The future of Mullet Bay – StMaartenNews.com – News Views Reviews

By Hilbert Haar

Once upon a time, former parliamentarian Rolando Brison wanted to “give Mullet Bay back to the people.” Nothing of the sort happened, of course, and now its rightful owner Sun Resorts has decided to put the property up for sale. The government of St. Maarten has a so-called matching option: it could buy Mullet Bay for the price offered by the highest bidder, plus 5 percent.

I wonder with many others what the future of Mullet Bay will look like after it has been sold. Its real worth is still a mystery, so the price could go anywhere from a couple of million to the (rather unlikely) level of around $500 million.

Sun Resorts valued Mullet Bay in 2002 to be worth $2.2 million but after Hushang Ansary bought insurance company Ennia and put Mullet Bay on its balance sheet, the paper value – based on questionable appraisals – shot up to $436 million. After the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten imposed the emergency measure on Ennia in 2018, later appraisals came up with values between $50 and $96.4 million.

That Mullet Bay was a questionable asset has been clear for a long time. That Ennia was in financial trouble is also nothing new. Already in 2016 the CBCS instructed Ennia to sell Mullet Bay within three years, but that never happened.

Now it is decision time: Mike Alexander and Geomaly Martes, the two CBCS-appointed managers of Sun Resorts, have been charged with preparing a tender for the sale of Mullet Bay.

Most potential buyers will obviously want to know what they are allowed to do with the property. It measures 67.7 hectare; 40 hectare is in use as a golf course.

One thing seems to be certain: the new owners will not be making any significant amount of money from that golf course. Said owner would have to develop Mullet Bay. I don’t have a crystal ball but I figure this means constructing expensive condos accompanied by a strong wish to give their future owners exclusive access to Mullet Bay Beach.

This is one of the concerns that will get respectable organizations like the Nature Foundation and the St. Maarten Pride Foundation going – and rightly so. Beach access should not even be an issue though, because all the beaches are public property. In other words: public access to those beaches is guaranteed by law; or at least, it should be.

Another issue is how development will have a negative effect on the rather peaceful setting of Mullet Bay. If developers get the green light to put up whatever they want, Mullet Bay will simply lose its identity and that will upset many St. Maarteners.

The question is also how many buildings developers are allowed to construct. An uncontrolled multitude of buildings will turn the place into a concrete jungle and furthermore, it would put more pressure on the island’s infrastructure. All these buildings will start to use electricity, tenants or buyers will need space to park their cars and they will start using the roads.

It is not a pretty picture that emerges from these thoughts and thinking that the government – by buying Mullet Bay – will get a better grip on its development is an illusion. In that scenario, deals will be made behind closed doors that will give developers all the freedom they want – providing of course that they put the right amount of money in the right pockets.

If the highest bidder puts an offer of, say, $180 million on the table, the government has the option to become its new owner by paying $189 million. Because the government does not have that money, it will have to borrow and for that, it will need the approval from financial supervisor Cft.

Whether the government becomes Mullet Bay’s new owner or not is not the most important aspect of this story. To control the future development of the property the government will have to make clear from the get go what is allowed and what is not allowed in terms of construction density and the maximum height of buildings. Developers should also guarantee free access to the beach.

Let us not forget that almost sixty percent of Mullet Bay is a golf course, not a serious money maker by any standards. This adds yet another question to the mix: will the golf course remain a golf course of will it become a part of the almost inevitable concrete jungle?

###

Related article:Approval of Ennia-solution does not make everybody happy

###

ADVERTISEMENT