Construction stops on hotel at golf resort in West Palm Beach as contractor files liens

Construction of a hotel at a golf resort in West Palm Beach has stopped, and the general contractor has filed $7.7 million of liens on the property.

No construction crews have worked on the hotel project in the last three weeks, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The developer of the Banyan Cay Resort & Golf Club told the Post the pause in hotel construction was a “business decision.”

Domenic Gatto, founder of the company behind the Banyan Cay development, told the Post the pause in construction is a temporary tactic to move the planned 2020 opening of the 150-room hotel from the beginning of summer, a slow season for tourism, to the end.

Gatto also told the newspaper the Banyan Cay project has ample funding and his relationship with the general contractor, West Palm Beach-based Jacob Companies, is good.

Gatto’s company paid $26 million for the 250-acre development site, formerly known as the President Country Club, in 2015. The site is just east of Interstate 95 and north of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.

Major components of the $100 million Banyan Cay project have been completed, including a golf course that Jack Nicklaus redesigned and a clubhouse. But the 150-room hotel, which would be managed by Noble House Hotels & Resorts, is now a concrete shell without windows or a roof.

Rick Greene, development services director for the City of West Palm Beach, told the newspaper he discussed Banyan Cay with a spokesman for the project on Wednesday and concluded that “they need funding, or they’re in a dispute with their contractor, or a combination of both.” [Palm Beach Post] – Mike Seemuth