W Hotels International Makes a Move for Puerto Rico´s Vieques

W Hotels Worldwide announced earlier this week plans for the first W Hotel in the Caribbean, W Vieques-Martineau Bay, located on the largely undiscovered Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Scheduled to open in Fall of 2006, the W Vieques-Martineau Bay will have 156 guest rooms and villas, two restaurants including one poolside cafe, an 8,000-square-foot spa and a 3,000-square-foot bar.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., W´s parent company, signed an agreement with Reig Capital Puerto Rico, Inc., which owns the 42 acre beachfront site. The property will be managed by W Hotels.

The island of Vieques, located eight miles off the coast Puerto Rico, is a 55-square-mile isle with pristine white sand beaches and aquamarine views of the Caribbean Sea.

The island, which until now has managed to fly below the radar of the more fashionable crowds, is slowly becoming a destination for the same kind of global trendsetters that discovered St. Bart´s twenty years ago.