Dart to pour 4000+ tons of sand on West Bay Road
(CNS): Following the closure of the West Bay Road, despite the lack of public disclosure of the agreement between the developer and government or the value for money report, Dart said Wednesday that it is preparing to start work on the Public Beach project. Having begun demolishing the old Courtyard Marriott building to make way for what is expected to be a new ten-storey hotel, Dart crews and sub-contractors are now preparing for the construction of beach sports playing areas. Work is scheduled to begin this month when 4,850 tons of sand will be poured on what used to be the West Bay Road, officials from the firm stated in a release.
“Originally underneath West Bay Road it was sand, so removing and replacing the road surface with high quality sand will allow the beach ridge to reclaim its natural line,” Ken Hydes from Dart Realty, who is project managing the park development said.
The sports areas form part of what will be a new 12-acre beach park being constructed by Dart Realty in preparation for handover to crown ownership as part of government’s deal with the developer, which is giving the group more crown land along the West Bay Road to create a beach front for the developer’s new resort as well as the land owned by the group reaching down to Yacht Drive, multiplying the value of that property, which Dart Realty purchased from US developer Stan Thomas.
Since closing the first section of the West Bay Road, the developer has completed a 100-space parking lot and a paved direct-access pedestrian path to the beach. The parking lot can be accessed from the new Governor's Way connecting Esterley Tibbetts Highway to West Bay Road. An access road through the park to the Calico Jack's parking lot is also open to traffic and includes a turning bay for tour buses.
Dart said playground equipment has also arrived on site and is now being installed and it will be opened once the surrounding grass lawn is sufficiently established to withstand foot traffic in late May.
Category: Local News
All are dazzled by the yellow brick road. Give it five years and see where and how dart has positioned himself in cayman. We will all be lined up getting our dart currency to purchase from his supermarkets, liquor stores, restaurants, pharmacy, etc….
You just provided the dictionary definition of 'paranoid'. (such an eyesore of a park Dart is building, eh? I will have to shield my family's eyes from the horrors of that grass field and dog park when I go there 2-3 times a month).
OMG if Dart had come from jam. you wouldn't have anything to say about him. ok then lets pretend.
could they pour some of the sand on the new roads to slow all the idiots down that are speeding over this bridge as if they're all in the daytona 500??? seriously, when will the police stand on top of this new road and simply point at us to keep everyone at 40? otherwise, big accidents are going to happen..especially in rainy season, cause this road is very, very twisty (what has dart got against straight roads?) and also there is not a lot of slowdown space when heading out of town, down the hill onto the roundabout..you can see loads of people over-shooting it every day, and its dry.
by the way…whats with all the turns and roundabouts? i'm proposing to call the bridge the "Queasy Stomach Overpass"….. is dart planning to take over the Tums distributorship in cayman?
This is going to be the best outdoor musical venue since Almond Tree and Seaview. I miss that ole annual Country and Western Festival, the Nearly Neils, and Bjorn Agains. This site would be perfect for those concerts!
Spot on 14.49…I went down there last night to have a look at whats going on. One of the car parks is now done right opposite public beach, some landscaping done, kids playground going in. This is going to be a fantastic place, much better than anything else on SMB, much larger area to relax and enjoy Caymans natural beauty without the exhaust fumes and music blaring out from cars. This will become an example and once you get used to it, others will come up with same ideas and Cayman might actually become a real resort…this is a change for the better. If you dont believe me take a trip to other resorts organised on the same lines…they are very popular.
And no I don't work for Dart
Your desires are the root of your pain
One question: Huh?
Where is the park they promised Cayman Brac??? More of the UDP blowing smoke up our AXXXX!
Surely not a Bracker moaning at someone else being expected to give them something?
The last thing you want is Dart getting his fangs into the Brac and Little Cayman.
Don't worry. Dart is smarter than that.
You mis-spelt "AXXXX".
Oh no! We wanted our lovely road and all the beautiful litter and smelly cars, not this unnatural "beach"thing! Stop destroying Cayman's natural environment!
You are right. we should not allow any Caymanians near our beautiful beaches they can not be trusted to take care of them. The "new public beach" should also be off limits to them. They will just mess it up. They should all be restricted to the central wet lands area and only allowed near our scenic seaside if they are on a work pass. I mean after all Cayman no longer belongs to them.
Your commet although provocative is very true this country is on its way in becoming the next SA only difference Cayman does not have the native population that SA have. They came and conquered at the perfect time good bye.
I don't think it is Caymanian/non-Caymanian that is the issue. It is poor people. The tend to make such a mess and behave more badly. That is why places like the Ritz and Camana Bay are so great because they have less poor people there.
A 10 storey hotel?! I thought there was a cap on how many storeys a building could have? Guess that just applied to everyone else. And that beach sounds great, With a huge hotel right there, public beach will definitely not be crowded.
Hello…hello… earth calling 12.55…where have you been last 2 years? First Watercolours at 9/10 stories and now this..its been all over the news for a long time
Plus, who’s gonna tell him no?
The law was passed almost 3 years ago now for 10 storeys.
I have a suggestion as to where the sand has come from. In November 2010 a large quantity of sand which had been deposited along the beach ridge north of Calico Jacks and a bit of the WB road, by a recent storm, was trucked away to Caymana Bay. I asked the persons loading it where it was going. Nothing offical was said. The story was that is was to be "cleaned" and returned to the beach. Maybe this is the sand finally coming back. If so, does this mean that these plans have been in process for quite some time? Who knew?
These plans have been in the works for years, onnce you have cooperative politicians it is a done deal especially if a little spending money is thrown in for good measure
That sand was removed from the roadway, stolen, and stored at Camana Bay.
It was used for the man made “island” at the Cresent in the middle of Camana Bay.
The ideology is “we moved the sand and opened the road, so we get to keep the sand we moved.”
It is nice that the beach will be allowed to go back the way it was before there was a road on it.
Actually Cayman never had a public beach here until some community minded citizens dug up a swamp and hauled in the sand. I seem to remember that Desmond Seals was involved but I sure someone will fill in my memory gaps. I sure like this new park.
For all those naysayer and environmentalists very little of Cayman was habitable 50 years ago. All of the land from Salt Creek and Governors Harbour to Camana Bay was mosquito-infested swamp.
It took a network of cannels, massive dredging and filling to drag our pleasant lifestyle out of the mud and muck. All of Prospect up to Newlands was uninhabitable. Very little of Cayman is natural, Check your yard and your plants. Try South Sound, all swamp, they filled in the Tarpon Pond to build homes. If we put Cayman back to its natural state none of us would be living here. I’m all for the environment but I’m not stupid and I haven’t loss all of my memory (Yet).
YAY! Cannot wait until this project is completed! Keeping my beach bag packed and ready 🙂
I bet all the same people going against this are the ones who were saying "no, don't make dart build a cinema, it will close down our old cinema…." and yadda yadda yadda. There were hundreds of people protesting this as the Hollywood theatres were being readied, and as soon as the doors opened those same persons were there watching movies!
If half the people protesting the Hollywood theatres had kept going to the old Marquee they might still be open today!
Go Dart go!
Which PR firm do you work for?
People are allowed to have opinions different to yours without them being from a PR firm.
People with opinions in Cayman are labelled devil-worshippers, mainly because the people calling names are too thick to understand anything that is explained to them outside one of the UDP's rants.
… donkey-faced devil-worshippers who eat carrots and milk… and they are ugly too, don't forget.
Ummm not sure who you’re taking aim at here, but the whole dart sellout deal is the UDP.
Just because an opinion is different from yours doeesn't mean it comes from a PR firm
No. It just sounds like it comes from one
The poster is 100% correct about the cinemas fiasco. I remembered the same.
The "For Dartlands Alliance" of course!
Go dart go? I would truly like to meet you. You sound neato.
Pathetic how media (including CNS) sensationalizes everything nowadays. But Thanks for continuing to follow this great conspiracy. Planning on bringing in sand, wow, headline news! Please keep us upto date on tree planting and don’t miss when they start bringing in picnic tables and the like.
08.08-you are an ingrate, how the hell else would you find out what is going on in these islands if it was not for the likes of CNS? Have you ever spotted overwhelming amounts of information coming from any local source…?? Only at election time..and normally by word of mouth.
Would like to be at the opening party though!!
OK, will keep you informed!
I believe that CNS simply reports the news. I think that reporting is rather fair and balanced. Of course, since we are free country, anybody can comment. Some of the comments are so poorly written they get an automatic LOL from me, other are stright from the looney bin and often are comploeely innacurate in facts. Still, most comments are valid opinions of the reader and very worthwile. In the old days, prior to 2000, you would have to send a letter to the Compass, ask that your name be with held and then pray that it would not be leaked.
All I hope is that he is importing this sand and not taking
It from another part of the island that he “owns”
Cause as far as I know the law states u can only take a bucket of sand per day
From the beach. Hope that law won’t be bent….
All those who support this project will take a bucket each a day for the next week. That should be enough.
i literally have not met one person(with a brain) who is not in favour of this superb development……
So you must have met 4 persons so far, namely, Ken, Mckeeva, Mark and Jackie? You need to stretch your legs more, get out and walk the roads that are left and you will meet 4 thousand people with brains (bigger than your pea-brain obviously) that are not in favor of this development and with good reason. And look out for the large Vulture swooping down on you -or perhaps you will see that as a friendly Cayman parrot?
Wow 4000 against and the other 45000 are yes or dont really care to voice an opinion….looks like majority rules as usual. At least it will be 4000 less people to leave all their shite on the beach.
well said you brit! can tell by how you spelt "shit"….
anyway, im caymanian, drove down there a few times now. Absolutely love it, this is an awesome idea. And if you have vision you will see what he has planned, this was much needed.
People of west bay, GET OVER IT! Its not even west bay, its west bay road. Ya'll need talk about how you allowed so many of your own people to over develop your own district. You don't have a beach to go to in west bay really, besides BARKERS which is commercial property. Ignorance stinks!!!!! (sorry to those bayers who support this fantastic idea)
change is not always bad people. 😉
Just to clarify, Brits dont use "shite" word. You just have to say it with a little west indiian accent and you know where that word is used. I missed the good Bajans that used to be around in our Islands. Once the other nationality took over, the Bajans decided this was not Cayman anymore so they went back home. Now we are left with a nationality that every single shovel they lift or every rake they move, every broom they sweep, all you hear about is how they built Cayman. Cayman was not built by any Nationality for free. Every Body was paid, some ripped off a lot of older persons. So I guess I started on one reply and got carried away. You must be young and ignorant to see a spell like that and call it a Brit. God save the queen.
0:800 and 15:44, I have Scottish blood but was born here 32yrs ago, and consider myself Caymanian. Shite is a common term in the UK and many other parts of the world.
oh yes….. the famous invalid 4,000 petition made up of tourists, children, pets….etc……zzzzzz
also don't forget about the famous 150 person demonstration or the caymanian bravehearts who said they stand in front of the bulldozers….
And that means what to you?
It looks like His Majesty, The Great Premier Dart has made camping legal in Cayman.
$5.00 Foot Long and $5.00 Parking soon come to a Public Beach near you.
Thank you Mr Dart. Please ignore our ignorant few.
Perhaps you should just talk for yourself. 'Please ignore our ignorant few' displays your own ignorance.
negative people enjoy the facilities . no ship or plane can take the land so at the end of the day the land remains .
From wherever he wants. He is Dart.
Overseas More likely cuba. It can came in one big barge.
Dart Will be done. We will continue to find out what he will do in bits and pieces as he sees fit. We will only know the full terms of this terrible "deal" if we live long enough.
So, go ahead and play in Dart's sand, and praise his works and your short-term selfish gain. Dart is no fool, and he has played this game of chess spectacularly in his own Machiavellian manner. Play in your sand, for you will be paying for it.
Those who have systematically sold out our beloved nation for personal gain, I will pray for you, and hope you get every bit of what you deserve.
I can't wait to play in the sand.
There is nothing "short-term" about the benifits that this hotel will bring to Grand Cayman.
You people like to sit around and complain about any progress that is ever trying to be made.
What new industry has Government brought to the islands recently? what new jobs?
They cant even complete the schools they are suppose to make, because they are to busy wasting money on their OWN "self gain". If government won't bring industry to the country they are suppose to be running, im supporting anyone who does!
20.19-why are you blaming Dart?? You voted the idiots into goverment that allowed this deal…and as far as we know all htis work is forseen in the deal. You will never be a lawyer, will you? Emotion gets in the way of logic..
You're right in one sense — I'll never become a lawyer…….. it becomes too difficult to stand up, and I like standing up.
I DO blame the idiots that were elected into power, but I also blame the vulture who has swooped down to pluck the resources in exchange for shiny trinkets. I don't blame Mr. Dart et al for making an excellent deal for himself; he's an excellent businessman and a master strategist. Our power and money-hungry politicians didn't see him coming and seem to still be courting his favor.
I don't have the iron (influence) to change anything, however I won't stop expressing my opinion. Perhaps one day when the full vigorish of this "deal" becomes apparent, you might also wonder if you could've done more to prevent the fleecing of this small nation. I guess we will see.
Jeez us free kin Christ , is that supposed to be aput down!? “You’ll never be a lawyer” ? Is your daddy a lawyer or something? Well I’m sure he’s a very nice man.
The details of the improvements being made to the new public beach and surrounding areas have been clearly reported to the public. The terms of the arrangement between CIG and Dart have been negotiated by the elected members of the assembly. Nothing has been sold out! Land has been swapped and a road has been relocated and improved. The public beach has also been massively improved. So what are you complaining about???? IMPROVEMENTS????
Please provide for us — the rest of the nation — the full details of this agreement. We don't know, and I doubt you do either, however you imply that you do. We'd all like to see them.
If there is nothing to hide, why is it still hidden? Do you think all of this so-called trade occured on the strength of a handshake? No, it must be on paper, a signed agreement. So where is it? Surely you must appreciate the value of knowing the terms of any agreement CIG has made.
Your hero that ‘negotiated’ and signed the deal has several charges of dishonesty and abuse of power laid against him. DOES THAT NOT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU!!?
What a scam! Im surprised people haven’t started rioting over this deal. It stinks just as the dump move to Bodden Town.
We are known as passive people but that was the old generation. The young ones coming are a different breed so let’s see what’s going to happen if you keep ramming crap down their throats.
Time longer than rope…..
And he knows you are passive people.
19.58 Intimating violence never helped anyone, just showed a complete lack of intelligence. Go talk to the politicos, they agreed this. Now I await your life threatening reply.
Look at the picture and you will see what they are doing. Are you that blinded by your hate that you cannot see the benefits to the enviroment, to the improvements of the facilities and the future job creation when the hotel is built and running and a new eco-friendly waste management facility will bring? The only scam I can see is the people like you who are trying to stir up a hornets nest by make false misleading statements to try and pitch neighbor against neighbor. We need to all work together for a better, brighter future here in Cayman. Lets not waste time fighting over things that obviously are beneficial to our country. Lets use our energy to curb violence, improve welfare and schooling. Give our children a more positive outlook and just be nice to one another.
Where will he get the sand?
he won't steal it …he's not a real caymanian
Bodden Town
Where is this sand coming from! Will someone please enlighten us otherwise the public might think he dug it off of another beach.
From wherever he damn well wants
Mac gave it to him and Julianna says he can keep it
Mac bought it for him with his ATM card. Err, your ATM card.
Marriott beach has spare sand 🙂
Cuba? Green iguana eggs and all are on the way…
We gave him the sand!!!! That is how he got it!
One of the only "virgin" piece of seven mile beach sand that has not been mined and covered over by 4 feet of sand, is the old West Bay road.
Are you dumb enough to think that Dart did not intend to mine this and realise the profits from the valuable white sand. He can fill it with marl and cover the marl with sand and still reap millions; or better yet build a huge underground basement for whatever building he choses to build on that particular piece of seven mile beach. The sand sale will pay for the basement and leave plenty of profit.
I am not suggesting that we should in any way prevent Mr Dart from doing with his land what he damn well pleases, within the law (I certainly will not let anyone tell me what to do with mine). What I am suggesting is that the people of Cayman really have NO IDEA of what the value they are exchanging really is; therein lies the stinking bog of a morass that we are sinking ourselves into with this deal.
Remember we may not feel the real death blow of the tourism tax part of this deal for years to come, when the vast majority of our tourism accomodations inventory are subject to the 50% reduction on Governments income. This will transpire because they are brought undet this deal, purely because of ownership status. Remember Dart knows the value of what he traded for, even if McKeeva and Julie etal. did not. If Dart ownes it we get 50% and he gets 50%…… I feel sorry for the competition …… Im sure there will be some cheap deals on bankrupt hotels in Seven Mile Beach in my lifetime.
When this 50% of tourism tax is siphoned off, as the norm, because of ownership by Dart exclusively, and we experience contraction in our banking industry, for whatever reason (U.K. has made her intentions clear) and we don't have tourism to fall back on, we are doomed.
Again, I am not suggesting that tourism will fall off, what I am saying is, even if we are successfull in doubleing our tourism GDP, we will be collecting less than we are today as the cost of doubling this will be 3 times the amount we spend today through the DOT, and the people of Cayman will pay for it as we no longer get 100% of OUR tourism tax. Remember Dart will still be in a position to demand we continue to spend to attract his customers, just like the rich hotel operators do today, instead of doing the lions share themselves.
So today….. just a little road…… tomorrow the whole picture will be revieled and it may not be a pretty sight.
10.22 you are trying to make a point. Would be great if we could understand what that point is, rather than the rambling mess that actually got written…
Great. It is starting to look really good. It’s much bigger than I thought. Keep it going dart.
A lot better than that small sliver of a road, where cars were parked along the side of the road, and tour buses would take tourist to that embarrassingly small strip of sand beside public beach.
'dart?' Fool, learn to punctuate, then maybe you can stop talking foolishness.
You need to learn the meaning of 'punctuation' before you post something like this. You just demonstrated who the real 'fool' is.
erm…….. you actually meant capitalize, not punctuate. When you've absorbed this lesson, we can move on toward grammar, usage and punctuation.
Maybe after that we can tackle logical fallacies, with an emphasis on ad hominem fallacies.
Look it up.
God himself couldn’t do better
That's what they said right before the Titanic went down. God obviously is not in any of Dart's money making ideas or your foolish comments so best just keep Him out of it. Afterall don't try to degrade the One who's letting your ticker tick (if you are still here) of course!
Good!