International Meetings Review recently toured the construction site of the ongoing Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa project on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and can attest that the hotel looks like it will be completed on time for its scheduled November opening date.
The hotel will represent Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants’ first hotel outside of North America (Kimpton has managed properties in Canada) and Grand Cayman’s first hotel development on its famous Seven Mile Beach in about a decade.
We met with Steven Andre, general manager, who told us the hotel will consist of roughly 265 rooms sitting on about a 10.5-acre parcel of land. Andre told us the Seafire name refers to Seven Mile Beach and the sunsets that can be viewed from most vantage points at the resort.
The hotel’s full-service spa will have eight treatment rooms, including two couples rooms. As far as meeting space goes, Andre said there will be three meeting rooms and a 7,200 square-foot ballroom.
Although Andre would not commit to telling us this will be a five-star hotel, he did say it will provide five-star service and will be priced in between the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, which is perhaps the most expensive hotel on the island, and The Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort & Spa, which is one of the best mid-level hotels on the island.
Andre also told us there is a major incentive to finish on time, as there is a group slated to book out the entire resort in November. It will, however, be a soft opening, with the grand opening slated for sometime in December, Andre says.
Steven Andre, general manager of the new Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa, took IMR on a tour of the construction site. // Photo by Joe Pike
“This is an exciting time for Kimpton,” Andre told us. “This is going to bring Kimpton to a new level. There are also a lot of other developments in the works for Kimpton and I would expect other Kimpton hotels in the Caribbean in the future.”
There will technically be two pools on property. There will be an adults’ pool, and the other pool will be divided into three sections – a plunge pool; a family pool, or “the main pool;” and a kids’ pool.
There will be six restaurants here. The signature restaurant will be a 32-seat Mediterranean, tapas-style restaurant. The name of the signature restaurant has yet to be decided on, Andre says.
Andre told us that 93 percent of the rooms will be ocean view while the remaining will face the North side, which also offers impressive views of the lit up nightlife of Grand Cayman.
San Francisco-based Kimpton, acquired by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) about a year ago, currently manages 65 hotels and operates more than 70 hotel-based destination restaurants and bars in 31 U.S. cities and resort areas.