Cayman Islands
- Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants announced plans to develop a 263-room boutique-style hotel on Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, the brand’s first Caribbean resort and Seven Mile Beach’s first new development in a decade. Opening is slated for 2016.
- Plans are underway for a terminal expansion at Owen Roberts International Airport in Grand Cayman. Construction on the $55 million project is set to kick off in September, with a three-year timeline projected. Once complete, the airport will accommodate close to 2.5 million passengers.
Costa Rica
- Costa Rica is planning its first convention center, the 161,458-square-foot ICT–Centro Nacional de Congreso y Convenciones de Costa Rica, designed to capture the country’s lush landscape with a 30-foot-tall glass wall in the prefunction area and conference rooms surrounded by gardens. The project is still in development with no completion date available at press time.
U.S. Virgin Islands
- On track to open during the fall, the Margaritaville Vacation Club on St. Thomas will be the USVI’s first Margaritaville-branded Wyndham resort property and will feature a Margaritaville restaurant right on the beach.
Yucatan Peninsula
- Newly opened in the heart of the Riviera Maya, the Grand Hyatt Playa del Carmen Resort includes 314 rooms, two restaurants and several bars, the full-service Cenote Spa, a fitness center and more than 15,000 square feet of flexible event space.
- Also on the Riviera Maya, the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort recently completed an $80 million renovation, adding two new restaurants, upgraded suites and a new entertainment center complete with a bowling alley. Future renovation plans call for several new meeting spaces in 2016.
- The $2 million Coral KidZ Club opened in July at the Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach Resort and Spa, Cancun, with 40,000 square feet of activity space, including a computer zone and outdoor play areas.
- The Hard Rock Hotel Cancun has some food news: the new Diego, which serves burgers and dogs till sunset when it converts to an outdoor Mexican grill; and the revamped restaurants Zen and Frida, both sporting new designs and epic, hand-painted murals.