New hotel next to Oceania?

[~Amy~®]

The new Embassy Suites will also have a lot of rooms. Wonder if they’ll venture to Eagle or Palm Beach?

330 rooms for the new Embassy Suites. They are closest to the Divi Phoenix (easy walk) but my guess is that they will clear more land for a man made beach like they did in front of Blue. It's a shame to bulldoze all of the natural vegetation. The early morning walk/jog from Amsterdam Manor to the Phoenix was a favorite of mine for many years - all natural, serene, and you could hear the birds in the bird sanctuary on one side. Now....full of concrete.

[robin]

They have been working everyday on this property including today. Now that they have cleaned up the vegetation from about my building to Irausquin, they are breaking up old concrete. Another piece of equipment is continuing to take out vegetation.

[robin]

They have been work everyday on clearing that lot. One of the owners here spoke to the property manager. He said it is supposed to be an Iberostar 200 room all inclusive tiered back like at Oceania. I don't know if it is 200 rooms or suites. I'll let you know if I hear anything else.

[robin]

Update: They have cleared all the vegetation from the sidewalk back just past the end of Oceania. They took out some or all of what I guess was a bit of a parking lot. The took down metal pieces including an old light pole or two. All of the rest of the cement-what looks like might have been a pool, columns, blocks, large rocks, cinderblock building, etc. is still there. All the equipment and dumpsters are gone. One of our long time owners said they are required to clean up and "move some dirt around" every five years or they could lose their building permit. I have no idea what is happening.

It looks like they are starting construction between the RUI and the park. It is fenced off, with plastic(?) over the fencing. You can see various construction equipment. I'll check out next time I am there.

[robin]

New equipment arrived this morning. I think it is an excavator. (when my younger one was 2 he told me I didn't know anything about big machines-a very perceptive 2 year old). It took down the old, totally faded sign with some type of grabbing/claw like thing. Now it has a bucket(?) on it and it appears to be digging out the what appears to be the old pool. I'm surprised that didn't happen years ago because someone could have fallen in. Still crossing my fingers that they are just cleaning up the lot and making it safe, however there are a few stakes in the ground.

[robin]

After several days of hearing the jackhammer attachment taking out the pool walls and all the rest of the concrete including what I guess was a part of a fence, they loaded up the machine and all it's attachments(jack hammer, claw, bucket). Over the weekend they had loaded all the large pieces of cement onto flatbed after flatbed and carted them away. There is a huge mounds of what they took out of the pool(dirt, sand, concrete, vegetation) and the pool is still not filled in. It seemed like when they broke the walls up they let it fall into the pool. We are guessing a bulldozer will be back to push the mounds of dirt and pieces of concrete into the hole. They left the cinderblock structure and we noticed a few weeks ago there is now pvc pipes leading to the drainage ditch.

[robin]

There is still a big hole where the pool was and piles of dirt and debris that they pulled from inside the pool. They have spent the last week cutting back all the vegetation along the road, which is a good thing because when you walk along there, you are hidden from the road. Now anyone walking will be visible from the road, so it is safer. They've been surveying the property today. Our condo association said that Iberostar is looking to break ground 3 quarter of this year. The final plans still need approval for the 240 room all inclusive 5 star resort. BTW, that property's size is the same size as Oceania and will have 240 rooms vs 134 condos.