A water sports dock for dive boats, catamarans and tour operators is planned as part of a major ongoing hotel development at the southern end of the Seven Mile Beach strip.
The 10-storey Grand Hyatt will be the “largest hotel in the Cayman Islands once constructed”, according to developers.
The group behind the partially built project, first approved more than six years ago, is now seeking a coastal works application to add a dock to the design.
Paperwork submitted with the application indicates, “The proposed development wishes to offer water sports facilities for its guests (including members of the public).”
The largest proposed boat to be berthed at the dock is a 60-foot catamaran operated by Red Sail Sports, the application states.
Docks and piers have traditionally not been approved on the main Seven Mile strip. But there is no official policy on this and the location of the Grand Hyatt, close to the Wharf restaurant at the southern end of West Bay Road, is beyond the main beach.
Designs submitted with the application show a linear pier extending outward from the ironshore coastline adjacent to the pocket beach fronting the hotel property. Plans indicate it would be a reinforced concrete construction of around 1,400 square feet.
The application indicates vibratory hammers and silt screens would be used during construction to mitigate impacts on the marine environment.
Plans for a large resort hotel on the site of the old Pageant Beach property were first approved in 2018. But the development was delayed due to disruptions from the pandemic and financing challenges.
The project gained new traction in 2023 when Sterling Global Financial announced it was partnering with Pageant Beach Hotel Ltd to take the project to completion.
Since then, work has accelerated at the site with a 2025 opening targeted.
Located on a seven-acre site, the development will include 190 hotel rooms, 88 ‘condo-hotel’ guest rooms and 76 one-, two- and three-bed ‘condo hotel suites’, according to advance publicity from the developer.
It is also slated to include six restaurants, three resort-style swimming pools, a 12,000-square-foot destination spa and fitness centre, and a 25,000 square-foot indoor-outdoor conference meeting space.
Work is well under way with at least seven stories already built. Along the site’s waterfront is a mix of sandy beach, ironshore and hard-pan bottom alongside the remnants of man-made structures, possibly associated with the old property.
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They will get approval, that’s Cayman. But if I want to clear my land i have to save the indigenous trees and the guys get to destroy the sea bed both on the west coast and in the north sound? Help me understand why the poor people always gets drowned in all the red tape?
Absolutely not!