Cap Juluca, where some refurbishing work has been carried out at much expense, is filled with guests in the available rooms in the rental pool and is flourishing. In addition, the majority of the over 300 Anguillian staff members are back on their jobs.
This information was gleaned by The Anguillian in an interview with Mr and Mr. Hickox, the majority owners of the resort, this week. They are however still awaiting the support of the Government and a new Memorandum of Understanding. In the meantime, they said they were continuing to forge ahead with their plans to enable the property to regain its leadership name in Anguilla, the rest of the Caribbean and the world.
Mrs Linda Hickox, the main spokesperson, started the conversation by reflecting on their involvement in the property since winning the auction bid in May last year. She said that, among other matters, they found that the kitchens had become antiquated and the laundry rundown since they built the resort and that “the previous ownerships had not put any money into the rooms or the back of the house.” She described the back of the house areas as now being “clean and sparkling” and said she and Mr. Charles Hickox were now “very, very proud”.
Mrs Hickox, who has taken over the renovation of the property, continued: “The other part obviously was the rooms. It was just a question of cleaning, cleaning and repairing. We finished it…replacing fans and anything that was slightly foreboding and antiquated. Now the rooms are refreshed, but still not finished because we only had seven weeks and, of course, we had hurricane Sandy [in the United States] which impeded some of the goods in getting to Miami [for transhipment to Anguilla.] I am very hands-on and very determined that Cap Juluca is going to be number one in the Caribbean and may be, who knows, in the world.” She was aware that in order to achieve that there was a need to develop a good product.
Mrs Hickox went on: “We were very upset when the Chief Minister said that Cap Juluca was in rags or ruins and was closed. That, unfortunately, has really put a question mark in the minds of potential travellers to Cap Juluca. Travel agents are concerned thinking Cap Juluca is closed. Cap Juluca is not just Cap Juluca. It is what Cap Juluca provides to the island in terms of consuming goods. I hope we have injected some money into the economy. We had outside Anguillian contractors to help us and we are doing our best. Unfortunately, the Government is denying us General Manager and Executive Chef Work Permits.” She said that “while some hotels had many expatriate workers, Cap Juluca only had one such person whose work permit would be up shortly. I don’t know why they are trying to strangle or cripple us.”
Mrs Hickox was asked about the cost of the refurbishing work since their new involvement in the ownership of Cap Juluca in May last year. “We have invested about fifteen million dollars,” she replied. “Actually, every room has been upgraded. Originally, I thought I will do a luxury villa which is six rooms; I will do a junior suite villa which is six rooms and I will do a private villa which is five rooms. Then I just decided – I’m going to do the whole thing because it wasn’t fair to the guests who came into one of the old rooms. I ended up refreshing and touching every room; and every room has new soft goods and new furniture.
“The only thing that we were not able to do, which is on the slot for next year, when we close in the late summer [2013], is redoing the floors in the villas. They are the original 1989…floors and we really want to redo those.” She said that in the meantime some of the bathrooms and fixtures were redone.
Mrs.Hickox said that she and her husband owned 69 rooms of the Cap Juluca villa rooms. The others, numbering about 28 rooms, owned by the Brilla Group, in three or more villas, were now padlocked. She regretted that those beachfront villas were not in the hotel’s rental pool, and thought that was unfair to the Cap Juluca workers. “We just don’t understand why that is happening,” she commented.
Asked about staff numbers, she did not recall that Cap Juluca ever had 400 employees, but instead around 375. She thought that with the loss of a number of expatriate personnel whose work permits were not renewed, as well as some resignations, there was now a workforce of about 350. “We have not made anybody redundant,” she said. “I don’t know how long we can keep doing this.”
Questioned about occupancy, Mrs Hickox responded: “The rooms are filled. We are not only open for business. We have got a ton of business. We have some very strong reservations actually coming in on the 2nd of January. But, I tell you something: with every word that the Government puts out, that Cap Juluca is closed…damages us. So we are in a position of trying to swim upstream in terms of damage control and it has damaged this asset. I don’t understand why, because it does not help the people of Anguilla. It doesn’t help the Julucans. I am baffled.” She added that she thought that the people of Anguilla were fully aware about what would happen if Cap Juluca, now flourishing, was really closed.
Mrs. Hickox proceeded to lead a tour of a number of rooms displaying new furniture including beds, sofas, chairs, kitchen equipment and bathroom improvements. With the refurbishing of the villas and their clear picturesque ocean views, they represent a touch of elegance and luxury for the visitor. “I think that we will be in really good shape in another month,” she said as she continued the tour.
Though not having a formal and separate MOU, Mrs Hickox said the resort was continuing to operate under clause 5 of a previous ownership agreement which the Anguilla Government at the time negotiated with Adam Aron. “Clause 5 says that if the company goes into bankruptcy, the largest lender, which would be us, will have the benefit of that MOU for – I believe 24 months – without having to negotiate a new one,” she stated. However, the Government is paying no attention to that. They cut off all of our work permits. We have no General Manager…We are just going to do ownership management for a while.”
At the outset of the newspaper interview, Mr. Charles Hickox reflected on his early involvement with Cap Juluca – its building and design. He said that without a MOU, and with the Chief Minister or the Government publicly “stating that they won’t allow any more borrowing against the property, there is a very limited amount you can do. You can’t go to outside sources of finance in order to borrow money to move ahead with a number of things. We have therefore been limited in what we can do.
“Linda has taken over with our own personal energies and literally refurbished this whole place,” he added. “My job as an architect, builder and developer, has ceased until the Government gives us the right to do something.”
