La Belle Creole | The Ghost Resort (2024)
Following many locals this place is haunted and doomed to fail, they say “the spirit world and nature rule at La Belle Creole”.
THE DREAM:
La Belle Creole was a long time dream of Claudius Charles Philippe, the once general manager of the famous Waldorf-Astoria and a man obsessed with a dream to build a luxury resort in Saint Martin.
The saga started in the 60’s but building stopped several times due to financial struggles, new large sums of investments were made and the resort was meant to open with at least 150 rooms in the 70’s. But again it run out of money. Several new investors cast their sights on the property, including Club Med and Marriott, but retreated when they learned of the financial morass. A year before Charles died, Onassis dispatched a representative to inspect the resort, but eventually decided to leave his money in tankers.
DESERTED
As the property lay deserted, squatters set up makeshift homes. Spider webs covered the marble bathrooms and rusting construction tools sat strewn across the sandy terrain. Furniture, elegant and abandoned, lay in a macabre posture along the shoreline.
The following link describes what was Claude Philippe’s dream and the obstacles he encountered: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-10-15/features/8902040372_1_dreams-desalting-plant-creole
REFINED TOUCHES
Years later in 1988 La Belle was liberated. New investors finished building and the former hotel included 162 keys in 22 separate buildings comprising 190,000 square feet. The highly acclaimed five star resort was operated by Hilton Worldwide as a Conrad International Hotel.
It one of the most beautiful, exclusive resorts on the island. Its spectacular architecture provides not the feeling of some contrived tropical resort but rather of an exotic European village with plenty to discover.
A French Caribbean style fisherman village.
ANOTHER DISASTER
But the story did not go on for that long, the resort had some good years but never really came of the grounds. And in 1995 Hurricane Luise destroyed it completely.
HAUNTED
Local legends are that the resort was built on an Arawak Indian gravesite and that is the reason the place is jinxed and will never succeed. Other stories are they the Island in front of La Belle Creole was used for people with Leprosy, they were brought to the island and left to die. Therefore many people on Island say the site is haunted!
Who knows? But it definitely looks like the project was cursed from the beginning and never stood a chance. They may have been right considering the fact that the once gorgeous and unique lavish hotel now sits abandoned after being destroyed by hurricane Luis back in 1995 and got hit again by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Walking through the hotel grounds is like walking through a ghost town. La Belle Creole stands alone, slowly decaying and waiting to be transformed back into its former glory.
Here is a link with an old advertisement ( it was advertised as a 5-star resort) which shows what the resort once looked like: http://www.gobeach.com/bcreole.htm
La Belle Creole | A gorgeous resort where Nature and the spirits of many live onwards.