Plans by an American property developer to buy the Belmont Hotel have collapsed, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Forte Hotels, which owns the Belmont, has cancelled an agreement it had with the New Jersey-based James Dwyer Hospitality Group to buy the hotel.

Forte is remarketing the Warwick hotel, which closed in November, 1998, and claims to have attracted interest from business groups in Bermuda and overseas.

Forte Property manager Mark Stretton would not reveal why his company has cancelled the contract to buy with James Dwyer.

Speaking from Forte headquarters in London last night, Mr. Stretton would only say: "We have terminated the contract and are remarketing.

"There are a number of parties interested, some from overseas, some from Bermuda.'' The Belmont is the latest in a series of attempted property deals in Bermuda which have fallen through for Mr. Dwyer.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Dwyer, who owns the White Sands Hotel in Paget, said in January that he hoped to complete the purchase of the 151 bedroom hotel by the end of last month.

Mr. Dwyer lost out on a previous bid to buy the Belmont in 1998 when a deal was lined up to sell it to Elbow Beach, but this later collapsed.

He renewed his interest in the property last year, but a number of deadlines he set for buying the hotel passed with no deal completed.

He entered negotiations to buy the Sonesta Beach Hotel in Southampton, but in September last year Sonesta owners Aetna Insurance broke off talks.

The Royal Gazette has made repeated attempts to contact Mr. Dwyer, without success.