Sandy Lane Villas On Hold Again

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It came to light last week that Sandy Lane is putting its US $1 billion dollar villa development on hold. Oh, wait, this blog and the rest of Barbados thought that development was already on hold. What’s new here? The Nation newspaper not so subtly suggested that the delay was related to the uncertainty surrounding the continuity of the offending dump, Mangrove Landfill, upwind from the resort. Whereas that may be true, this blogger thinks that there is a lot more in the mortar than the pestle here.

Given the current world economic forecast Sandy Lane knows that now is probably not the best time to be building and hoping to sell speculative real estate even if the seller has the cachet of Sandy Lane. Although it is true that people who can afford to buy at the Sandy Lanes of this world probably are immune to the vicissitudes of the real estate and financial markets, it is also true that when banks are foreclosing on multi-billion dollar luxury condo/hotel projects like The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas that they are probably also not in a hurry to extend financing for new projects anywhere else in the world. As the saying goes - when America sneezes the rest of the world catches pneumonia.

Sandy Lane could also be responding to the current uncertainty surrounding the new government in Barbados, and also not too subtly telegraphing the message - listen guys, hurry up and get your act together -we are talking billions of dollars in investment here. The recent ignominious about-turn of the new minister responsible for the environment on the question of the Greenland landfill, which supposedly is to replace the the already full and offending Mangrove landfill, at best did not inspire a lot of confidence in the new government even though it appears the matter is being resolved in Sandy Lane’s favor.

Mt. Stinkaroo a.k.a. Mangrove Landfill (the brown area in the picture above located above the new clubhouse and media tents pitched for the world golf championship event held at Sandy Lane in December of 2006) was around long before Sandy Lane bought its thousand acres of land and decided it wanted to turn a 9-hole/100 room hotel into a 45-hole golf and villa resort. With no viable alternative to Stinkaroo on the horizon and the environmentalists and NIMBYs blocking Greenland it is likely that they are going to be finding new ways to pack more stuff on top of Stinkaroo for the foreseeable future. As long as that continues to be the status quo you are not going to be able to sell anymore million dollar villas any time soon at Sandy Lane.

Stinkaroo Raises It Tail

"A $2 BILLION LUXURY-HOME development that would have pumped millions of dollars into the economy has been put on hold by Sandy Lane resort. One hundred and eleven luxury villas were slated for construction on the lush Green Monkey Golf Course in St James, a project that had been hailed as the single largest investment ever made in Barbados..."

- more -

My comments here.

Construction In Full Swing

Four Seasons has 125 jobs for Bajans
Date March 02, 2008
Brief

MORE than 100 skilled Barbadians will have new jobs at the Four Seasons Resort from this week. And according to Four Season's principal developer Michael Pemberton, the matter of employing illegal Chinese workers had been settled for good. "There is no immigration issue here to resolve," Pemberton told the SUNDAY SUN after speaking at a presentation to the Barbados Cancer Society at his Clearwater Bay, St Michael offices Friday.

The Four Seasons Resort project at Black Rock, St Michael, came under heavy fire last year, for employing what some sources referred to as undocumented migrant workers. Pemberton, however, was quick to give assurances that all relevant work permits had now been granted. "This is a large project and for that we need large numbers of skilled workers. We will have by next week 125 local workers employed along with the 90 Chinese already on site."

Pemberton also said the Four Seasons project had been expanded to Grenada where investors had purchased Mount Hartman-Hog Island preserve, located on Grenada's southern tip, with intentions of creating an even larger Four Seasons.

www.nationnews.com

West Coast Takes A Pounding

The west coast along with the east and north coasts of the island are in recovery mode this week from what were in some places the devastating waves which struck the island for several days last week as a result of a weather system in the North Atlantic. These waves were felt on several other islands throughout the eastern and northern Caribbean with countries like Antigua, Anguilla, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba also recording significant impact. The system was also being linked to severe flooding which affected some parts of the mainland USA. There was one drowning incident on the west coast where a senior citizen lost his life while taking an early morning sea bath in the vicinity of Brandons Beach. Several west coast beachfront properties were inundated with sea water and sand including the restaurants at Almond Beach Village at Heywoods in St. Peter and Mango Bay Hotel at Holetown in St. James.

In some places along the west coast beaches actually gained some sand and were broadened, but in other places, like at the popular Mullins Beach in St. Peter, a lot of sand was actually washed out to sea exposing tree roots along with the pile of rocks upon which the beach bar was erected. The beach bar itself sustained significant damage to its decking area and lost the beach which ironically on the same day the waves started was the subject of controversy reported. The video clip above show some of the wave action at Mullins. Click here for more pictures and video.

RW Beach Club's Bar In Peril

Heavy seas affecting the island and region are taking their toll on the beach bar owned by Royal Westmoreland on Mullins Beach. Click here for more photos and videos.

RW Rapped For "hogging beach"

Click here for story.

Hogging The Beach

Royal Westmoreland came under national scrutiny today when the Nation newspaper rapped it for "hogging the beach" at Mullins where it recently bought the beach bar and spa. The issue seems to be RW spreading their 'for residents and guests only' beach chairs all over the small public beach before anyone else can even get a chance to spread out a towel. The complaints seem to be coming not so much from locals yet, but from villa and condo owners in the area and their guests who are being crowed out by the residents and guests of inland resort which is several miles from the beach. Something like this was inevitably going to happen when a large resort like RW sets up a "Beach Club" on a small beach like Mullins, and undoubtedly the same will happen at Goddings Bay when the Apes Hill Beach Club really gets going there as well.

Contributing to the space crunch is the ongoing beach erosion in the area and the rest of the west coast generally coupled with the cyclical narrowing of the beach. There is enough space in the area to accommodate the current demand but it's going to take a comprehensive approach to restoring and widening the beaches in the area to make everyone happy. This is a job for government, Royal Westmoreland and Apes Hill and the other big tourism players in the area.

Golf Project Dead

Sugar Hill unloaded a ton of their assests and interests last year on Royal Westmoreland including plans for a golf course at Lancaster.

St. Albans Primary School To Lose Window To The Sea

As was the suspicion earlier this month upon witnessing the clearing of a large track of land in Weston, St. James opposite the St. Albans Primary School this blog can now confirm that condos are in fact on the cards for this location. New signage has just gone up indicating that 2 & 3 bedroom beach apartments are being offered and construction is to start towards the middle of the year. Three houses were moved to make way for this project and it is rumored that offers were also made to the owners of the two homes to the north of the property but they are still holding out. Opposition is also coming from an unlikely source - the kids of St. Albans. Picking up a friend’s kid this afternoon after school who attends that school the 10-yr. old was heard complaining that the condos will block their view of the ocean. Several weeks ago this same kid was excitedly telling this blogger about how they saw whales swimming off the west coast from the school's compound. Well, it looks like their little ‘window to the sea’ is about to be closed. Who's next?

New Leadership At Tamarind Cove

“THE TAMARIND COVE HOTEL has a new general manager. He is Jamaican born Newton Grey, who has over 20 years of experience in the hotel industry.
Before joining the St. James property, Grey held the position of director of hotel operations at the 375 room, all-inclusive Almond Smugglers Cove, Cap Estate in St. Lucia and general manager of the 254 room, all-inclusive Coconut Bay Resort and Spa, also in St. Lucia.
His extensive experience includes the positions of resort manager, resident manager, assistant group director of food and beverage and executive assistant manager, among others, at both luxury and all-inclusive properties including Sandals Resorts in Jamaica, and Antigua, Braco Village Resort and Trelawny Beach Hotel, both in Jamaica. Grey, whose career has also seen him involved in the opening of seven resorts in the Caribbean, leading the teams on three of these occasions, said he is very excited to be joining the Elegant Hotels Group: "There is a great tradition of excellence here and for the short time Ive been here, it is clear to see that the team is dedicated and hardworking."
"My immediate efforts will be to ensure that the hotel remains successful. As we go forward I also want to ensure that Tamarind Cove remains first and foremost a Barbadian product and that all our clients are reminded of the fact that they are not only on vacation but that they are in Barbados," he said.
In welcoming Grey to the Elegant Hotels Group, chief operating officer, Michael Poynter said: "We are delighted to have recruited such a talented general manager as Newton. His international experience gained over many years with upscale Caribbean hotels will serve us well as we continue to reposition Tamarind Cove as an outstanding west coast hotel.""

http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=35019

Holetown To Get Its Long Awaited High-end Retail Concourse

Shopping mall? Perish the thought! Last week ground was finally officially broken in Holetown for the $150 M high-end Limegrove Lifestyle Centre. Developers were at pains to point out that Limegrove will not be just another shopping mall. The project which has been bandied about for the last several years is to finally come on stream as a hip residential development with trendy brand name shops like Louis Vutton, Hermes, Gucci, Calvin Klein, Armani and Cartier. In other words, when completed in two years Limegrove’s 100,000 sq. ft. retail component will look more like The Shops at Bal Habour just north of Miami or the really high-end shopping areas of the themed luxury resorts of Las Vegas or the upscale shopping centers in or near some large cities across the USA.

The price of one of the 60 condos and penthouses planned for the 10-acre development will be a number with at least two commas and denominated in US currency, of course. Ronald Tree probably never dreamed when he completed Sandy Lane in the early 1960s that a little 3000 sq. ft. apartment next to a salt pond in Holetown would fetch that much, but that was before the Gold Coast became the Platinum Coast. Along with the gold and platinum there is the greed that is causing ugly family rows as locals scramble to sell lands that have been in their families for generations in order to cash -in on the frenzy created by the rash of new beachfront and inland developments popping up everywhere on the west coast.

Last week a huge track was cleared in Weston, St. James across from the St. Albans Primary School and it is rumored that condos are also on the cards for that lot. Already opened next door in the watercouse near the spot where local calypsonian The Great Carew and his chattel house were swept out to sea a dozen years ago there now stands a new beachfront apartment complex eerily called - “Beyond the Reef.” Limegrove is on the banks of the area’s largest watercourse and is taking no chances; it is spending a million dollars upfront on the necessary engineering to ensure that it is not a victim of Holetown’s notorious flooding.

Meanwhile, further up the coast another resort laying next to a watercourse is about to expand. Cobblers Cove Hotel has purchased the property to its south (not the watercourse side) and will be building on it, although we do not know yet exactly what. It is important to note that Cobblers Cove - or “Camelot” as the original castle-like mansion built on an old Cholera graveyard was called - was one of the first resorts built that has turned the once dead or sleepy west coast of Barbados into what it is today. It was built in 1943 as a weekend retreat for the local wealthy east coast sugar planter and politician - Josh Haynes. He came for the calm waters as a get-away from the rough seas of the east coast. With projects like Limegrove and the continuing condoization of the West Coast a new generation - now mostly foreign - is giving new meaning to the concept of ‘making bread on the dead.’

Jentillia

Sandy Lane 2008 Rates According To CBC

"Visitors to Barbados who stay at the posh Sandy Lane Hotel this year will pay a minimum of just under a thousand US dollars per night. According to information released by the upscale hotel about its 2008 rates, a basic room will range from $950 to $3900. A suite on the other hand, will cost guests from $1700 to $5800. At the higher end of the scale are the penthouses, which carry a price tag of between $3800 and $9600. And for those who can afford it, the Sandy Lane villas start at $8000 and go as high as $25,000.

The luxury hotel has over the years won many international awards and seems set to continue the trend in 2008. In fact it has just been voted runner up in the best Caribbean Spa category by readers of Conde Nast Traveller. The publication has a circulation of a hundred thousand and specialises in the luxury travel sector, reviewing five star hotels, products and services. The magazine told readers they will be bowled over by the facilities at Sandy Lane."

http://www.cbc.bb/index.pl/article?id=137607


Jentillia