A US business tycoon has bought up the Newstead and Belmont Hills golf course.

Now hedge fund manager Larry Doyle — who already owns the old Lantana property — plans to upgrade both the golf course and the hotel, with a new clubhouse at Belmont Hills and more rooms at the Belmont on his agenda.

And he added that prices for fractional ownership at Belmont would be slashed to as low as $99,000 for eight weeks.

Mr Doyle, who has been linked with the properties for three years, said: “We are very bullish about Bermuda.”

He declined to discuss the price of the twin properties — but it understood it could be as high as $18 million.

Mr Doyle said: “In fairness to the banker and receivers, they got me to pay more than I would have liked — but I still believe I have a very marketable property with the best location in Bermuda. I’m very happy.”

The news ends uncertainty over the Newstead and Belmont sites, which have been in receivership for three years.

New York-based Mr Doyle said he planned to concentrate on the Newstead in Paget and Belmont in Warwick before tacking the Somerset Bridge-based Lantana.

Mr Doyle added: “First things first — we’re going to aggressively market the fractional units that are there just now.

“They will start as low as $99,000 for eight weeks. Existing owners will get the deep discounts. but we will be discounting for new buyers as well.”

Mr Doyle said: “Any money that’s going to go into it will be the golf course. We’re exploring building a new clubhouse and that’s probably where our energy will go to initially.”

And he said: “There is a phase we might want to develop and build at Newstead before we do Lantana.”

He added that “it doesn’t make much sense” to redevelop Lantana before selling off the fractional units already built at Newstead.

Mr Doyle said: “There is talk of raising the tennis courts and adding on more rooms — Newstead is only a 60-bed hotel. If we could take that up to 90 or 100 rooms, it would be a much more efficient hotel.”

The property developer and managing director of hedge fund and mutual fund managers Horizon Kinetics also controls real estate investment company Katierich Asset Management.

He bought the Lantana site several years ago while on vacation in Bermuda and snapped it up despite the resort having closed more than a decade ago.

Mr Doyle added that, once the site is redeveloped, it would share service like ferry and limousine services with the Newstead/Belmont operation.

He said: “I control both properties now, so it will be much easier to hammer out these details.”

It is understood that the present Newstead site, which opened in 2008 just as the worldwide recession hit, cost around $70 million to build.

Former owner Kevin Petty, who masterminded the redevelopment of Newstead and Belmont between 2001-2008, was in charge when Butterfield Bank put it into receivership.

Mr Petty said: “I’m very sad — I’m also realistic and I think Larry Doyle is a decent gentleman who I hope will be able to operate it successfully.

“It’s a great property and I left my soul there.”

He added that the global recession, which started in 2008, saw plummeting occupancy rates.

But he said: “I really believe it was the right thing for tourism and for Bermuda. It’s a sad moment for me — my whole life was put into that thing. But, between debt and timing, it really wasn’t to be.”