Summit property put up for auction
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The former Knutsford Court Hotel property in New Kingston will go up for auction on June 3, according to a notice published in The Gleaner.
“Deposits payable immediately by certified cheque or bank transfer,” said the notice on the auction procedure.
The auction will take place at the Tremaine Road offices of Allison Pitter & Company.
The four-acre property is located on Ruthven Road in New Kingston's commercial and corporate district with a rear entrance on Chelsea Avenue.
“The hotel offered 175 air-conditioned rooms, now converted for office use, a restaurant and bar, 10,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, swimming pool, courtyard area with 110 parking spaces,” stated the notice.
It marks the latest setback in efforts to redevelop the hotel into a business and entertainment complex.
The Financial Gleaner understands that interested parties are working to prevent the June 3 auction from proceeding, though the source declined to go on record. The property, rebranded Summit by its current owners, was acquired in 2022 by Novamed, an investment holding company, for some US$40 million. Shareholder information from the Companies Office of Jamaica lists Dr David Walcott as holding 60 per cent of Novamed Ltd and Gillian Walcott as holding 40 per cent, with no other shareholders or directors recorded in the filing. It was not immediately clear whether Novamed Ltd or a related entity completed the acquisition, as previous media reports at the time identified Kirk-Anthony Hamilton of Tech Beach Retreat and Kevin Donaldson of Roots Financial Group as being among those associated with the deal.
Walcott declined to comment and Donaldson said he would comment at a later date.
In early 2023 Novamed announced plans to convert the former hotel into what they described as a "smart business campus" targeting tenants in finance, health, food, recreation, and professional services. Redevelopment work had begun.
The Knutsford Court Hotel, formerly known as Sutton Place Hotel, had been a fixture of Kingston's corporate hospitality market before its closure and rebranding as Summit.