Long Bay

Long Bay Development in Anguilla. A story posted on an international property blog caught my attention.

“Exhibiting with Global Development Group, International Golf & Resort Management (IGRM) will unveil the Long Bay project at Excel, the trade fair for international property developers and sales agents. Michael Longshaw, the CEO of International Golf & Resort Management and former Managing Director of Brocket Hall, will announce details of the Long Bay project which is located close to the western tip of the island and take the form of an exclusive club residence. The luxury residential community will be situated on one of the best beaches in the Caribbean and feature 41 exclusive villas and 15 apartments with full concierge service together with beach club comprising swimming pool, tennis courts, restaurant, bar, gym and spa.

Michael Longshaw is well qualified to lead the project having spent two years living in Anguilla managing the Cocoloba Hotel on Barnes Bay. International Golf & Resort Management has undertaken the market and financial study to determine the opportunity for Global and gone on to produce the master plan recommending the concept, standard, scale and range facilities as well as the best market positioning and target markets.”

I decided to look further into this new project. The Movie Channel webpage carries an advertisement for it:

· - Exceptional Land Investment – 48% per annum

· - Caribbean Haven in Anguilla, British West Indies

· - This 31.5 acre, 6-star resort will be created on the beautiful Caribbean Island of Anguilla

· - Investment available from just £20,000 (€25,000; $35,000)

· - Planning was awarded on the 19th June 2008, with full planning expected in January 2009

· - The land has just been valued independently at US$45 million and once full planning is granted a valuation in excess of US$75

· - The developer is looking to secure US$7.5 million

· - Repayment target date 30th April 2009

· - Return on Investment 4% per month (equivalent to 48% p.a.)

Long Bay epitomises the highest qualities of Anguilla. 41 villas and 15 apartments nestling on the south west coast of this jewel of the British West Indies, meticulously constructed and fitted to six star resort quality.”

The Movie Channel story is illustrated with a photograph of a generic little Caribbean island that is certainly not Long Bay. It looks a bit like Sandy Island used to look twenty years ago, but I am not sure this picture really is of a place associated with Anguilla.

Further details are given at The Investor Portal dot com page:

“The Investment

The Investors will hold Shares through a specialist Investor Company in proportion to the value of their investment.

The Investor Company will acquire ownership of building Plots whose value, once full planning permission has been obtained, is at least twice the value of the amount invested – as determined by an independent valuer of international repute.

Option

We will have the Option to buy the Plots from the Investor Company at any time up to 31st December 2009, for the amount of the Funds provided, plus a premium of 4% per month or part month, calculated on a daily basis from the time when the Investor Company provides the Funds. This is equivalent to an annual return of 48%. It is intended that the Option will be exercised by 30 April 2009, since by this time institutional funds should be in place.

Sale

If the developer fails to exercise the Option by 31st December 2009, they will arrange the sale of the Plots on the open market, and remit the proceeds to the Investor Company.

This is a strictly limited offer and investors will be dealt with on a “first come first served” basis.

Summary:-

§ Return of 48% p.a.

§ Minimum investment of £20,000

§ 8 months estimated duration of investment

§ Your investment will be secured against land valued in excess of twice the investment made”

I read up on the Carlton Hospitality Group. The information on this project on their website is less overstated than the more recent stories above. The claim then was that:

“Carlton Hospitality Group (CHG), a division of real estate investment bank Carlton Advisory Services, is fast becoming one of the leading financiers of Caribbean hospitality transactions, according to chairman Howard L. Michaels and CHG president John Bralower.

Carlton presently is arranging over one billion dollars of equity and debt financing for Caribbean projects.

In 2006, CHG has closed the following Caribbean transactions: . . .

* $205 million acquisition and development financing of Long Bay Resorts, Anguilla--The financing will be used for development of a five star luxury resort located on 21.5 acres of pristine beachfront in Anguilla.”

At the Interchange fx webpage we read that:

"· Global Development Group, through an Anguillan local company, Global Investment Anguilla Limited (GIA, company no. 1016654), are the resort developers with key personnel who have a proven track record in successfully creating this type of resort.

· The development is a joint venture with a local Anguillan family who own the land which has already been transferred into the development company, GIA."

Their story is illustrated with a banner montage, allegedly depicting “Long Bay”.

I need hardly tell you that the picture does not depict Long Bay in Anguilla. It looks like nowhere I have ever seen before, except perhaps Maundays Bay on the opposite coast.

It is interesting that this is to be an “exclusive club residence”. I thought that government’s policy was opposed to the construction of exclusive club residences. The objection, we have been told, is that such residences remain empty most of the year, and offer few employment opportunities for Anguillians. Beaches, we have been repeatedly told, are reserved for hotels.

Anyway, given the excess of planning permissions, building permits, and aliens landholding licenses given to developers to construct or enlarge projects on Shoal Bay East, Shoal Bay West, Conch Pool Bay, Savannah Bay, and Meads Bay, over the past seven or eight years, I thought there was a moratorium in place. When the proposed approximately-4,000 new rooms are constructed, Anguilla will need some 12,000 additional workers. That is the equivalent of the entire present population of Anguilla. Not to mention the impossibility at this time of world-wide economic depression of anyone selling any “investment” apartments or residences in Anguilla.

Carlton Hospitality Group is a very reputable company.

Does any legitimate investment today offer a return of 48% per annum, even on a short term?

If “the development is a joint venture with a local Anguillian family who own the land which has already been transferred into the development company”, can someone tell me this: How can the family still own the land if it has been transferred to GIA?

Did the investors put up the equivalent of the value of the land into the development company in order to make this a true joint venture? If they did not, and if the local Anguillian family have transferred their land to GIA in a joint venture but without any quid pro quo, does this mean that they are the only ones at risk if something goes wrong with this venture?

Why and how did the description of the resort change from “5-star” to “6-star”? Did something change in the plans, or is it all just marketing hype?

Why, anyway, would a reputable hotelier to claim that he is building a “6-star-resort”? The star system originated in Europe where the highest ranking is five stars. Six stars exist only in the minds of over-enthusiastic hotelier marketers.

How did the area of the property come to grow from 21.5 acres to 31.5 acres?

Long Bay is on the north-west coast, not the south-west coast.

Would a photograph of the real Long Bay have revealed that the sea is not as inviting as depicted in the advertisements?

Have you been able to work out from the various promotional pieces above how the investment is structured? How exactly will the individual investors, the Anguillian land-owning family, and the Anguillian government and public, all be protected?

And, can anyone tell me how the government of Anguilla could bring itself to allow this type of development?

New Moratorium

New Moratorium. I do not know how many of you read the item in the Anguillian Newspaper http://www.anguillian.com/article/articleview/4336/1/140/ concerning the new moratorium on land sales announced by government. It brings a halt for a period of six weeks commencing on 31 January to the processing of Aliens Landholding Licences for all land in Anguilla, whether undeveloped land or buildings. This moratorium does not apply to land that has previously been alienated!

The announced purpose published in the paper is to “allow the Government to carry out a review to determine the impact of such licences on the economic and social development of the island.”

On Elkin Richardson’s call in radio programme “To the Point” recently, Minister Victor Banks gave as a second reason, “that they were concerned about the rising cost of labour and ensuring that such costs remained affordable for Anguillians”.

Then, in practically the last paragraph of the newspaper story, appears the following ominous sentence: “Notwithstanding the six-week suspension, as approved by the Governor in Council, the Government reserves the right to consider any application for an Alien Landholding Licence as the particular circumstances of the case may merit or as the Governor in Council may otherwise consider." There are no rules that apply to help the ministers decide who to approve and who not to. It is a matter entirely in the unfettered discretion of the ministers.

The clear meaning of this is that any foreigner who can persuade the ministers that his case deserves special merit will not be prohibited. The Anguillian who is in the good books of the ministers will have no difficulty in pushing his case. It is the foreigner who is not “persuasive” and the local Anguillian who can’t show the “merit of his case” who is caught.

A friend who should know now tells me that basically the ministers will not be processing licences for the next six weeks, and thereafter it will be on a case by case basis.

Has anyone thought out the implications of this new policy? Do I understand that this means that all Anguillians are now barred for six weeks from selling to foreigners who pay the big bucks? Condo and villa sales by Flag, Viceroy and Altamer can go ahead, but you and I can only sell to each other? Only foreigners whose property is already alienated can sell to the rich foreigners who are paying the best prices? Thereafter, it is only those who can “persuade” the ministers on a case by case basis who will be allowed to convert their land to cash?

Can someone tell me, what genius thought that this was an appropriate alternative to having a proper policy?

Is this a case of “openness, transparency and accountability” just being something we say?

Recent Interesting Issues

Recent Interesting Issues on Which Correspondence Has Been Received:

(a) “Moratorium on Foreign Tourism Projects”. We all read with interest the newspaper article in “The Anguillian Newspaper” concerning the moratorium announced in November 2005. As we understood it, no major foreign-owned tourism-related project was to be considered for licensing until a period of 30 months had passed. Around the same time we were assured that no more projects were going to be approved for West End until East End had a shot. This week, in the House of Assembly, the Chief Minister told us he was thinking of extending the halt on new foreign owned construction. However, a correspondent assures us that Altamar has been approved for buying the land and ponds in the West End they had their eyes on. Is this true? If it is, whatever happened to the moratorium? Does anyone know?

(b) “Youth Violence”. Gangs in the ghettos of the US are known to us only from television. They are said to provide deprived young men living in depressed inner cities with a facsimile of love and family and a measure of security, until the inevitable jail time or even death cuts them down early. There is no such justification for the increasing levels of violence and crime among the young men, school children many of them, among us. They have in the main grown up with every material need and want provided for by hard working parents. All young men dream of joining a gang. In my day, gangs were groups of boys that stoned the neighbour’s mango trees and ran for cover when he appeared. I was a gang member in this sense. Today, gang members in Anguilla are school boys armed with guns and working for adults who have major crime on their mind: drugs, prostitution, and gambling. Let us hear your horror stories about this rising phenomenon. Only by bringing it out into the open can we hope to confront this demon among us.

(c) “Ease”. This I am told is the local name for the practice of solicitation and payment of paybacks to managers or supervisors for granting the favour of working at their establishment. I suppose that with the economy in Anguilla growing so rapidly, we should have expected that the criminal activity of Chicago or Manchester would spring up here. But, to think that there is such an evil flourishing right under our noses? I would particularly like to know what is the typical amount of “ease” that supervisors demand in Anguilla? Which are the businesses involved? I do not know about you, but if I had to pay my supervisor 10% of my weekly paycheck, I might well be pushed to rob a gas station on the weekend to make ends meet. Post your favourite examples here. Or, you may email them to me with such conditions as you wish.

(d) “Victimisation”. One correspondent reminds us that not many Anguillians will contribute to this discussion so long as there is the slightest chance that they will be identified. She claims that “all Anguillians live in a state of fear”. I gather that it is not so much that there are stark instances of victimization on the island. It is more that Anguillians go about their business with their heads firmly stuck to an angle that does not permit them to hear, see or speak any “evil”. I agree. No one should contribute to this conversation unless they are independently positioned. Preferably, retired and nearing the departure lounge. Of course, you can make an anonymous contribution to any of the points under discussion by simply clicking on the links to Articles 1-4 provided above in the section dealing with previous issues, and typing in your comment.

(e) “Loyal Opposition”. In the Anguilla House of Assembly there are seven elected members. Five of them form the present government. Two of them are the opposition. They are Hubert Hughes and Eddison Baird. They have not been doing any opposing in recent years. They have been silent on every issue raised on this Blog. Is it a form of corruption for members of the opposition to be silent, to fail to oppose? Or, does it go further? Is it, as one correspondent claims, that, if you are going to buy the government, it does not cost much more to buy the opposition as well? Your views please. How much does the opposition in Anguilla cost? Bids welcome.

Ø Next week, photos. Most will come from Nat Hodge’s The Anguillian. Some that you have sent me cannot be published. Some will be my own.