| The Golf Course, with its Club House and related facilities, is a win-win situation for all, says General Manager of CuisinArt Golf Resort and Spa, StephaneZaharia. He was speaking to The Anguillian on Tuesday, this week, while announcing that the owner of the property, Leandro Rizzuto, had undertaken to spend five million US dollars on upgrades to the Greg Norman Champion golf course project which he purchased at the auction sale on August 25 for 16 million US dollars. |
“We bought the golf course for 16 not 15 million dollars but, just to bring it up to a decent condition, there is a need for five or six million dollars to be put in place,” Mr. Zaharia said. “The Club House is 80% operational. We are serving breakfast and lunch. It is open to the public and the menus are very simple, but very good.
“We want to ensure that the pricing as well is attractive for the local people to come and enjoy,” he stated. “It is hoped that by mid-December dinner will also be available. Our vision is for the Club House to have Italian cuisine as its theme.” Mr. Zaharia said that the restaurant was not the only feature at the Club House, which was also available for event-groups offering them 15 hundred square-feet of meeting space upstairs, while the main restaurant floor, downstairs, was available for weddings and other receptions. “In the past four years this place was on and off, with no stability,” Mr. Zaharia stated. “Now there is going to be stability and we need to stay here for a long, long period.”
He said there would be special golf rates for local persons and that the resort was working very closely with some key contacts to bring in golfers from St. Maarten, St. Barths and further-a-field. “It is a win-win situation for everybody – for Anguilla; the Government; and for local people to work,” hestressed.
He continued: “The fact that we have a stable and operational golf course will bring in customers from all over the world, because golf is an important feature in vacation…People who have never beento Anguilla will now be exposed to the hospitality of a quality golf course.”
Mr. Zaharia said that the resort was hoping to find a solution to the building area of the project where a number of incomplete estate structures were located. “We have submitted a proposal to the Government, to seriously consider, and I think it is in the right direction right now,” he went on. “I can’t speak openly about it, but it is very exciting…Unfortunately, it is well-known that the island has produced very low occupancy rates in the past year or two, with an average in the mid 30s at best. Cuisinart can do better than that…but we are saying to Government let’s see how the economy is evolving. If we are going to be running high occupancies of 80 or 90%, we will be the first to say let’s build a hotel because we need more rooms. But to build more rooms, based on occupancies of 30-35%, to us as business persons…it doesn’t make sense right now (although we understand the motivation to do it now). But it will come.
“What we are saying to the Government is to allow us to finish the real estate part of the project because that will realise a significant amount of labour that will be hired. When the Golf Course and Club House are finished, the hotel will eventually come down the line as well.”
Mr. Zaharia made the point that with the additional golf course project, CuisinArt Golf Resort and Spa had become one of the leading resorts in the Caribbean region. “That is not only a compliment to us as a resort but it is a compliment to the island… I don’t want to say that the owner is a saviour, because he is not and he doesn’t believe that he is, but the commitment is there.” At present, work is being carried out on bringing the Golf Course up to standard and some 20 workers are employed there for the first time. The work is being carried out under the overall supervision of the Director of Golf Operations, Don Johnson, who has many years of professional experience abroad and first served in Anguilla at the inception of the building of the Golf Course. Serving along with him, as the Assistant Superintendent, isThomas Peabody. Work is also being carried out by TSG personnel on the Reverse Osmosis Plant, producing desalinated water for the Golf Course at one million gallons a day. As Mr. Johnson and his team work on raising the standard of the course to a professional level, some US$250,000 is required a month for maintenance. Mr. Zaharia said that Mr. Rizzuto, the owner of CuisinArt Golf Resort and Spa, was extremely motivated by investing in clean energy resources, and the resort was seriously looking into windmill and solar panel energy which would also help to defray operational costs. “This is all for the benefit of the island and making it a great example to the entire Caribbean,” he stated. Asked further about the resort’s marketing programme with the added Golf Course project, Mr. Zaharia said: “We are not wasting time. Wehave already started with the marketing. We are working with golf magazines, targeting customers looking for packages as well as resorts and others. We are also working closely with cruise lines in St. Maarten so all of that is part of the big plan we are putting together to get people here.” |
