Adrian Frater, News Editor 
Sandals Chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart listen to a guest giving her impression of the incomplete Sandals Whitehouse property shortly after the property opened for business Thursday.
WESTERN BUREAU: DESPITE WELCOMING its first guests on Thursday, the Sandals Group is hopping mad that it was forced to open the new 360-room Sandals Whitehouse property in Westmoreland in an incomplete state.
As a result, the group fears it will lose millions of dollars in projected revenue.
"It is a fact that the property is not ready," said Sandals Group Chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, in acknowledging that the property had only 180 ready rooms. "However, we had a commitment to the international market so we had to go ahead an open the property."
CONSTRUCTION WORK STILL IN HIGH GEAR
With construction work still in high gear and many of the promised five star facilities not yet operational, Sandals has decided to make the stay of their current guests complementary, as a means of compensating them for the inconvenience they are now facing in light of the limited facilities.
"We are currently only offering about two star services so we have taken a decision to offer our guest a free return vacation to Sandals Whitehouse," said Leo Lambert, Sandals' director of corporate communications. "We were fully booked so all this going to cost us millions and millions of dollars."
In explaining why Sandals had gone out and market the property ahead of its completion, Mr. Lambert said they were given an assurance that the property, which has been under construction for the past four years, would be fully completed and operational by February 10, 2005.
"Our original estimates for opening were based on the representation we received from the development company," said Mr. Lambert. He noted that although Sandals was a part of the joint venture group the NIBJ and UDC the group was not involved in the planning of the physical plant and the financial operation. "Clearly, they miscalculated and their failure to deliver on a timely basis is the primary cause of this situation."
When the UDC was contacted for a comment, a spokesperson told The Gleaner that the operators (The Sandals Group) were fully aware of what was happening at all times and were quite cognisant of problems which caused a delay in the completion of the project.
