The Paspaley family’s much-anticipated $70 million luxury Pinctada resort development on WA’s Rottnest Island has been shelved.
Marilyn Paspaley of the pearling dynasty has abandoned plans for a 120-room resort and spas overlooking Longreach Bay on the island, because of too many “constraints”. Ms Paspaley says that outdated bureaucratic processes have killed off her vision for the project
In June WA Tourism Minister Kim Hames told a parliamentary hearing that Pinctada’s inability to raise finance for the project had thrown the project into “limbo”. Paspaley have denied this, claiming time frames imposed by the WA government were unrealistic.
In 2010, the WA government named Pinctada as its preferred developer, and that the resort would provide the island its first new accommodation since the 1980s. In 2009 a consortium led by Broadwater Hotels and Resorts collapsed after two years of negotiations to develop a similar resort on Rottnest.
Paspaley is among the few developers to successfully build hotels in WA over the past 20 years, including Pinctada Cable Beach in Broome. Paspaley holds The Kimberley Grande and McAlpine House in Broome.
