In 1979 Aitken Spence commissioned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa to design a 125-room beachfront hotel on the site.

[7] In 2012, Heritance Ahungalla offered "Pirates Fantasy", what the hotel called the 'most expensive cake in the world' priced at US$35 million.

[8] Out of the 400 staff of the hotel more than 65% were recruited from nearby villages, and many of them have not had prior work experience in the hospitality industry.

[9] Latvian president Raimonds Vējonis and the first lady Iveta Vējone stayed at the hotel during their 2018 ten-day state visit to Sri Lanka.

Bawa intentionally placed a small interior pond at the entrance, reflective polished floors in the lobby, and an infinity pool, at precisely the same level, in order to emphasise the visual flow through the building to the ocean.

[11][12][13] The hotel has a 16 m (52 ft) wide hallway, lined by guest rooms, running parallel to the ocean.

The corridor has a number of small square garden courtyards, bordered by open air spaces.

The concrete walls, columns and ceilings are painted a pale gold tone with white trim.

[14] The main restaurant gets it name, Jute, from batik-on-jute ceiling decoration by Ena de Silva.