Minister of Tourism Cecil “Ces” McKie has updated Parliament on the progress of Black Sands Resort, which is being constructed at Mt Wynne-Peters Hope.
His update last Thursday came in response to a question from opposition lawmaker Sen. Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, just over a year after the official ground breaking ceremony for the project.
Bacchus-Baptiste asked the minister to tell parliament what is the status of the project and, in particular, when will construction begin and when will the project be completed.
McKie said the resort is being constructed in three overlapping phases by PACE Development (St. Vincent) Inc., which has an association with PACE Development Inc. in Canada.
He said the site plan and architectural drawings, which include the construction of 10 villas for phase 1 were submitted to the Physical Planning Department on Oct. 5, 2017 and were approved on Feb. 2, 2018.
On Feb. 5, 2018, work began on the site with heavy equipment.
Clearing and cutting of roads for those villas were completed on March 23.
He said the developers are projecting to complete the construction of the 40 villas with five rooms each by the third-quarter of 2019, subject to weather and Physical Planning Department approvals.
The architectural team is preparing to submit for Planning approval the plan for the additional 30 villas. As soon as the site plan is approved, the second phase of the project will begin, the minister told lawmakers and media audiences.
On completion of the 40 villas, the final landscaping and paving of the road will be done.
The third phase is the construction of the hotel tower with 200 rooms, scheduled to commence before the end of 2018 and projected to be completed in 22 months.
“Mr. Speaker, I am happy to say that this is yet another phase as we move forward with the development of the tourism sector and I think that we will all agree that the coming into being of the Argyle International Airport has brought new interest in the destination St. Vincent and the Grenadines and over the past recent months as we intensify our efforts to attract investors and increase our room capacity. We have seen what we refer to as name brand hotels coming to our shores to look to invest towards proving that increased capacity for us,” the minister said.
Yes, a lot of name brand hotels have visited over the past couple of years, as reported on this site, but only two non-name brand people, now bankrupt (for the third time) Dave Ames of Harlequin fame, and Joseph Romano, a mid-sized builder of homes and condominiums in Toronto with no Caribbean experience, principal owner of Pace, have actually initiated projects here.
All the others, who visited at the governments invitation and expense, have apparently said, thanks for the hospitality but where are the miles of white sand beaches found in the rest of the Caribbean?
Part of that deal was that the resort was to be used as a medical marijuana resort for Canadians.
Like the delayed opening of Argyle airport which went a long way towards bankrupting Harlequin who relied on promises from DREG’s about opening dates. The medical marijuana Act delay, despite promises by DREG’s will delay the building of Mt Wynne-Peters Hope resort.
Despite selling the land cheaply the rest of the promises need to be kept.
1. There is absolutely no deal for the Black Sands resort to be used as medical marijuna resort. None.
2. The delay in completing the airport had no effect on the bankruptcy of the resort which was running at very high capacity from the day the cottages were completed. Read the court proceedings to discover why the resort went bankrupt.
You and others should stop making up stuff and stick to the facts because I-man will expose you every time.
Beaches, don’t have to have white sands perse to be a nice beach. It has to be clean. It has to have useful and pleasant facilities or services and, it has to be easily accessible. We have many nice beaches. We have to clean the beaches regularly, say daily, and develop the beach area and provide the amenities. Other than that it’s up to good marketing to entice the potential client. Good luck SVG!
Very true black sand is unique eg look at Hawaii and other destinations with black sand. It’s about marketing and having a great product that make ppl want to visit besides we have great white sand in the Grenadines and parts of the main land. Our marketing strategy just needs to be adjusted.
Hardly any tourists sun and bathe at the black sand beaches in Hawaii. They only go there to look on for a hour or two before returning the Hawaii’s glorious white sand beaches.
We would have had dozens of hotels and resorts from Ottley Hall to Richmond on the leeward coast decades ago if we had the white sand beaches of Barbados or St. Lucia.
Yes, we all love those black sand beaches on a sunny day. Many Vincentians have rock-hard skin on the bottom of their feet but virtually all foreigners will be able to practice their walk-over burning-coals skills on black sand beaches, otherwise they are allowed to look, but not to enjoy.
Our own people complain about the hot sand on a sunny day at Mt. Wynne which is why many of them have flocked to Buccament Bay instead since the resort closed last year. Trust me, I know this because I am one of the flockers.
That is just silly hogwash, every tourist wants white sand that is why we have so few on Saint Vincent, link that with nasty politics and the island is sinking.
CLEAN the BEACHES so much garbage not pleasant to attract anyone let alone tourists…..
Every white tourist dreams of long stretches of white sand beaches with palms blowing in the breeze. Vincentians all try and support their black sand beaches by simply writing rubbish. No one but an idiot will prefer a black to a white sand beach. You can walk on a white sand beach, but the tourists have to run on a black beach to the water usually wearing shoes or sandals.
Beaches in Saint Vincent offer a once in a lifetime experience, because one visit is always enough, never again.
That is why beach tourists are rare in Saint Vincent, whilst in the Grenadines they come back time after time to the white sand beach’s. That is why they replaced the black sand with white at Buccament. To continually praise black sand beach’s simply falls on deaf ears, because black sand beaches are fifth rate.
I approve of your message not only based on the reported experience of millions of tourists around the world but because of my own experience as a Vincentian who has travelled all over the Caribbean to sun and bathe at some of best white sand beaches in the world, including the wonderful beaches in our own captivating Grenadines.
So tell me the Grenadines not part of our country and economy????