Divi Corporation, which recently closed their operation on Cayman Brac - the Divi Tiara Beach Resort - has confirmed that the property is for sale and that there are several interested parties.

VP Sales and Marketing, Mark Steward, told Cayman Net News that Divi is entertaining several offers at this time from a variety of entities.

He said there were a couple of interested parties from the Cayman Islands, a couple from Bonaire and people from Europe, all with good price offers. However, nothing had been decided and new offers would be considered.

Mr Steward said that some were interested in the business as a whole and some were interested in the land. A few making offers were looking at turning the property into an upscale boutique resort, which would run its own private plane service.

This type of clientele would be the most beneficial to the Island - the high caliber, low density, high profitability market, thought Mr Steward.

"I think the best option for the Brac would be for someone with ten million to put into the property on top of the purchase price," he said, and suggested that the new owners would probably need to rebuild the whole thing.

"For a start, it would need a huge pool and spa - make it into a mini Ritz Carlton, with perhaps fifty to seventy-five rooms at $1,000 per night. These were the types of things that we thought of. Cayman Brac is not a mass market Island."

Mr Steward pointed out that with fifty-nine rooms and twelve timeshares at Divi Tiara, they were never full, at most filled thirty to forty rooms, and quite often had only a few people booked.

"This would happen year in and year out. We would drop the rates down to where we were getting $20 a room, though in the package, you couldn't tell."

He maintained, as Divi had in their press release following the sudden closure, that the biggest challenge for any resort on Cayman Brac was air scheduling.

"If the airlift issue could have been fixed, we could have made a go of the hotel," he said, adding that Divi Tiara had lost ten groups this year because they had long stops on Grand Cayman.

When the groups found they had to change to Cayman Express Service, which runs Twin Otter aircraft, they immediately cancelled. What was needed was at least two non-stops out of Miami or New York, leaving about noon or 1:00 pm, according to Mr Steward.

The Saturday morning Miami-Brac jet flight does little good for the Brac because it leaves too early. If passengers are not coming from the Miami area they either have to overnight there or go through Grand Cayman.

"The Express does not take the place of the jet service. There are just some people who are not going to get on an Express flight. People who don't like flying just aren't going to do it."

Asked why the closure was so sudden and without warning to the staff, he said that if they told staff they were going to close, "either they would leave or slow down, and the clients would start to suffer quickly".

He said they looked at every possible scenario, but were facing a mandatory investment into the property to bring it up to standards required by the Cayman Government, which would cost them about US$350,000. They had been given until 31 October.

The Department of Tourism had given them a list of improvements, and much covered the same issues as last year, said Mr Steward, who added that some of the regulations were overly intrusive.

Last year, they had had to change the bedspreads and the drapery and had put in a new walkway to replace one that was not to standard. Mr Steward claimed that Divi had looked at every method possible to get more people to the Brac.

"We love the Cayman Islands and have put a tremendous amount of money and focus into filling the Brac hotel, especially in the four years that I've been with the Corporation," he claimed.

"We have nine resorts and that one (Divi Tiara) is so difficult to fill. We have begged the tour wholesalers to pick it up, but they have brought no business. They say there is no demand for the Brac."

The other issue with promoting the property, other than flight times, is lack of activities. "If they're not going to dive, then what?"

Mr Steward said they had tried to promote rock climbing, and a local climber, John Byrnes had even trained two of the dive staff as guides. They had tried to encourage people to go and see Bat Cave and do bird watching.

"Divers Alert Network (DAN) is located near to us. We said, let's go and do medical conventions."

However, Mr Steward said that every convention was stopped due to the airlift.

He claimed that the only other hotel on the Island, the Brac Reef Beach Resort, was given preferential prices on airfare within packages.

"We went to CAL and were told that we would never get the same air rates as the Brac Reef because of their special relationship. We were given an air contract but could never compete with the Brac Reef packages. Government was limiting competition," claimed Mr Steward.

All vacationers that were booked with Divi and want to switch to the Brac Reef or to Carib Sands or Brac Caribbean are being accommodated, and Divi is paying the difference in price, he said.

Timeshare owners were given three choices: they could continue to stay at the Divi Tiara timeshare units and use the facilities at the Brac Reef; they could transfer the rest of their contract to the Divi resort at Bonaire; or they could join their Vacation Club, through which they could choose any Divi destination each year.

Divi Tiara has twelve timeshares, six of which have recently been totally refurbished. Divi has work permits for staff to finish the other six.

"We are presently investigating whether we can sell the timeshares or not, but will more than likely end up keeping them. They and the hotel are on two separate parcels of land," explained Mr Steward.

Divi Staff will be paid all their entitlements and should receive their cheques on Thursday 21 September.

"Of course we feel badly for the staff - they are caught in the middle of this - but businesswise, it made no sense to keep the Tiara open. There has to be a major shift in the situation before it becomes a viable destination," said Mr Steward.

nicky@caymannetnews.com