Dart Road deal at a standstill
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Premier has confirmed that there has been no progress at all between government and the islands' largest developer over the outstanding deal between it, Dart Realty and the NRA. Asked at a press briefing on Monday what was happening with the negotiations regarding the 2011 NRA deal, Alden McLaughlin stated clearly that there was simply "no progress". Planning Minister Kurt Tibbetts added that one side was not trying to see things from the other's perspective but neither he nor the premier were able to say what this means for the partially executed deal and the concessions originally negotiated in it relating to duty and future accommodation tax.
The deal has been at an impasse for around a year after talks between the minority government, led by Juliana O'Connor following the UDP government's collapse, and Dart broke down in May 2013 ahead of the general election. Dart had managed to get the closure of one part of the West Bay Road between Public Beach and Raleigh Quay gazetted before the negotiations stalled but the remaining stretch of the West Bay Road up to the old Yacht Drive junction has not yet been gazetted and remains in public hands.
Dart has pressed ahead with the redevelopment of the former Courtyard Marriott site. It is building a five-star resort, which is expected to open under the San Francisco-based Kimpton brand next year. The closure and handover of the stretch of West Bay Road by the site of the hotel is sufficient to give the new resort the beach front that the developer had wanted.
It is not necessarily in Dart's interest to continue negotiating with the current administration to get the remaining stretch of the West Bay Road gazetted as it is not pertinent to the developer’s immediate interests. But the existing deal signed more than three years ago, which was reverted to when the previous agreements failed, affords the developer significant duty concessions and the controversial 50% accommodation tax, which the company appears unwilling to give up.
The PPM stated during the election campaign that it would try and renegotiate some kind of access or through-route along the old West Bay Road if the party was returned to office but almost immediately the PPM announced that the road closure was a done deal and there was nothing it could do. However, Kurt Tibbetts said that the government would continue to talk with Dart over the 50% accommodation tax concession as he said that was unacceptable.
As well as depriving the public purse of half of the room tax collected by Dart at the new hotel for ten years following the opening, it would also extend to any accommodation, developed, bought or otherwise acquired by the Dart Group, for the next thirty years. Tibbetts had stated that the generous concession was also presenting challenges for government in talks with other developers looking to potentially invest in Cayman as he said were all asking for the same concession.
However almost a year later there has been no movement at all in talks between the parties, even though Dart had agreed to negotiate the details of the NRA deal following its review by an independent consultant.
There had been two further re-negotiations with the developer following the December dealsigned by McKeeva Bush when he was premier and leader of the last UDP government. The re-negotiations had mostly concerned the location of the land swaps and cash payments to government in exchange for divestment of the West Bay Road, turning not only the hotel site into beach front property but much more land that Dart had acquired north of Public Beach as well, increasing its value significantly.
However, neither of these amended agreements was ever formally signed and when the interim government attempted to change the second amendment, Dart put an end to the talks and said it was reverting back to the original signed December deal — abandoning the two previous amendments.Since then there have been no agreed changes to the original agreement, even though PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was tasked with conducting the independent review, had recommended re-balancing some areas of the deal in order to give better value to the public purse.
Category: Local News
I think Ken Dart has the best interest of the islands at heart. It's a shame that can't be said about some of his arrogant minions that are a disgace to the good work and benefit he has brought to the island. Hopefully some more of these will exit as decisively as some of those that have walked before them.
And I think the arrogant minions (minions of who??) have the best interest of the island at heart. Looks like we have a think off.
The Emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned’ does the GOV know that during the recent anti corruption conference in GCM many head of states met with DART begging them to come invest in their countries. McKeeva said it if you do not embrace wealth you will reap poverty. Our country needs foreign investment to survive pray for a few more Dart’s. we need not sell our soul but use good negotiators to get a good deal for all. Billionaires competing in CAYMAN is a win win for our economy.
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A quote from Mackeeva bush. Just WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am now speechless.
What a low class bunch of people we are, we make a deal with a man , in writing then down the road because our a hole low class polititions promise the free loading accustomed people more we renage on it.
low class untrustworthy people, who the hell will every make an honest deal with us in the future.
its bad business and stupid.
On the other hand we low class must be easy pickins for the likes of dartco. Fishin a barrell, har har har…
Guess what all those roads ?????????? Dart built are through his property. His property would be worthless without roads and other infrostructure, so he gave us nothing. We gave him W B rd. and turned his swamp lands into beach front property. So u c we gave him a lot more than he calims he gave us and do'nt forget we will be giving for at least the nexty 30 years. Good deal ! 4 whome????????.
I smell a rat here.
Has anyone but me noticed that whenever there is anything written that is not in favor of something that Mr. Dart might wants to do, the computer lemmings get on line and hit the thumbs down buttons all day so that they outnumber the thumbs ups. How sad! Don't these poor souls notice that no matter how many thumbs down they give, all those thumbs up are still there!
The truth hurts doesn't it?
Huh? Scan you man-splain that to me??
Yes, I've been aware of this, also, for the longest while. Amost comical, like some strategy for swaying public opinion in some smallish U.S. town. Problem here is that it just don't work, witness the abandonment of our "soul of the nation" daily newspaper's almost hysterical editorial drive to support the removal of the dump to Bodden Town. it didn't work. Time to move on from this "Dart" fiasco? I reckon so.
I recently attended various levels of Economic Development training and the new mantra is loud and clear.
When attracting new business or investment to your community or state or country, do not offer the new developer incentives unless you are prepared to offer those same incentives to your current businesses.
Your existing businesses are as important as new business attraction.
But what if the decision was being made by an ex-gardener with a fifth grade education who did not need any help because he knew best?
Your beloved mr D is the one who really knew best.
So who was that then?
Does it really matter that is was negociated by an ex-gardner? the United States Constitution was partly made by farmers. Peopole like you think you are bigger than others, who have to use their hands to make a living.
People like you like to look down on others.
It wouldn't be a issue if they were also doing things like building 30 Million dollar highways.
Gazette the remaining road closure and Dart will have the beach park, the camping area, the bike paths, boardwalk etc done in three months. Come on PPM!!! Stop being stubborn.
I am sorry if I misunderstand the situation but is it this?
– the last government signed a deal
– this government tried to "renegotiate" the deal
– the renegotiations are at a standstill
Is this right? If so, is it any great surprise that one side is not trying to see the other sides pov?
How do you just ignore a legal contract and decide to renegotiate after the deal is done and the construction has started?
Then all this talk about forcing the other side to come to the table by doubling fees and stopping the duty concessions that were agreed to? Doesn't this just amount to breach of contract?
This hotel will bring employment and more visitors to island. It will be good for the economy. Simple as that. The Cayman Islands better decide what they want to be: an attractive place to invest or a nightmare to invest. When I read articles like the one above I get the sense the decision is leaning towards nightmare.
But again, I may have understood wrong.
You must be new here, this is standard operating procedure for CI governments. Do you think the big investors are aware of the CIG method of making and breaking deals.
How many millions have been paid out of our money because politicians could not live up to contracts?
Not quite.
As I understand it we (OK …I mean our Right Honourable Caretaker Gardener) negotiated a dumb deal with Dart. Part of it was concluded and became binding. Others had not been fully concluded
Our RHCG then had his pen taken away from him and the new penholders decided that – in the interests of the people who had taken the RHCG's pen away, tried to make the best of it by saying that they would conclude the whole deal in amended form. The fact that the amendedment is to part of the previously binding deal is not entirely unusual.
Yes it is hard ball. Does Dart know the rules of that game? … Yes. Would he do the same if the positionswere reversed? ….Yes. Is he actually doing the same thing (ie do we expect him to say OK I will give up the 50% 30 yrs but now I also want x)? … quite probably.
What is binding is binding. What is agreed but not yet binding is subject to cancellation. NO different from the time between a realtor telling you that the seller has accepted your offer and the ink being put to the contracts. You may be miffed if the seller then comes back and says thta he actualyl thinks that he can get a better price so isn't going to sign but they are entirely at liberty and doing nothing wrong if they do.
Frankly we have done enough deals with hard bitten negotiators where we 'thought' we were getting something that they knew we weren't and then being held to the actual agreement that I am sort of pleased to see us standing toe to toe on this one.
That's it in a nut shell.
I blame West Bayers for this whole mess we are in with Dart and our Public Beach, they were the ones who put McKeeva, Cline, Rolston and Eugene in
Here is the solution. We give all hotels the same 50% deal that Dart wants. Then we raise the rates 100%. Now Dart is getting what he wants the other Hotels are getting whatr they want ( a level playing field) ad we are collecting the monies we want. All done.
And the tourists pay then stay away so little or no monies are collected. Remember for every action there is a reaction. You have to think ideas through before putting them into action. Because that was not done we are now in the present situation.
Come on guys…
Suspend the duty free import of construction supplies to Dart until the entire deal has been amended to take into account the recommendations of the independent consultant…
This is another of the long list of mistakes that resulted from too many years of Mckeeva-ism…
06:03, maybe DART should stop giving Government millions upon millions of dollars to that was in the deal, probably the only cash flow our current Government has at the moment?
How much are we supposed to get from DART with this deal over 20yrs? Somewhre in the region of $5 billion dollars?
Yeah DART, we don;'t need you.
SMH.
The medical term is ' McKeeva-itis
Why so many thumbs down?
I must say I am surprised that so many infantile minds prefer that we all pay higher import duties on everything that we use including food and fuel and higher utility bills, so that we can subsidize the money making construction of projects with no import duty for one of the world's richest men…
Then we give him 1/2 of the tourist tax collected on every hotel he builds or buys for the next 30 years?
As the monkey said – my people…
Incentives are there to encourage new investors or existing ones to expand.
The deal inked with Dart calls for equal sharing of the room tax 50/50. Lets say we each get 5 billion over the period of time. If the deal does not go thru we get ZIP, nada, ziltch. Take the 5 billion and the many other extras that will come with it, jobs, fees, rent, food car purchases etc.
Its because Dart corp. obviously puts money towards public relations…(formerly known as propaganda)
They have even supplied plastic surgery!
What a bunch of "do nothings"…Not progressive more like Regressives…
The public beach should always be a sign to us of what DART will do when he can't get his way.. All he did was throw some imported gold sand on our beach that he got cheap n Columbia and wouldn't even use in his projects,…We are so gullible and stupid.
Oh yeah..thanks for the road that causes me to sit for 30 minutes in front of Camana Bay every morning..How did this help us.all it did was move our problem from Raleigh Quay to the Fidelity round about…Gee Thanks DART!
I wonder if you lived in West Bay before that road was opened. You must be crazy to think that the road situation is worst now. If the PPM did not stall the deal then the Harquail bypass would have 2 lanes on each side of the road.
And Gee Thanks McKeeva too!
As for the Progressives "doing nothing", isn't it obvious to all McKeeva did Waaayyyyy to much? Really any "concessions" should come directly out those Big Mac pockets!!!
Carpool? Almost every car that is stuck in that roundabout has one person in it.
Why don't the government just double the accommodation tax then for all other hotels give them 50% off, it would bring everyone on one level
You must be joking, the Cayman Islands is already too expensive for sustainable tourism as it is!
Maths was not your strongest subject . . . .
I suspect the thumbs down come from those who spent their childhood in the remedial math class.
They are already. The mess was negotiated by Caymanians who were elected by Caymanians.
If Caymanians want better deals from foriegn investors, they must elect better quality Caymanians.
Or put the perps in jail and nullify the 'deal'
So, would you back the elected officials so lovingly if they rolled your butt out of the country???
just sayin.
First things first! Govt. should open up the closed portion of the old West bay road, [under the eminent domain law] which allows them to appropriate and property for whatever purpose they see fit and see if Mr. Dart still wants to play his vulture game!
For once let's show these people that "WE" have control of this Island. Do what they did in Argintena. Close down some of his business that dare not hiring Caymanians.
Do what they did in Argentina – you mean, not pay Dart and then find him freezing their assets around the world?
PS Who is WE? Isn'T Dart a Caymanian too now?
Don't forget Cayman has a hugh advantage that Argentina does not have these islands are British as a result every piece of property on this here little rock belongs to HM. As a result you and everyone else should not forget it. Absolutely no one can freeze the assets of the Cayman Islands without first going thru the UK. Mess with this child and you have to deal with the mother first.
Remember some people's kryptonite is TAXES, whether they are Caymanian or not.
I'm just wondering when Caymanians will finally take possession of their own country.
So we can sell it back (again) to foreign developers 😉
is yours, no one has taken it from you. Dart is caymanian,his status was grant by caymanians that were elected by caymanians. The deal? nor a single expat was involved in that deal with Dart. Goverment did it and last time i check they are caymanians.
Yah. Greedy Caymanians. Nah lak me and you.
Only legally you moron, it could be legislated Obama be legally recognized as a Martian.
I'm not a moron. You are. I love this name calling stuff!
You know what he OP means. Don't play smart with that citizen thing.
As far as the deal being signed, the Caymanian people were hoodwinked by BOTH of the 2 biggies.
Not a single expat unless you count the army of lawers and consultants that advised dear ole god bless dart. Get smart. (Unless you don't want to of course)
Obviously you need some Head-U-Cation as to how the "system" works. Dart is "Caymanian" as the migratory birds that fly by seasonally and poop all over the island. True Story.
Those who pocketed our beach land and says they did so much for the people. Caymanians get some balls and let's start batting. Do what they do in other countries, when they are putting the natives on reservations. Come out fighting. I am ready.
Let the invaders understand what we stand for. Justice for All. Why should the native people have to wait on the scrlaps from the tables?
most of the beach land was yours, which you then sold while greedily rubbing your hands together and licking your lips. So thats how Your world works, you sell something then grumble and moan and expect them to give the item back and you keep the money. That is about as far from Justice as you can get.
Yeah, get an army together of all Caymanians who sold their beachfront land at a profit for development and march on whoeverthey can blame for this short-sighted profiteering.
Much too late for that McKeeva gave it all away to Dart!! Still the morons are waiting to put him back in power. Some of us Caymanians are the biggest fools on this earth. All you Big Mac suckers should hang your heads in shame.
You injuns, we settlers. Watch the movie.
Do give us plenty of warning so we can plan to close the businesses.
Mazing how a competing hotel might want to be on an equal footingt to the Dart properties. This deal sounds awful!
Deals when the become a deal, do come to a "standstill" precisely because there has been a deal.
ppm= political procrastination movement
the glib response of kurt and the ppm is truly sickening……
did anybody ever expect kurt to achieve anything????
Exactly! What has Kurt Tibbetts ever done for Cayman. Can you remember anything that he really spearheaded that benefitted the island. He has this way of rambling on and on and at the end no one really knows what the hell he said. Please put someone more articulate to talk on these press briefings. I can't undestand why he keeps getting elected- must be the freebies he gives away. When people begin to think and expect more than the next patty or plate of food then we might get somewhere- until then it is all that he can provide. I hope he does not bother to run for election next time around. Better if Kenneth Bryan has won!!
Other developers aren't building 30 Millions dollar highways, nor do they put thier money where thier mouth is…Dart has singularly done more for Cayman than any other developer or company including the CIG..I'd rather see them running Cayman than the CIG any day..
Just ask the Argentinians what Dart did for their country.
He paid off all thief debt and they complained about having to pay him back
Hmmmm, sounds kind of familiar…..
I think to be fair he took on board risky debt from other institutions and enforced his contractual rights which Argentina reneged on. The transfer of the debt probably was a prudent step to move riksy debt off the books of pension funds and banks, so that such investors provide a mechanism to protect those that have pensions or savings.
Too funny that you think that's what he did. Bank's lent Argentina the money, NML (or Dart for this discussion) is a vulture fund that bought that debt at a heavy discount and sued the Government for full payout after everyone else (read most) settled for about 30 cents on the dollar. If they bought the debt at 15 cents and settled for the re-structuring, the would have doubled their investment, instead they sued to get 100 cents on the dollar, trying to get roughly 8 x's what they paid for it back. It puts Argentina in a bind and has nothing to do with just getting back what they paid for it.
so when Argentina borrowed ((sold the notes) they did not get 100 cents on the dollar? If you lent me 100,000 and your friend lent me another 100,000. I blew it all frivalously away then told you I could not pay it back. Your friend says fine i'll settle for 30,000, you would happily do the same or if it was in your power get all your money back. PS can I borrow 100,000 from you I'll happily pay you 30,000 to settle it in 6 months.
Nice Try. You think you know so much, why not ask Ecuador the same question? Then there are the Russians, the Greeks, etc. Dart has run out of partners willing to sell him anything. Then there was this guy name McKeeva in the Cayman Islands……
He did nothing of the kind. What he did for Argentina (and Greece) is buy their bonds, and then forclose on them — otherwise known as 'vulture capitalism'. He nearly singlehandedly destroyed the economy of both countries.
Wonder where he will go when he's through wrecking the Cayman Islands? Choices must be limited by now to those countries that haven't still heard of him.
Theif debt is right!
I hope that settles the Argentina argument.
Argentina and Dart have nothing to do with Cayman. Dart is pumping billions of dollars into Cayman. He will never live long enough to see the profit.
What the hell Argentina and Dart have to do with Cayman? thats their business if they got themselves in a tight spot.
Not to worry the UK beat the mess out of Argentina in 1982 for the Falklands a British colony, not to worry they will find the kryptonite for Dart if he wants to mess around with Cayman. We had better Hold Fast to that which is good! We love to talk about independence, the best thing that Cayman can do is to remain under the wings of the mother hen because there are so many chicken hawks awaiting to scoop them away and pick their bone white.
you have got to be shiting me? DART is only good for DART, check how many Caymanians are leaving or loosing their jobs there. As soon as they settled in they started the usual crap.
Absolute power belongs to HM government and when it ceases so will the way of life for all Caymanians. When any developer is given or has full control of Cayman that will be the day when hell freezes over, 30 million dollars is pocket money for the ultimate ruler of these islands. All the combined wealth of ever developer in Cayman will not equate to 1/3 of the wealth of the owner and properiter of these islands. So no chance in hell of anyone ruling these island but HR and her designate. I don't care what any developer wants because at the end of the day it all boils down to what the UK says.
rome is burning. The UDP flopped and now the PPM fiddles. Dart going sue the socks off the government because of that signed contract and we going be stuck paying the bill. again.
It is clear that Dart and company have no concerns for what is in the best interest of the Caymanian people. They are only interested it what is good for them. The goal being taking over our country. They are close to doing it now and only if our leaders are strong can we take Cayman back.
I for hope they do take it over the people running it now are the ones ruining the country
Sounds like it's not really your country, am I right?
The time people like take to talk crap about Dart and company want to take over the country. You should be encouranging your people to prepare themselves for the thosands of jobs, this Man and his company are paving the way for in this island,
Your constant negative rhetoric is only discouranging your people, psychologically ready themselves for these jobs.
Remember Mr. Dart is only developing the buildings and other businesses occopy them.He is just a bigger land lord than Mr. Butler was.
An agreement is an agreement. This sitting duly elected government at the time negotiated a deal with Dart and signed an agreement. You can't have the subsequent government come in and say I want to change with the previous government. This is so ridiculous.
Let's get this road gazetted and let Dart finish the redevelopment of public beach and the beach park and the camping grounds. We will also have a boardwalk and bike paths.
Any other developer just comes into Cayman and talks and talks and talks and does nothing. At least Dart goes through it it's plans and builds beautiful properties.
It's so ridiculous to say the public is being deprived of 50% of the hotel tax. If Dart built nothing the public personal get zero. At least with the redevelopment of the hotel the public purse gets 50% of incremental taxes. 0% times zero dollars equals zero dollars. 50% times multimillion dollars equals multimillion dollars.
Obviously a lot of people including the PPM cannot see this
Except whan that 'agreemeent' is made with a despot.
19:26, you forgot to mention that DART is giving the Government billions of dollars over the next 10+ yrs, but apparently we don't need that, we have more money than Quaker has oats and everyone has a job……..
I'm with you on this, but are you aware that the camping facilities and all the wonderful other things that were included are not being paid for by Dart? They require sponsorship from… the goverment! (or private business) in order to build them. Bit of a faux pas.
Other developers don't talk and talk and do nothing. They just won't pay the backhanders certain people request as a condition of government approval.
Juliana O'Connor-Connolly should never have signed the deal with Dart. This is her legacy.
Now that she is a member of the Progressives she needs to make every effort to fix the mess that she and her former government agreed to which is ultimately detrimental to this and future governments.
The defintion of irony is the Progressives rewarded her incompetence with a cushy position as the PPM Speaker of the House.
Another day another broken PPM campaign promise
For those of us who live in West Bay there are a number of obvious comments to be made about the new by pass extension. At first reflection it is very good but if you travel on it at the wrong time you are in trouble and it does not work. More importantly it will be very detrimental unless a few things are fixed.
The early morning rush shows many going to George Town along West Bay Road which at the Fidelity round about is generally grid locked for an hour or more. Meanwhile those going through Camana Bay struggle at five miles per hour. It is an absolute shambles with no planning by the dart people.
When the new Dart hotel and condos open with the new reduced speed limit on West Bay road more drivers will elect to use the by pass to George Town. That will lead to a huge stream of traffic at the Fidelity round about where everyone and his uncle are squeezing two lanes into one. This is already a serious problem.
The problem lies with the planners at Dart who should have had the foresight to see this. Now there is no choice, they need put in a dual road past or through Camana Bay. There is no choice. In effect we are back to the pre extension highway days.
Of course once through Camana Bay you are back to a single lane again which Government needs to fix.
In conclusion I am merely acting as a Crystal Ball to advise what to expect over the next two years. Government needs take note of my concerns and you the public are now on notice.
No it isn't. How convenient for Dart to have a traffic jam right in front of his property full of stores, shops etc. All the traffic slowing down in front of his mall looks to me to be great marketing.
Why install another carriage way to move people past his property faster? Why would he want that?
Because a) the traffic jam makes his pretty development look unsightly b) the jam prevents people getting TO Camana bay to spend money there.
One of the ammendments to the deal included a fix for that. But you chose to reject it with your vote. So sit and cry about it all you want.
You make no sense. What an assinine response.
Camana Bay section and south to Butterfield traffic circle were supposed to be double lane roadways, but those plans are obviously on hold due to CIG action. Crosswalk dawdling by a few drivers is also a major contributor to the rush hour delays.
What would you do if you had signed a deal with someone and invested years in planning, sweat, hard work, and millions in capital, and then, upon completing your part of the first phase of the agreement the other party comes back and says, "great work, we'll just go ahead and keep that effort, and we're tearing up our agreement that allows you to amortize your investment"? What would you do if a government behaved that way on a sovereign agreement? What if the 11th hour renegotiation tactic was merely a political ploy to appear heroic to an anti-development voter block? What reason do the Ironwood investors not think some successor CIG administration won't try the same stunt with their duty concessions after they complete their expensive road?
Agreements are only good with honest people.
Be patient Mr. Dart, Boss man soon be back
It appears that our previous government made some very questionable "deals" with Mr Dart. Does anyone believe they were all above board? Who got what… and when? You'll never know.
I have never personally met Ken Dart.
However some of y frieds know him wellnd do business wih him.
Their opinion is that he is 100% honest ad is one of the few business people who came to this country who has refused to pay bribes.
Delusional you are. Thanks for the laugh.
Oh and if you want to be taken seriously ask Ken Dart to pay for your spelling lessons.
well done to the ppm for frustrating the biggest investor in the history of the cayman islands!!!!!…………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ….welcome to wonderland….
Who the hell besides yuo care if he is frustrated!! All of you who thinks that Dart is the Savior of Cayman can go sit in the corner and suck on limes!!
The big boss and largest investor in the history of these islands are the United Kingdom (aka HM). They have the ownership of this here little piece of real estate since 10 May 1503 until present. Lots of useless low lives try to offend her daily in the process. The people of these islands have not experienced one day without belonging to her but we have lived since 1503 until 2003 without "the biggest investor" now go figure and have a wonderful sleep in wonderland if you believe we will die without your or "your biggest investor".
typical inaction by ppm…….