Take the hit now and provide low-cost housing. You have the units already there’.

“They are abandoning their own promise to those in need.

“Take a look at the pricing that we’re talking about. Imagine a studio that we're renting out for $3,000 a month. It used to be about $1,000 a room for rent, right? And now we’re going to give you a studio for $3,000.

“When the question was asked at the press conference yesterday, the answer was ‘well, you know, we have people ... that we trying to hire to bring to Bermuda and we can’t find housing for them, so we’re going to build these units so that we can put those people into those units’.

“The details came out as he [Colonel Burch] continued to talk. ‘Well, you know, we're going to fill this place up with $7,000 rents. And you know, there are people who are coming to Bermuda to work and they can't find housing’.”

Mr Cannonier said that he had received “dozens of calls” overnight on the issue, adding: “It is quite bewildering what has just taken place. I am blown away to learn of the latest failed project on the Bermuda Beach Resort.

“If Bermuda is not upset and angry about this, I don't know what's going to get our attention, but based on the responses that I have received it's getting our attention.”

He said the latest plan for the resort was “a last-ditch attempt to salvage a huge mess created by this Burt administration and this particular project led by the minister, Colonel Burch”.

Mr Cannonier also disputed Colonel Burch’s claim that an increase in rental stock of almost 100 units will deflate rental prices.

He said: “If they take this latest course of action, they will once again increase the cost of living drastically, increase the cost of housing, and make it even more unaffordable for the average Bermudian to put a roof over their head.

“This project needs to stop today. It needs to stop today, to get some answers to the questions that are out there as to why we are changing and changing and changing and using up taxpayers’ money to make this project work.”

The Bermudiana Beach Resort is on the site of the failed Grand Atlantic housing development, which was put forward by a previous Progressive Labour Party government in 2007 as a hybrid hotel and affordable housing development.

The 78 condo homes were completed in 2011, but a year later, only one had been sold, while the hotel was never built.

The One Bermuda Alliance inherited the white elephant when it came into office in December 2012.

Within three months it had issued a Request For Information seeking an alternative use for the property, and in April 2014 it announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a tourism and leisure firm to “upgrade and reposition” the complex.

However, the project was put on hold so the site could be used to house crews and support staff from the America’s Cup in the run-up to the sailing tournament, which was held in 2017.

A new agreement was announced in February 2017, which proposed the renamed Bermudiana Beach Resort would be a condominium complex operated as a hotel — but that work would not begin until September that year, after America’s Cup crews had left.

The OBA was ejected from office in the July 2017 General Election, when the PLP won a convincing majority.

In March 2018, Colonel Burch said there had been “extensive negotiations over the past seven months” to modify the business plan with the Bermuda Housing Corporation, which owned the property.

The minister said the new arrangement included “more cost-efficient project financing”, which would help the BHC to “clear the debt on the site” and focus on housing.

Today Mr Cannonier defended the OBA’s handling of the project during its time in office, stating that the party did not put any money into it — and in fact earned revenue by renting it out to America’s Cup personnel.

He said: “The OBA was the only administration that brought revenue to Bermuda, to the coffers of government for the Grand Atlantic project, the only government that found a way to get revenue to come in to help pay off our debt.”

He also questioned why the PLP went ahead with the project when it was advised against it from its inception in 2007.

He said that the Bermuda Housing Association had argued it should not have gone ahead, while realtors also questioned the proposal.

He said: “But yet this minister bulldozed ahead. He still does it anyhow.”

Mr Cannonier also questioned why Colonel Burch made his announcement to the media yesterday before notifying the resort’s operator, Hilton Hotels.

He said: “Is that how you act with a partner? What does that look like to our international players? Completely unbelievable.”

Mr Cannonier accused Colonel Burch and David Burt, the Premier, of “making blunder after blunder after blunder“ and called on both men to resign.

He called it an “inexcusable waste of the taxpayers’ dollars” and said such repeat failures would get people fired “anywhere else in the world”.

In March, Mr Burt confirmed that the Government had guaranteed another $25 million loan on behalf of the BDCL for the completion of the resort, bringing the total cost of the project to more than $100 million.

Yesterday, Colonel Burch said an additional $5 million will now be needed.

Mr Cannonier said: “Premier, you need to step down. You are the finance minister who allowed this to happen. Bermuda has had enough.”

He added: “Bermuda, you need to vote this government out.”