Morrow Hotel → Montego Beach Hotel → Jack Tar Village → Grand Montego Beach Resort → Allegro Resort Jack Tar Village → Montego Beach Resort → Royal Decameron Montego Beach
Montego Bay: Doctor's Cave Beach
Montego Beach Hotel. [
Wikimapia]
- Proposed in September 1950 was a swanky 60 room hotel to be built over the Old Cholera burial ground. There seems to have been financing from Mr. Robert R. Morrow, prominent American businessman. The parish agreed to lease the land for a nominal amount.
- In April 1951 it was reported that the hotel construction was progressing.
- Opened January 15, 1952. It was built, owned and operated by Howard "Spud" Morrow and Phyllis Morrow (owners of the Jamaica Inn). They paid for the construction. This was the first large hotel in Montego Bay. It had a lush tropical garden and private secluded beach (though at least partially shared with Sunset Lodge?).
- By 1972 the hotel was acquired by Cunard Trafalgar Resorts Ltd.
- In February 1976, National Hotels and Properties purchased the hotel from Cunard for £730,000. To keep it from closing.
- In January 1982, after a $500,000 five-month refurbishing, the 120 room hotel was re-opened as the Jack Tar Village. Jack Tar. It was adults only, and operated on an all-inclusive club concept.
- The property was sold in 1990 to the Clinton Chin family. The hotel remained a Jack Tar.
- At the end of 1996, Jack Tar was calling it the Grand Montego Beach Resort "A Jack Tar Village Resort"
- In 1997 the Jack Tar leases were sold to Allegro. It became the Allegro Resort Jack Tar Village.
- On the 1999 ATT map it is Jack Tar Village Beach Resort.
- On the 2000 ATT map it is Jack Tar Village Resort.
- On September 30, 2002 the hotel closed its doors. It could not recover from the season after 9/11. At the time it had 140 rooms. A bid from the Issa family's Couples Resorts to take over the hotel and open for the season fell through.
- In May 2003 the hotel reopened as the Montego Beach Resort, and marketed as a golf destination. It now has 131 rooms and was ultra all-inclusive.
- In 2004 the Chin family sold the hotel to Royal De Cameron, a Colombia based hotel chain. The property was reportedly sold below the original asking price of US$12 million. It underwent a total renovation and upgrade and became the Royal Decameron Montego Beach Resort with 143 rooms.
