Above: a rendering of the new look of the Mount Nevis Hotel. (Caribbean Journal)

The expansion will see the addition of 36 new hotel rooms to the existing 32-room property.

“This investment…will have the effect of increasing opportunities for employment,” Nevis Premier Vance Amory said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “It will increase opportunities for business places to provide services [during] the construction. It will also, on completion, provide long-term jobs for those who will be serving the increased capacity which is being created in the day-to-day operation of this facility.”

Amory said the project would “increase the island’s critical mass where hotel rooms was concerned.”

“There will be an increase for revenue opportunities,” he said. “That is important for us because we need to now rebuild our Nevis Island financial position very seriously.”

Echoing Amory’s remarks, Nevis Tourism Minister Mark Brantley said the expansion marked a “significant event for tourism” on the island.

The hotel is owned by Dr Adly Meguid and Evan Welbourn.