Mayfair Hotel up for sale
Published:Wednesday | January 8, 2020 | 12:05 AM
Mayfair Hotel, the more than 50-year-old property with a perimeter adjoining King’s House at West King’s House Road in Kingston, is up for sale.
The popular but secluded villa-hotel and ‘watering hole’, which sports 42 rooms and rests on 2.3 acres, is on the market for US$6.7 million, as advertised on the Coldwell Banker Jamaica website.
Efforts at comment from the property operators, and Andrew Issa of Coldwell Banker Jamaica, were unsuccessful.
Mayfair is one Kingston’s most popular relaxation spots, for locals who patronise the pub and restaurant and prize its quiet privacy, and for short-term rentals.
The hotel was conceived by Caymanian national Sybil Hughes and New Zealander James Hughes, who were married and lived in Jamaica. In 1965, they reportedly put resources together to purchase properties in location which were part of a housing scheme being constructed by the Government.
Homeowners of adjoining properties were also convinced by the Hughes to sign an agreement in which their houses would be used as hotel rooms and the rent collected on their behalf. The Gleaner reported that several of these houses have passed to Mayfair hotel as the agreement included a clause offering Mayfair the option of first purchase.
Sybil also bought her husband’s stake in the business after he left Jamaica in the early 1980s, and managed the property for decades until her retirement. She was named Hotelier of the Year by the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association in 1992 at a time when businesses were fixated on the growth of all-inclusive hotels on the north coast, Jamaica’s prime resort corridor.