WESTERN BUREAU — The owners of the 130-room all-inclusive Jack Tar Village in Montego Bay have prematurely terminated their contract with the resort’s management company Allegro, and will close the hotel’s doors on September 30.

According to a spokesperson for property owners Hescov Investment Limited, they took the decision to close the resort in the wake of a slowdown in business as a result of last September’s terrorist attack on the US.

The closure, however, may be temporary and the property could be reopened under new management in time for the December 15 winter tourist season.

The closure will leave about 100 employees out of work and attempts are being made to find them alternative employment.

Hescov Investment Limited purchased the Kent Avenue hotel in 1990. In 1997 they opted to renew the lease arrangement with Allegro, who had managed the property since 1977 when National Hotel and Properties were the owners.

Company officials said Tuesday that Hescov had decided to prematurely end the management agreement, which should have expired in 2005, because of the continued poor performance of the hotel since September 11.

“It comes out of September 11 last year. Things have just been bad. The business has been suffering and there has been a down-turn that has affected the business of the hotel,” said the source.

And he made it clear that Hescov’s decision was not an indictment on Allegro, an international hotel management firm out of Spain, with whom the owners had managed to come to an amicable settlement.

“I think Allegro has done their best under the circumstances. I think it’s just one of those things where you are gobbled up by the bigger operators. Everybody’s going after the same (tourism) bone and the more people after the bone, the smaller the bone gets,” the source said.

“We have had an amicable and fair settlement. It’s just unfortunate that this has had to happen, very unfortunate. It has been a very painful exercise for me,” he added.

A representative from the management company confirmed that the premature parting of the ways had been amicable, adding that while premature termination of the contract had not come as much of a surprise, it was still difficult to sever the ties.

“Whenever you leave a property you’re never very happy because you put a lot of effort into it. When you put the effort in (you anticipate) making some profit later on down the road and we didn’t have a chance to come to that point,” the Allegro employee said.

Up to September 11 last year, the hotel had 92 per cent occupancy but steadily lost ground since then.