After sitting empty for years, the Elbow Beach Hotel will be demolished, its new owners told The Royal Gazette this week.

Ryan Babcock and Stephen King, owners of The Loren Group, announced in April that they had purchased The Elbow Beach Hotel and nearby Fritholme Gardens residences in Paget.

Plans are not finalised but the hope is to demolish the hotel buildings early next year and break ground for the new build in the summer.

“The new development will have hospitality elements, an expanded spa area and some real estate,” Mr Babcock said.

The Loren owners are still in talks with the Department of Planning about exactly what they will do with the site.

The new construction will offer more keys than the 45-room The Loren in Smith’s, but rooms will be smaller in Paget.

The Loren recently donated fixtures and fittings such as chairs, couches and mini refrigerators from the Elbow Beach holiday cottages to the housing charity Habitat for Humanity.

Some items, such as the refrigerators and couches, are being sold at Habitat’s ReStore to raise money for its building projects.

Other items including glass bathroom doors, toilets and sinks are already being used in Habitat’s restoration of Grace House in Devonshire, intended to house six to eight families who are victims of domestic violence.

Collin Thuett, the manager of Habitat’s Restore at 53 King Street, said: “Everything was in great condition and did not have mould on it. All it needed was some washing. We are very grateful to The Loren.”

The cottages were in much better condition than the hotel itself because they were restored in recent years.

When Mr Babcock inspected the main hotel, along with other staff members, they wore respirators to protect their lungs from mould and dust.

“There are pieces of the hotel that look like you can actually still host a function in them, and other parts that look like a haunted mansion because of water damage and collapsed ceilings,” he said.

A chandelier still hangs in the lobby, and books are still shelved in the hotel library.

“It is one of the iconic properties that has been mothballed for quite some time,” Mr Babcock said. “It is a beautiful site and the beach is gorgeous. We need to reactivate it.”

He said the proximity to Hamilton makes it great for business travellers, and the beach makes it a great place for families.

The new owners are looking at getting the public access road to Elbow Beach widened.

“It is on a dangerous corner,” Mr Babcock said.

They would have to enter into talks with the Government and their neighbour, The Coral Beach Club, to get that done.

Mr Babcock thought Bermuda’s tourism outlook was bright.

“The island has got quite a number of additional rooms coming online,” he said. “The demand from the East Coast of the United States is there, and the demand from Canada is still pretty strong.”

He said the British market was a little less vibrant.

“Over the last decade, there has been a rebirth when it comes to Bermuda tourism,” he said.

The Loren has seen occupancy climb year over year since the pandemic ended.

Mr Babcock said they have been almost full in the summer and have also done well in the “shoulder” seasons.

“It took us a few years to ramp up, but we are very pleased with the direction which everything is going,” he said.

The Elbow Beach Hotel was first opened as three cottages in 1908. It was the first hotel in Bermuda that was built on the beach.

It closed in 2020 because of the pandemic and went into liquidation three years later amid claims that it was massively in debt.

The Loren Group is also working on a new hotel in the Turks & Caicos.