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The Maho group and Sunwing are not asking for free money. Rebuilding the two hotels will take far more than the insurance proceeds. They are asking for help from the government and a loan with favorable terms of repayment, using their properties as collateral.
Those same terms of tax incentives are available to be negotiated by any new investor, so what is the difference? It would be easy for them to do a Mullet Bay and just collect the insurance and close, then where would we be? As for Sunwing, if I was the CEO I would certainly be saying, “let’s just hang back a few years,” so you have to incentivize them to begin now. Building a new 500-room Great Bay Hotel and linking the boardwalk is exactly what Philipsburg needs.
Apart from being the single largest employer of what, 1200-1500 people? the Maho group represents 90 per cent of the Dutch-side hotel inventory. That’s right, 90 per cent, because every other large resort has converted their inventory to timeshares. Westin, Oyster Pond, Sapphire, Royal Palm, Pelican, Port de Plaisance, Sea Palace, The Towers, Flamingo, Divi Divi, Belair, Atrium – all timeshares. Without the Maho group, Sint Maarten doesn’t have a hotel industry!
We should be putting a moratorium on timeshare resorts and offering every tax incentive to bring hotels back to our island before it’s too late. What about Caravanseri/Alegria? I say to also lend them money from the fund, provided they only build hotel inventory – even better if they can bring a brand name.
Mike Ferrier has the difficult job to get the best return on investing the recovery funds. Loans to the biggest companies/employers that can (a) get the bulk of employees back to work (b) increase tourism to benefit all other local business, and (c) guarantee the loan repayments – has to be the first and safest option.
I am in total agreement with Mr. Ferrier that loans be established for small entrepreneurs, but ONLY as long as they can provide collateral for repayment; and I would go one step further, offer small loans to everybody that needs a new roof on their house – provided their house is put up as collateral. What I don’t want to see is “free” roofs given to anybody and everybody, especially landlords that are collecting rents. Otherwise let’s just buy everybody a free roof.
That’s fair play.
Naam bekend bij redactie,
Sint Maarten
