Simon Cowell's £15m nightmare in paradise as his plan for a Caribbean hideaway leaves him hugely out of pocket

By Alison Boshoff

Simon Cowell is normally rather a creature of habit during winter.

Every Christmas for the past five years he has holidayed in the exclusive Sandy Lane hotel resort in Barbados, with its manicured beach, £18 Diet Cokes and super-attentive staff. But this year Cowell fancied a change of scenery.

Instead of lounging by Sandy Lane's poolside, Cowell is on a £625,000-a-week super-yacht cruising round Barbados, Grenada and Antigua and St Barts.

But despite such luxurious surroundings, Simon Cowell has reason to feel a shade disgruntled. For, just a few miles along the Barbados shoreline, lies the patch of paradise for which he has paid a large chunk of his fortune.

At the moment, it certainly doesn't look like paradise. Known locally as Black Rock, it remains a spread of rubble and weed, with unfinished roofs and unglazed windows. Hummingbirds, doves, bats and lizards enjoy it for now.

Still, Cowell wishes he was there. This was to be the year when he laid claim to his own home on Barbados - complete with an infinity pool, his own butler, housekeeper, gardener, chef and maids.

He had put down £15million - all in cash, as Cowell makes a point of never taking out a mortgage or any other loan.

The question now is, will he ever see that money again - or receive the keys to what he had hoped would be the finest holiday home money could buy?

Cowell had hoped this would be a place which even his super-rich friends could envy.

But for now, paradise has been postponed. A 2008 finish date for his new-build Caribbean mansion has been officially moved to 2011.

And this week there was no sign of work restarting on the 32-acre site which was to have been the most gilded playground of the rich and famous. Other plots had been snapped up by Lord Lloyd-Webber and Formula 1 boss Eddie Jordan.

Now, though, the scaffolding clasps the shells of the villas in a rusty embrace. Even the site sign which reads 'Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residence - a development by Cinnamon 88' is peeling and tatty.

Work ceased abruptly in February. There is a trail of unpaid creditors and scores of Chinese labourers - brought in to do the job despite local protests - are out of work


Black Rock: Building work has halted and some investors are pressing for their money to be returned


The prime minister of Barbados, David Thompson, is so alarmed by how badly this may dent Barbados's reputation that he has been trying to revive the project for most of this year.

Last week, the developers said there will be an announcement within the next fortnight - a positive one, they indicate - but several such deadlines have come and gone.

Some investors are pressing to reclaim their money. Lord Lloyd-Webber is said to have already taken legal advice. Cowell is said to be 'very relaxed', by comparison, although he has asked to be kept closely informed.

So what went wrong? The men behind what seemed a foolproof plan to make money are experienced British developer and hotelier Mike Pemberton and his business partner, Robin Paterson.

Pemberton has lived on Barbados for 20 years. One of his recent triumphs was building the Sanderson hotel in London and he is also behind other five-star developments in the Caribbean.

The villas for the super-rich on the Black Rock site are modelled after Pemberton's own beachfront house, a Far East-inspired dream home named Alang Alang, which has coconut wood pillars and walls rendered in coral stone. The floors are made of waxed merbau hardwood, the doors of aged Indonesian teak.

Pemberton teamed up with Paterson, the former head of Hamptons estate agency, to purchase the site in 2005 with the help of a £24million loan from the Bank of Scotland. They planned to build 36 villas plus a large new hotel with the Four Seasons group, to appeal to the American market. They believed there was a 'chronic undersupply' of luxury villas for sale and rent.


Relaxed: Cowell takes out a jetski on this year's Christmas holiday where he is staying aboard a luxury yacht


Their optimism seemed well placed - the first phase sold out and the second phase sold well - at least half were bought before work stopped. Buyers paid between £11million and £6million - Cowell paid more because he bought two sites.

The annual service charge was to run at £18,000 allowing owners to have the conveniences of a staffed hotel in their own homes - butlers and other staff would be provided from the five-star Four Seasons hotel whenever villa owners were in residence.

Lady Lloyd-Webber said she was especially attracted by this. 'The idea of being able to pitch up at 2am off a flight to find your home in immaculate condition and then order room service is the ultimate luxury,' she said.

But from the start it has not gone smoothly. There was controversy when it emerged that 600 Chinese workers had been flown on to the island - and allegations that they did not have work permits.

Some locals asked the government to intervene, but there was a compromise and the Chinese were allowed to stay. Pemberton promised he would try to hire as many Barbadians as possible.

Black Rock is very near the bustling port - and also near to Barbados's famous turtles, which attract hordes of tourist boats. Those who have plonked down millions to live on the 'platinum coast' will find - if their villas are ever finished - that they have to share their fine white sand with hordes of daytrippers.

Michael Winner, a famous fan of Sandy Lane and of Barbados, said that he felt that the development was simply on the wrong part of the island - overcrowded and too close to the port. 'You can't get near the sodding turtles because of the sodding tourists,' he exclaimed.

The onset of the global financial downturn last year did not, at first, seem to affect the development.


Luxury: Sandy Lane hotel resort (above and below) where Simon Cowell normally spends the festive period


However, as the financial crisis deepened, the suits who run The Four Seasons in Canada seemed to get cold feet and funding ran into difficulties. Some £280million was required to achieve the luxury finish desired and the funding fell through as the banks failed.

In a statement, the Four Seasons said that despite the 'current global crisis', construction would resume 'within the next week and the 2011 completion date was not affected'.

As the weeks following that announcement have turned into months, the idea of a 2011 finish seems far fetched. Pemberton has spent months seeking investors and hints that work may be begin again in January thanks to new interest from a French Canadian Group.

He said: 'All the creditors will eventually be paid. You have to keep everyone happy on a small island like this.'

Cowell - who has a home in Holland Park, West London, as well as a mansion in LA - is understood to remain patient with the developers, but is keen for an end to the uncertainty.

His spokesman, Max Clifford, said: 'Simon is very relaxed about it. It is taking a lot longer than it should have done, but he sort of expected that. His brother, Nicholas, is a property developer, so Simon does understand that end of business.

'I would also say he has been so busy this year that he has hardly noticed the time going by. We were talking about it a couple of weeks ago and we said that it seemed like just two or three months rather than a year.

'Simon is probably the most successful person on the planet. Everything he has touched has turned to gold. Generally, everyone is struggling, in TV and in music, but he has done incredibly well with them both. He is keeping himself informed about what is going on, but you know you can hardly say that he is suffering, in the circumstances.'

Presumably though, he would still like to know when he will get the chance to launch a jetski from his own beach...


source: dailymail