There appears to be new life at the Sheraton in Vaimaanga but uncertainty about what exactly is going on there.

It’s been more than two years since there has been any activity around the site when Merchant of Paradise gave up its plans to redevelop the derelict lot.

Cook Islands News understands contractors have been hired to clean the site up and make it more presentable.

The development has been plagued by a long run of failures over the past four decades.

In February 2018 rumours circulated in Rarotonga about who would win the rights for the Sheraton project. 

At the time it was alleged that a group of Chinese investors had made a tender offer on the site.

It was announced at the end of 2017 that New Zealand’s Mirage Group surrendered its lease.

Mirage Group, which acquired the lease in 2010, abandoned its plans for the rundown resort, joining a long list of those who had tried and failed to complete the development.

The site has been derelict since the Italian-backed project to build a five-star resort there collapsed in the early 1990s, almost bankrupting the country.

The project was 80 per cent complete when it fell apart, but over the years repeated efforts to finish the hotel have foundered.

The site is said to be jinxed after a curse, condemning any business there to fail, was placed on the land during an ownership dispute that led to a shooting there in 1911.

The curse was reintroduced in 1990 at the ceremony to mark the start of work on the hotel when More Rua, a descendent of the shooting victim, entered the site and split the rock bearing a commemorative plaque with a spear. Nowadays the ghostly 70-actre site has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right, and visitors can tour the area for a small fee and even play paintball there.

The buildings remain standing but have long since lost their fixtures and fittings, and opinion is divided on whether the structures can be salvaged.