Skerritt lauds strong, visionary leadership of PM Douglas in Christophe Harbour Development
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| St. Kitts and Nevis' Minister of State for Tourism, Sen. the Hon. Richard Skerritt |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 15TH 2007 (CUOPM) - Minister of State for Tourism, Sports and Culture, Sen. the Hon. Richard Skerritt is lauding the visionary leadership of St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas and his cabinet as well as the strong collaboration between stakeholders and genuine capable developers with access to capital for the
multi-million dollar Christophe Harbour Development to be constructed on the St. Kitts’ Southeast Peninsula.
“This project is the result of the coming together of a world class team of international investors and experts with proven track records and access to the financial resources necessary for such a project to actually happen,” said Minister Skerritt, who noted that it was the result of more than two years of ongoing planning and dynamic public and private sector collaboration, with a shared commitment to achieving the highest possible level of sustainability with strong economic and cultural linkages into the wider St. Kitts and Nevis community.
Speaking at the recent launching of Christophe Harbour, Minister Skerritt in giving an economic history of the Southeast Peninsula pointed out that since the construction of the highway by the former PAM Administration in 1989, there have been other resort type hotel projects which from time to time have been designed and, in one case, actually started on the peninsula.
“However, the failure of those projects to materialise has taught us a costly lesson that building a highway into the Peninsula, though an important economic stimulant clearly was never in itself going to be enough to spur the type or scale of actual resort development which was needed for the area in order to justify government’s large investment in such an access road,” Minister Skerritt told the large gathering in the Grand Ball Room of the Royal St. Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino.
“It also required visionary leadership, strong collaboration between stakeholders and genuine capable developers with access to capital,” he said.
In giving the economic history of the Southeast Peninsula, be developed as Christophe Harbour, Skerritt noted the area was in the 1800’s part of two sugar estates, one called Flemings and the other Salt Pond and Grape Tree Bottom.
In the 1940s, the two failing sugar estates were bought by Dr. Arthur Wilkin, a local retired dentist, who lived there and kept animals, planted coconuts and mined both the Greater Salt Pond and the Little Salt Pond for salt, which he exported from a dock in Whitehouse Bay. Dr. Wilkin sold the whole area in 1958 to a retired Canadian, Bruce Wiggins, who then carved it up over the next several years and sold much of the land to a mixture of local and foreign private owners.
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| A portion of the land on the South East Peninsula to be developed as part of the Christophe Harbour Development. (Photos by Erasmus Williams) |
“Records show that by 1987 when the construction of the highway commenced, the approximately 4000 acre peninsula was privately owned by more than 30 individuals, companies, trusts or partnerships. There has never been found any record of government ever owning lands at the peninsula and contrary to popular belief, JB Turbidy and his colleagues have not bought all of the lands on the Peninsula. What is true, however, is that the demand for land for this project has caused land prices in the Peninsula to more than triple in price over the past three years and a number of local and foreign land owners have cashed in handsomely during the land procurement phase of this project,” said Minister Skerritt.
He disclosed that more than US$50 million has been spent by the developers to acquire approximately 2500 acres of land.
Minister Skerritt referred to a 1986 environmental assessment report on the proposed southeast peninsula access road by the late Dr. Edward Towle of Island Resources Foundation.
The Towle Report said: ‘The EA team began investigation of the SEP land ownership with a list of 12 owners provided by government, and has now identified over 30 to date. The current situation, with several large land holdings and many smaller ones, will present problems over time in establishing a consensus on various environmental issues, wildlife strategies, and the acquisition of land for public use and management as protected areas and recreational areas.’
Dr. Towle said Minister Skerritt went on in his report to recommend the coming together of land owners and government in a type of planning committee in order to achieve the kind of balanced development that was desirable for the area.
“Two main points jumped out at me when I read Dr. Towle’s report. One was that the government of the day was planning to build a major access road into an area where the Government owned no land and had only a rough idea of land ownership and, the second was that following the construction of the road, the chances of achieving the build out of a desirable master plan for
development was weak, because of the large number of land owners with varying interests and visions for the use of their individual land holdings,” Minister Skerritt pointed out.
~~Adz:Left~~“Clearly, some individual, group, or even government, needed then to acquire a more significant portion of the land in order to move a comprehensive master plan forward. Nevertheless in spite of predictions of land ownership related hurdles, the government of the day promised that numerous hotel projects would quickly followed the building of the highway. This unfortunately did not come to past as promised,” noted Minister Skerritt.
Referring to a May, 1986 letter to the USAID Director for the Eastern Caribbean Region, who was considering the funding of the highway, a leading US financial consulting firm recommended USAID’s investment in the highway when they wrote:
‘On the basis of our investigation, we find the Southeast Peninsula to possess numerous advantages for resort projects which include but are not limited to the following attributes:
(a) The project is situated within convenient location to the Golden Rock International Airport (now the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport) and the two island centres of Basseterre and Charlestown, of benefit to inhabitants of both St. Kitts and Nevis.
(b) The project is anticipated to directly stimulate 1500 jobs of a permanent operational nature and an additional 1500 occupations in ancillary industries.
(c) Total projected hotel revenues will approximate US$100 million in the tenth year (that would have been 1999), equaling to 200% of the 1986 GNP.
(d) Wage contributions to local workers are anticipated to be in excess of US$10 Million by 1994, permitting a recycling of the tourist dollar through local bank deposits to expand the domestic economy.
(e) It is anticipated that within ten years, the project will form a tax base for the country and generate US$5 Million in hotel tax revenues as a further effort to achieve a self-sustaining economy.’
Minister of State Skerritt noted also that when the Dr. Kennedy Simmonds Highway was completed in 1989, there was some interest shown in various investors in the area for tourism although very little of this interest has never really come to fruition.
“The only actual significant development on the Southeast peninsula since the opening of the highway was the Turtle Beach Restaurant followed by the Turtle Beach Estates comprising some 50 residential lots, only14 of which are now built on, with most buildings having been completed within the recent past. Both of these developments were done by local entrepreneurs,” he said.
Shortly after the opening of the highway, Dumez, the company which built the Four Seasons Hotel in Nevis, acquired 1000 acres of land around, and including, the Great Salt Pond. Dumez had intended to carry out a major development, but shortly after completing the Four Seasons project in Nevis, Dumez was acquired by French Bank which was not interested in furthering their interest on St. Kitts and put the land up for sale. It is that same Dumez land which was the first land parcel purchased by JB Turbidy and Mark Harmon for this project just over two years ago.
“Some of you may recall that in 1989 Sandals of Jamaica bought the two small Cockleshell Bay and Banana Bay hotels which had been built on the peninsula in the 1960’s by the Bowers Family and the Schmidt Family, both of the United States and then purchased by Ocean Terrace Inn in the early 1980’s. Reportedly Sandals had designed a hotel for the 12 acre site, but during the
planning process were somehow distracted by other more urgent projects elsewhere. Those Sandals lands are now also part of this project,” said Skerritt.
He said: “That short economic history of the SEP therefore bears out the Jewish proverb that ‘Good things cometh to those who waiteth, as long as those who waiteth worketh like hell while they waiteth.’
“The good news is that your (St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Government) has been working very hard to bring this project to reality and fortunately we found a group of investors who we are confident and will deliver this project to reality,” Minister Skerritt concluded.
