THE RESORT GROUP BREAKS GROUND AT TORTUGA, CAPE VERDE
New luxury Cape Verde resort inaugurated by Prime Minister BIW playing key information role in international project collaboration
30 January 2009
Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa, the first of two luxury developments worth a total of €100m (£82m), was officially started on Saturday 24 January 2009 in Cape Verde.
Over 100 guests attended a ground-breaking ceremony on the site, watching Cape Verde Prime Minister, Jose Maria Neves, and Rob Jarrett, chairman of international property developer The Resort Group, lay the foundation stone. The scheme, which is close to the town of Santa Maria on Sal island, is due for completion in 2010.
The Resort Group has selected BIW Technologies (BIW) to deliver Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to support design and construction of Tortuga and of the neighbouring Dunas development, due to start on site later in 2009 and finish in 2011.
BIW’s web-based platform will support communications across a multinational team of consultants, contractors and suppliers spread across the UK, Portugal, Spain and Cape Verde.
As well as The Resort Group and local Cape Verde dignatories, the ceremony was attended by representatives from principal consultant HCP, contractors San Jose/Sogei and Loide Engenharia, BIW, lawyers GPA and Alexandra Pereira, and the Banif and BCN banks, plus local and international media and invited guests from other Cape Verde resorts.
In speeches at the event, Philip Donlan, non-executive director of the The Resort Group welcomed BIW’s involvement:
“We are delighted to be working with the team at BIW as they are helping to make the project management of Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa one of the most technologically advanced in the industry.”
Sample photos (low-resolution) are available here; high-resolution versions of these (and others) are available upon request from Paul Wilkinson (details above).
Notes to editors
About the Resorts
The beachfront Tortuga Resort is set in a 75,000m² plot situated on the south-west coast of Sal. The development includes 52 luxury three- and four-bedroom villas, 306 two-bedroom apartments and a five-star hotel, all set in extensive landscaped grounds. Facilities will include a 150-seat restaurant, a wine bar and piano bar, courtesy and lounge areas, luxury spa and gymnasium, two communal pool areas and a variety of shops.
The neighbouring Dunas development is on a 147,000m² plot, almost twice the size of Tortuga, allowing a slightly lower density of accommodation. The scheme has some 695 luxury properties, including 67 detached villas and 628 apartments with a choice of one, two and three bedrooms, plus communal pools and relaxation areas.
A five star hotel, bars and restaurants, spa and gymnasium, tennis courts and shops will augment Dunas' tourist resources.
About BIW Technologies
Collaboration services delivered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis by BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury's. BIW believes it is the European leader in SaaS collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data. BIW had a turnover of £7.3m in the year to 30 September 2008, yielding a profit of £1.1m.
The BIW supply chain integration technology has been designed specifically for construction projects or programmes. Each client is provided with a unique, project or programme-specific browser-based toolset created around a knowledge database. With this, data can be made available securely to every team member – from the earliest concepts, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
To date, the BIW system has supported over 10,000 projects. It has over 116,000 registered users in nearly 12,000 different organisations. In the year to 30 September 2008, BIW earned £7.3m in revenues, generating a profit of £1.1m.
BIW customers include United Utilities, Sainsbury's, BAA, housebuilders Crest Nicholson and the Peabody Trust, Marks & Spencer, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Wellcome Trust, O2, Mace, Bovis Lend Lease, Kajima, Gleeds and developers Nakheel, Land Securities, Ballymore and Garbe.
BIW is a registered trademark of BIW Technologies Ltd.
About The Resort Group
The Resort Group (www.theresortgroupplc.com) is a Gibraltar based PLC with representative offices in the UK, Cape Verde, Canada and Spain.
The Resort Group is a developer that also has a very strong sales distribution network of financial advisors and property agents. It has enjoyed international property sales of over €0.33bn over the past four years, and its 2008 sales have been even stronger than in 2007.
The group has an international property fund (The Resort Group Enhanced Security Fund PCC) that is EU registered, regulated by the Financial Services Commission in Gibraltar and audited by Deloitte.
The Resort Group is an official partner of Everton FC.
