Negril, Westmoreland
A beachfront property on Negril’s Seven Mile Beach that went through two hotel incarnations over its lifetime is being transformed into 22 boutique condo-hotel units by a Canadian-led investment group that acquired it after it sat vacant following the closure of its most recent operator. The project, known as Salt+Sand Deh Yah, is the latest in a pattern of dormant beachfront assets in Negril being acquired and converted into strata-titled properties, a trend that is reshaping the resort’s ownership landscape in ways that differ from the all-inclusive model that has dominated for decades.
From Sea Splash to VickiTini to Salt+Sand
The property had a history. It opened as Sea Splash Resort, a three-star property known in part for the quality of its restaurant. After a change of ownership it reopened as VickiTini Beach Resort, which closed in July 2025. The site then attracted the attention of Salt+Sand, an investment and redevelopment group comprising a Canadian real estate investor and two partners with backgrounds in real estate and hospitality. They had been in discussions with the sellers since 2024 and moved when the property became available.
Their approach to the redevelopment was explicit about preserving what they described as the authentic Jamaican character of the location while introducing the modern amenities and reliable infrastructure that international buyers expect. On-site backup water tanks, a generator system, and solar panels were planned as standard inclusions, precisely because the local infrastructure cannot yet provide the consistency that the product requires.
The Condo-Hotel as an Investment Vehicle
The condo-hotel model, in which buyers own individual units that are also operated as hotel accommodation when not in personal use, has become an increasingly common vehicle for resort property investment in Jamaica. It offers buyers the combination of rental income, personal use rights, and the professional management of a hotel, while giving developers a pre-sales mechanism that reduces their financing requirements. Prices at Salt+Sand ranged from US$249,000 to US$550,000, with the developers reporting that approximately half the units had been sold within the first few months of marketing.
What the Trend Means for Negril
The broader question for Negril’s property market is whether the conversion of dormant or underperforming hotel stock into condo units represents a healthy evolution of the resort’s ownership base, or a gradual displacement of the hospitality product that gives the resort its character and its economic engine. At the current scale, conversion appears to be adding to rather than replacing the hotel offering. If the trend accelerates, and more of Negril’s beachfront moves from transient accommodation to second-home or investment ownership, the character of the resort and the distribution of its economic benefits will both be affected.
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