incoming at Denarau

New investments still incoming at Denarau

BIG things are happening

at Denarau Island, Fiji.

Already the site of the Sheraton Fiji Resort, and the Sheraton Royal Denarau, Denarau Island will also include a new Air Pacific hotel, Port Denarau and now, Trendwest Resorts.

Trendwest Resorts inc., an American company, has formally acquired a 12.8 acre parcel of land located to the south of the Sheraton Fiji Resort on Denarau Island.

Fiji’s minister for tourism and transport, David Pickering, announced the settlement of the acquisition by Trendwest from Tabua Investments Ltd.

Tabua Investments are the developers of the Denarau Island project and are responsible for selecting investors for the tourism project.

“It was good news that Fiji had been able to attract an investor of Trendwest’s calibre,” Mr Pickering said.

Trendwest is publicly traded on the US Nasdaq stock exchange and is recognised as one of the world’s largest vacation own ership companies with over 60,000 mem bers.

Mr Harold Derrah of International Resort Development Services Ltd will be the project manager for Trendwest’s Denarau development.

Howver, the project ran into a hitch when the NZ builder, Mainzeal, pulled out of the deal.

Trendwest has since called for further tenders for the construction of the resort with work expected to begin as soon as those details are finalised.

Trendwest will construct a 200 apart ment resort that will include 353 bed rooms. The development will include a variety of three, two and one bedroom apartments each with their own kitchen, living and dining room facilities.

Trendwest have appointed a Fiji based architectural practice, SK Architects, Suva, to be the principal architects for the devel opment.

The project has already gone to tender and an announcement as to the principal contractor was expected shortly. Mr Derrah says “the company hopes to start construction by the end of the year with the completion of stage one late next year”.

Commenting on Fiji’s potential, Mr Derrah believes that Fiji has a great oppor tunity to become a major destination for the North American vacation market.

“I believe that this development, which: is geared to the North American market, fits perfectly into Fiji’s marketing strate gies to increase inbound tourism from that region,” he stated.

Mr Martin Lekner, Chairman of the Board for Tabua Investments Ltd, said “this is another significant milestone for Denarau Island, for Fiji tourism and the Fiji economy.

This announcement means that shortly there will be over 600 hotel rooms under construction at Denarau island”.

Both Mr Lekner and Mr Derrah com mented on the good spirit of co-operation and assistance that Trendwest Investments and the government of Fiji had enjoyed which made the finalisation of the deal possible.

Trendwest has 25 other resorts located in British Columbia, Canada, Mexico and the American States of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.

At the press conference to announce the Trendwest development at Denarau Island, Mr Lekner added that final planning was underway for a major development of Port Denarau.

Tabua Investments was hopeful that it would start construction of a tourism town to be known as Port Denarau in the first part of 1999.

Commitments from prospective tenants were now being sought concerning 45,000 square feet of retail space to house an array of businesses focusing on both tourism and general retail to service the needs of hotel guests and planned residents of Denarau Island.

The retail outlets include duty free stores, speciality boutiques, superette, del icatessen, bank, bakery, butcher, book store, gallery, etc., as well as a number of business and professional premises.

With the growing number of vessels operating from Port Denarau and the asso ciated increase in levels of visitors passing through, an expansion of the marina facili ties is also being planned the first part of this year.

There was a need for new jetty space to accommodate the increased number of operators using Port Denarau and to better cater to the rapid rise in private yachts berthing at Denarau.

Also announced was the development of the Denarau Yacht Club that will open this month. The Denarau Yacht Club fea tures a grill restaurant and bar with seating

for up to 60 diners for lunch and dinner.

The building features a panoramic Queensland style verandah with sweeping views of the marina.

Additional facilities attached to the Denarau Yacht Club will be made available

for visiting yachts including showers, toi lets and full washing facilities.

Another aspect of the planning includes the development of a state of the art termi nal building that will ensure customers of a swift and easy check-in. Port Denarau is

already the transit point from the main island of Viti Levu and Nadi Airport to the numerous resorts in the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands. In addition, there are a variety of cruises and daytrips operating from Port Denarau.

Martin Lekner stated that he was confi dent that Port Denarau would evolve into the South Pacific premier retail and transit tourism complex.

As part of the Port Denarau develop ment, Mr Lekner also announced a tender for the sale of a one ha parcel of land that was earmarked for the construction of a 100-150 room hotel to open in May 2000.

Mr Lekner stated that Port Denarau had the capacity to be the second most impor tant tourism transit point for Fiji after the International Airport. Denarau Island resort has clearly established itself as Fiji’s premier tourism destination.

Mr Lekner said that one of the critical features of the development of Port Denarau was the construction of a boutique three-star hotel to anchor the retail devel opment.

It has long been recognised that there is a good opportunity for a mid-priced hotel on Denarau that would complement the five-star hotels of Sheraton and the pro posed Grand Hyatt.

Tabua Investments Ltd also announced plans for the first stage of the residential development at Denarau island. The first stage will be known as “Fairway Palms”.

Fairway Palms has 49 sections on free hold title. The prices range from F 570,000 up to F$ 130,000 with sizes ranging from approximately 600 sq. metres to 960 sq. metres. The sections will be sold subject to 12 house designs. Tabua Investments announced that three architectural prac tices, Architects Pacific of Fiji, Architectural Warren & Mahoney of New Zealand and McKerrell Lynch of Australia have been appointed to each prepare four residential designs.

“I believe there will be enormous demand for this type of residential product.

Denarau Island offers some tremendous advantages, including the facilities at the two Sheraton Resorts, the Denarau Golf & Racquet.Club and Port Denarau Marina.

In addition there is the important con sideration of security that will be of a high level, though understated so as not to be intrusive,” Mr Lekner said.

He concluded by saying that the various announcements meant there would be a major transformation at Denarau Island over the course of the next two years.

“The high level of construction activity planned is strong evidence of a resurgence in the tourism industry and strong investor confidence,” he said. ■