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Beef Island Project approved!
From BVI news
Chief Minister Hon. Dr. D. Orlando Smith says government has reached a final agreement with the developers of the new Beef Island hotel and golf course - an agreement which includes the slashing of the number of planned units by more than 10 percent, among other conditions.
This percentage represents the construction of 600 condominium units, down from the initially proposed 663.
Speaking at a press briefing today, the Chief Minister told reporters that the developers have also agreed to construct one marina instead of two.
"The people told us that they did not want this project to be too big, rather, the people wanted it to be keeping with the traditions of the BVI of smaller hotels. And so as part of the final agreement, we had the developer slash the number of planned units by more than 10 percent," he said.
As part of the final agreement, the Chief Minister said the developer has committed to give first preference for all major contracts to local companies, employing local people at all levels of the company, and to make an annual contribution of $75,000 to the Community College to sponsor training for local people.
The Chief Minister says though government has given its approval for the project to go forward, the approval process was a "very tough and lengthy approval".
"We were not prepared to simply rush ahead and make mistakes that we would later regret... It has taken a long time to get to this day - and an enormous amount of hard work has been done by many people both on the government side and on the developers side," Dr. Smith said.
All I can say is "indeed!" Maybe next time they could try asking the people before it is sold off! And what a rollback 10%!!!
These classic images of Beef Island, taken yesterday, will soon be gone!
