A number of officials from the Jumeirah Group, a Dubai-based luxury hotel company, involved in the Conch Bay Development project, have just ended a working visit toAnguilla. They were on the island in connection with the luxury hotel, residences and the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, to be built at theForestBayarea.
The team, which met with Government officials, and visited a number of upscale tourism properties, included Peter Zenneck, Vice President Development, Europe and North Africa; Fransisco Canestri, Director of Technical Services for the Americas; Dax Acosta, Development Manager, Americas; Maurice Perry, Design Consultant to the Jumeirah Group, and Howard Gintell of Jumeirah Anguilla. They, along with Steve Haines of Trophy Properties, who is handling the marketing of Jumeirah Anguilla, General Manager of Conch Bay Development Ltd., Noel Egan, and family representative, George Kentish, also held a press conference late last week.
Mr. Egan said that one of the reasons for the press conference was to formally announce that the Founders’ Launch of the resort would be held on Friday, November 16, this year. “From that point on, we will get going,” he told the media representatives. He explained that the first phase of the project would include the golf course, a 140-room hotel and the first twenty condominiums. Some three hundred workers are expected to be employed on the construction site as the work progresses. “One thing is certain now. We have to get out of the ground,” he stressed. “We have to start showing that we are taking off.”
The Founders are defined as the first twenty persons who will buy into the project, at a certain purchase price, and they will be regarded as partners in the resort as well.
Mr. Egan reported that there were no legal issues involving the Government, the landowners, (who areLakeand Kentish families), and the developers. The last issue, relating to stamp duty, was recently resolved. “We had a fabulous meeting with Ministers Evan Gumbs and Walcott Richardson, Mr. [Jerome] Roberts, Mr. [Foster] Rogers and members of the Planning Department,” he continued. “We committed with each other to work hand-in-hand to push this project and get it out of the ground for the benefit of the island. It will not be long before we literally get out of the ground, and we are doing it hand-in-hand with Government…Everybody is working together so we have good synergy at the moment.”
Mr. Zenneck, Jumeirah’s Vice President for Europe and North America, as mentioned earlier, said: “We are extremely pleased to be involved with Conch Bay Development and we are looking forward to working together with the project developers, the architects, consultants and all of the construction people to move this project forward, and to develop what we feel is going to be the best hotel, not only in Anguilla, but in the Caribbean. We think it will be an exciting project in which we will try to define what tourism to Anguilla can be in the future.”
Mr. Zinneck felt strongly that the Conch Bay Development project would be complimentary to other resorts on the island. “Jumeirah has thirteen sales offices worldwide,” he continued. “The first thing you need to do is to sell the destination before you can market and sell your individual product and resort. Because of that, all the hoteliers, resorts, tourism personnel, restaurants, taxi-drivers and others, need to work together to sell the destination. On top of that is this incredible golf course development that is proposed here. Avid golfers like to have two [or three] golf courses to play on when they visit a destination, so the fact that we are adding another golf course is very exciting to attract serious golfers – and there will be two beautiful, but very different, golf courses here on the island.”
Commenting on this matter, Mr. Egan expressed delight that the management of CuisinArt Golf Resort and Spa had greatly cooperated in facilitating the team’s visit to the golf course. He also spoke about the warm reception the team had received at the other hotels they visited. “We all are coming together to promoteAnguillaand its opulence,” he said. “We have the product; now we have to collectively maintain that product and ensure that it raises the bar yet again…We do have competition in the area, but we are absolutely committed to ensuring that Anguilla becomes an absolute jewel in the crown of theCaribbean.”
Meanwhile, George Kentish, speaking on behalf of the Anguillian families, told the reporters that the designs of the project were being examinedby them to ensure that the cultural and architectural build-out would be consistent with Anguilla and the Caribbean in general. He also spoke about the need for open spaces and the preservation of an abundance of shrubs, the caves and the 100-year-old rock wall on the property.
The entire project, involving almost four hundred acres of land, will comprise an 18-hole golf course and, in the course of time, over 300 condominium rooms (involving more than eighty buildings), together with various supporting facilities. At build-out, the estimated cost of the project will be in excess of one billion US dollars.
