Refurbishing Of Moon Palace 80 Per Cent Complete

Refurbishing work on the 705-room Moon Palace Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios, St. Ann is approximately 80 per cent complete.

The former Sunset Jamaica Grande was taken over by the Mexico-based Moon Palace Resort in September 1, 2014, with an estimated US$150 million being spent to refurbish the property.

General Manager of the Resort, Clifton Reader, informed that most of the work should be completed in April. This includes refurbishing of the rooms, lobby, pools, restaurants, landscaping and other areas.

“We knocked down 40 rooms and we put up 65 rooms. What we have done on the north tower…we have taken four rooms and made one suite, so at the end of it we will have …705 units to include one and two bedroom suites and two fantastic villas,” he informed.

The General Manager said a date is to be finalised for the opening of the property.

Meanwhile, Mr. Reader said as part of Moon Palace’s commitment to the former Sunset Jamaica Grande employees, the company has so far employed 564 of those workers, which will be increased to 1,200 when the property opens.

“When the hotel is open at 100 per cent, we will be employing twice the amount of staff that we had before…. this will be very good for Ocho Rios,” he pointed out.

Mr. Reader informed that Moon Palace has established a foundation to address some of the needs of its team members and the communities that serve the resort.

“The Foundation will be set up to help team members in problems and it will help the communities around the hotel and Jamaica as well. We committed US$250,000 to start up the foundation. Also, we sold every piece of furniture in the (original) 730 rooms plus lobby furniture and those funds (US$60,000) were donated to the Foundation,” he said.