The DeVille Hotel

History

In 1997 Fraser Butterworth met an old friend, William de V. Frith in the bar of the Dinghy Club. At that time Willy was a past Commodore of the club but more importantly was the current Mayor of the City of Hamilton. The conversation led to a question to the Mayor as to what plans, if any, the city had for the future use of the Par La Ville car park in the city centre? Willy’s response was none, but he was sure that the Corporation would eventually ask Planning what would be a suitable alternative to a surface car park.

Two months later, Fraser asked for a meeting with the Mayor and Corporation and asked them for their reaction to a proposal for a City Hotel on the site. A developer had been found, a hotel operator had been alerted and all that was needed was consent from the Corporation to a long-term lease. (In those days a long lease in Bermuda was about 25 years!) A hundred years was added to the needed lease and the first city Hotel since the demise of the Hamilton Hotel was conceived.

The Project Brief

A name for the venture was easily struck and the De Ville Hotel project was on its way. A few months later, the newly designed proposal for a 140 room five-star hotel and luxury condominium project (the Deville Hotel & Residences) was ready to go to Planning. New ground was broken in the design as the design catered for 3 layers of car parking below ground; a ground floor that allowed public access through its lobby to the adjacent Par La Ville Park; a level of small shops and stores. Lobby bars and a café occupied parts of the lowest levels on the streets flanking the site. The 140 rooms were designed to be guest suites to suit the required standards of the Hotel operator (Four Seasons Hotels) and the two upper floors were capped with 10 very luxurious homes. The project stood 8 stories high above Church Street, topped by a traditional form “Bermuda roof”.

The Biggest Success

The design was finalized after many meetings with Planners who agreed to attend frequent meetings as the project evolved. The project was shown to the Corporation (who had mixed feelings about its height) and then went to the Planning Department. The Architects, Developers and Hoteliers requested that they be allowed to present the project directly to the lay members of Development Applications Board before they were asked to make a decision. The presentation took about 2 hours. After the meeting (as the presentation materials were being packed away) members of the DAB came out of committee and congratulated the team on a fine effort and we were told that they had approved the proposal. (This had never happened before.)

So what happened after that?

The developer found an “experienced co-developer” with supposed greater access to financing, who basically, and after many months, reneged on their agreements and retired from the project which by then had lost momentum. The Hotelier grew disenchanted and withdrew and the project entered its we can't raise the financing stage. It never proceeded.

The project is shown on the next several pages of this web production to illustrate the level of design and compliance with the luxury hotel standards of the day. This project was designed to the full approval of the Four Seasons Hotel group. It shows the completeness of the pre-producton design drawings that the firm were (and still are) capable of producing. It was to be a handsome building befitting the City in which it was to be built. There was no insistence on Architects from outside Bermuda being required, we demostrated that we were up to the challenge of the project. The site is still vacant: