Contractor SSS&P – which worked on the Phuket International Academy and on the JW Marriott refit – is the main contractor.
Istana managing director Michael Brereton told The Phuket News this week that the windows are going into Villa 16 and work has also resumed on Villa 1, the only two villas sold so far.
The two villas are expected to be completed by November and December respectively.
Mr Brereton added that there has been “strong enquiries” about the development, with three of these “potentially” turning into sales.
The master plan will be amended, he said, to include some smaller villas.
The development was suspended after becoming mired in serious mismanagement but the ousting of Richard “Dickie” Shearer as a director and manager of the project allowed the main investors, the Earl of Warwick and Mr Brereton to regain control and begin to resurrect it.
A number of high-end projects around Phuket, such as Puravarna in Rawai and Barama Bay in Ao Por have failed in the past few years, leaving behind unattractive mouldering piles of concrete as monuments to the overreaching ambition of their developers.