Clive Palmer buys former Club Med resort in Bora Bora for $10 million
Mining tycoon and eccentric billionaire Clive Palmer has spent $10 million on the former Club Med resort at?Bora Bora in Tahiti, French Polynesia.
The 30-hectare resort has 150 rooms, a 200-seat theatre and a private bay. It comes with four villas and 46 staff units. It was marketed by CBRE Hotels.
Palmer told Fairfax he had no plans to refurbish the resort yet, but that the resort does hold development potential.
He says he bought the property for “relaxation, serenity and because no?one else was going to buy it”.
“I will bring my family here – it’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth.”
He says he will be staying at his resort next month when attends the Asia-Pacific Forum, set up to discuss the promotion of socio-economic development and growth in the Pacific islands.
The purchase is the latest in a series of tourism related acquisitions and plans by Palmer.
Last year he bought the Hyatt Regency at Coolum in the Sunshine Coast. He has also bought the Robina Woods and The Colonial golf courses at Robina for $7 million and this year his Gold Coast purchases has totalled $6 million.
He told Fairfax the Bora Bora purchase is unlikely to be the last. “I’ll take a look at anything.”
The club was shut down by owners Club Méditerranée SA in 2009.
The resort is set in Faaopore Bay on the south coast of Bora Bora, 250 kilometres from Tahiti. Parisian interior designer, Christian Liaigre worked on the internal furnishings, borrowing themes from the island tattoos.
Celebreties who stayed there include Ringo Starr, Harrison Ford, Meg Ryan, Patrick Swayze, Senator John McCain, Janet Jackson, Pierce Brosnan, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz.
Prices ranged from $200 to $375 per night to stay at the all-inclusive resort.
The rooms are a mix of stand-alone and duplex bungalows and two-storey, motel-style buildings, though the beachfront bungalows were the preferred choice for holiday makers.
CBRE’s marketing in 2009 said the property is a “world-class resort destination offering scenic beauty, political stability and high-quality resort product”.
The deal comes after Palmer’s failed attempt to buy the Club Med in Lindeman Island in the Whitsundays, when he was outbid by a Chinese mining tycoon.
Photograph by Thomas Wasserberg, courtesy of Flickr.
