Belvista Overseas Investment, a subsidiary of Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG) Projects, has signed an agreement with the Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) to develop, in association with Jordanian partners, a new luxury five star resort hotel and spa complex on the shores of the Dead Sea on a site of 48,790 square meters. The estimated cost of the resort is $60 million and will create 500 new jobs taking two years to complete.
In an interview with menareport.com , WATG’s Chris Dandridge stated that despite the climate of political turmoil in the region, the company sees promise in Middle Eastern markets. Jordan has proven to be a successful market in the past 20 years, said Dandridge. The company’s 10-20 year business plan for the Kingdom includes further investment in other tourism projects, apart from the Dead Sea Beach Resort.
The hotel will be designed by WATG who have extensive experience in Jordan, the Middle East and internationally. The resort hotel will have 250 rooms, 30 serviced apartments with extensive conference, multiple restaurants, spa and other guest facilities. It is planned that the resort will be under the management of one of the international management corporations and discussions are currently in progress with three international management corporations.
WATG Projects are also hoping to develop an international destination resort in Aqaba on a 3,000 dunum site in partnership with the Sovereign Group. This destination resort would incorporate a 300 dunum inland lagoon with marina and super yacht berthing for daily and long term leasing, two 18 hole golf courses for commercial operation, four five star hotels with a total of 1,500 rooms, extensive conferencing facilities, 1,250 mixed apartments and villas for sale or lease.
The destination resort is planned to be developed over a 12 year term at a capital cost of circa one billion dollars generating 4,000 direct employment and potentially another 4,000 indirect jobs. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
