On New Year’s Eve, Amsterdam-based Playa Hotels & Resorts entered into a binding agreement with a third party to sell the Jewel Paradise Cove resort in Jamaica for a total consideration of $28.5 million in cash. Other terms and conditions were not disclosed.
According to the Jamaica Observer, the property officially opened in 2013 under its current brand and is owned by Paradise Cove Resort Lucia. The Jamaica Gleaner reported that the resort was built on the site of the former Hedonism III property and was owned by the Super Clubs Group before it was acquired by the Sagicor Group in May 2013 and underwent a $5 million renovation.
According to a statement from Playa, the sale of the resort is subject to customary closing conditions, and the company offers no assurances that this sale will be completed. The company expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2025.
If the sale goes through as planned, the Observer reports it would represent Playa’s third resort transaction in Jamaica in the past five years, following the sale of Jewel Dunn’s River Beach Resort & Spa and the Jewel Runaway Bay Beach Resort & Waterpark to Sandals Resorts International for $56.50 million. The Jewel Dunn’s River property was rebranded to the Sandals Dunn’s River and reopened in May 2023.
All three of these Jewel resorts were previously owned by the Sagicor Sigma Real Estate portfolio and were sold in June 2018 to Playa which acquired five Jamaican hotel properties from Sagicor Real Estate X-Fund and the Sagicor Sigma portfolio. According to the Observer, that deal brought Playa’s resort count in Jamaica to seven properties. The sale of the Jewel Paradise Cove property would shrink Playa’s proprietary Jamaican portfolio from 1,428 rooms to 1,203 rooms across four resorts, including the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa and Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort & Spa.