Last week the developers of Morritt’s Tortuga Club and Morritt’s Grand Resort announced a $58mil expansion starting in 2012. This announcement echoes end of year forecasts predicting that construction and development will recover in 2012. And at the same time…
…it defies regional predictions that the Caribbean is still in a slump with a long way to go before returning to pre-2008 levels of activity.
We are not surprised that the Morritt’s enterprises would choose to expand again. The Morritt’s brand has been highly successful since the Morritt family began developing it in 1989. Over the years it has steadily expanded and improved. It does not surprise us either that these two resorts are bucking the timeshare trend and actually increasing ownership where most of the fractional industry is losing members. Morritts has hit upon a formula of reasonably priced units, located on the beach with numerous amenities built in to the property, run by a predominantly Caymanian staff who make owners and visitors feel like family – a formula that continues to be successful even during the economic downturn and the struggle of the timeshare industry.
In spite of the Morritt’s properties being in the remote East End of Grand Cayman, despite time shares still being in a downward trend since 2008, despite the overall non-robust economy world-wide, despite the recent trend in Cayman real estate of ultra-luxury tourist developments, the Morritt’s resorts are thriving.
We look forward to the further development of the Morritt’s properties which have been an economic anchor for the East End of Grand Cayman and a model for tourism development. We also look forward to learning details about the Eco-Village announced as part of the expansion. All of this bodes well for Cayman real estate and our tourism industry.
