Black Sands developers given 3 years to get their act together

Canadian company Pace Developments has been given a further extension to complete Phase One of the Black Sands Resort project.

The construction of the resort, located at Peter’s Hope, had been earmarked for completion since 2018, however, the resort has been circling the drain of abandonment for over four years, with Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves repeatedly scolding developers for the non-completion of the project.

Responding to questions during the September 7 sitting of Parliament, Minister of Tourism Carlos James revealed that the company had been given an extension of three years on their alien land-holding license.

The extensive delays, as explained by the Minister, are as a result of the supply-chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Any right-thinking person would acknowledge that any budget put together before the pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine crisis would acknowledge that you have to go back to the drawing board. This is one of the challenges that would have affected most of the tourism construction that started pre pandemic and this is no exception to the project at Peter’s Hope for Pace Development.”

“The extension also took into consideration the fact that the investors have already invested millions in phase one of the project utilizing local labour and material purchased from local companies.”

The resort is intended to be a 200-room facility with a three-phase construction schedule. Construction cost was initially set for EC$60 million back in 2017.

The first phase of the project involved the construction of 10 villas, each with five rooms and Minister James said that during a recent site visit, he was informed that contractors are constructing the road network around the villas and also looking at the installation of windows and doors by Kendra’s Aluminium Products.

Last year, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves hinted that government was willing to revoke the investors’ land-holding license as a consequence of the continued delays with the project.

Minister James told members of the House of Assembly that Pace Development had the allotted three years to get their ducks in a row on Phase One.

“I am hoping that with the extension of three years given on the alien landholding license – and we didn’t want to drag it out, it could have been a five or six year period – this is a signal to the investors that you have three years to fully put your resources together and to complete phase one of the project. We accept that there have been challenges and whatever support we can give them locally to alleviate some of those concerns. They have recalculated the costs of the outlay of the project and they have more or less given to the government a report that new financing they are hoping to see a completion of this project.”

Minister James added that the Black Sands Resort will hopefully contribute to the goal of 1,200 additional hotel rooms by 2025/2026. At present there are approximately 2700 hotel rooms in St Vincent and the Grenadines.