Progress on the much-awaited The Pearl South Pacific Resort development project is on track. The Papua New Guinea owners anticipate the project’s completion and entire opening come next August.

The Pearl Resort is said to highlight the potential of the country’s adventure capital Pacific Harbour, creating 190 additional jobs.

This with new state-of-the-art facilities undergoing three phases of construction/building.

The investment, now hovering around $85 million, began two years ago and has surely come a long way, said resort general manager, Natalie Marletta.

Developers and owners are PNG’s Mineral Resources Development Company which took over operations in 2012.

“It’s something that’s needed. And it’s going to develop the community even more,” Ms Marletta said of the development.

She highlighted the gradual progress and the three phases of development.

The development includes the marina, which is complete, rooms, conference, spa and gym, fine dining restaurant and a wedding chapel.

“We’ve got 132 rooms…we’ve got river frontage as well as garden view rooms and then rooms that look directly over Beqa and Yanuca,” she said.

“Our conference centre is a 400-seat conference centre, retail, plus a 250-seater brasserie.

“There’s also a boardwalk which leads right around the marina up to the fine dining restaurant-that’ll all be completed in August next year.

“Everything’s on schedule at the moment and looking really great.”

The spa is due for completion and opening in another couple of weeks and has been carefully designed and is expected to be a first of its kind in Fiji, she adds.

“We have a brand new facility spa with eight treatment rooms. We’ve got state-of-the-art everything in there, it’s looking amazing, really luxurious building-something Fiji hasn’t seen before.

“Our new gym is completed, our chapel is being done and then our signature Seduce is due to open in the middle of November.”

The wedding chapel, she said after its opening has been gaining a lot of interest for those who want to seal their promise at the resort.

“It’s been really popular with beautiful views out to Beqa lagoon. And then of course the fine dining-this is an amazing restaurant.

“It’s got beautiful views of the river and the ocean that’s seating all around on the deck. Sunken bar. Something really funky.”

The marina can fit around 18 boats. Opening has been put on hold due to the ongoing construction phase of the resort and conference area and will open once this has been done.

“The directors of the hotel… had a walk-through all the progress of the development (recently) and were extremely happy,” she said.

“We’ve had some delays with rain but that’s only a week or two. But everything else is on track and they’re (directors) extremely happy with it and can’t wait for it to finish August next year.”

Pacific Building Solutions (PBS) is the main contractor in the project with AAPi Design as the architects.

Feedback:  ranobab@fijisun.com.fj