10-year return projected on WE Ferry Terminal investment
The West End Ferry Terminal project is expected to recoup its initial investment within 10 years, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley told lawmakers recently.
Dr Wheatley said he could not provide a cost estimate for the project, arguing that he would not wish to prejudice the procurement process in ensuring that value for money is obtainable.
However, Premier Wheatley told lawmakers that the Virgin Islands Recovery and Development Agency (RDA) recently compiled a business case for the West End Ferry Terminal.
Historically the busiest seaport in the territory before the devastating hurricanes of 2017, the West End Ferry Terminal, is now poised for a significant transformation. In 2016, it facilitated 41 per cent of all sea arrivals into the territory, underscoring its critical role in connectivity and economic vitality.
According to the business case, annual economic benefits are estimated at $114.7 million in tourist expenditure. The figures are a further $32.7 million in gross value-added economic activity from tourist arrivals compared to the 2018 estimates. This projection indicates a substantial boost in direct and indirect annual revenue to the public sector, starting at approximately $9.3 million once the terminal becomes operational.
The Premier added that the business case anticipates a starting point of approximately $9.3 million in direct and indirect annual revenue to the public sector once the terminal is operational.
“On this basis, the West End Ferry Terminal is expected to readily recoup the construction investment made to increase direct and indirect revenue to the public sector within a 10-year time frame,” Dr Wheatley said while noting that the project life span of the terminal is 50 years.
The project is seen as economically viable and a strategic move to enhance access to the territory, improve infrastructure, and stimulate economic growth.
Previously, the RDA announced that nine firms submitted bids for the construction of the terminal. The Agency initiated a shortlisting and evaluation exercise, hoping to narrow down the candidates to a select few who would be invited to participate in the final bidding process.
An optimised design for the terminal that emphasises climate responsiveness and energy efficiency was announced. The design represents a blend of ‘Classic Modern’ and ‘Organic, Futuristic’ styles, selected by residents through a previous poll.
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Not know the cost of the project and yet he knows that it will pay for itself in 10 years, What a JOKE.
Say no more.
Hitler would have been proud of it
https://www.exberliner.com/politics/nazi-architecture-in-berlin-germania/
The government doesn’t get it and understands that the rent for these places can’t be high. They are here to provide a haven for the economy to flow.
If you don’t know what it’s going to cost – how can you tell how long it will take to pay it back??
hurricane will destroy whatever ferry building appears in that location on the south coast of Tortola. The only use for all the shoreline flat land is a car park for a floating ferry dock in shallower water.
It would be interesting to see what fee structure looks like in terms of taxes and various revenue centers. Looks nice but one would have thought a mega yacht facility capable of dealing with high end passengers would have been the school of thought. Capitalizing on an emerging market.
“Dr Wheatley said he could not provide a cost estimate for the project,”
Why the heck not??
Is this before the runway extension or after.
ANOTHER DISASTER
All it needs is a swastika on the top
Scale & Context. Do ANY of these designs consider the value of the vernacular and respect it? All of these designs lack the basic understanding of how our culture and vision for development works within the built environment? Seems to me like a missed opportunity to have government develop the area sensibly and sensitively with a little respect.
But with mega projects; come mega risks and many conduits for corruption in the form of kickbacks etc.
Where in this article did the Premier said he do not know the cost?
“Dr Wheatley said he could not provide a cost estimate for the project, arguing that he would not wish to prejudice the procurement process in ensuring that value for money is obtainable.”
Seem like the man think this is some kind of poker game and not just a construction project. Why so much focus on the cookie jar? Maybe he suspect someone try to steal the money instead of building a ferry terminal.
Gee, I wonder why he think that!?
This is NOT the design the people voted for!
This man need to go back school he think he smart and every one else stupid
Fails terribly in common sense
Surely would require the building to be on very long legs
So you are spending 10 times the amount we make on tourism to build this??
Look again! Same less expensive building get same money!
Stupidness
It’ll probably cost about 2m. Just the look of the building and how it will be built on the cost probably around the 1.5-2m range. Anything more is probably a way for them to fill their pockets.
$2 Million??? Lol…What delusional land are you living in? Which building around here costs $2 million? You think it will take 10 years to make back $2 Million? You think he’s keeping the figure a secret because the amount is that low?? C’mon….This thing is going to run $20million to $30 Million. That’s why they don’t want to disclose the amount. I agree though that we don’t need a huge and impractical building there.
As someone whose built on the land. I say at most that building would cost 3-4m. But it seems people are estimating it at like 9m. Which to me is crazy. It has 2 floors seems pretty wide but there is no way that building should cost 9m to build. The average building or house on the island costs about 1-2m and that’s a big building. You think a building of that size is 3x 4x as big as the average building being built on the island.
Consider that it cost more than a million to build 15 or so vendors shacks at Pier Park recently. BVI history shows that projects like this are pork barrel for those with the right connections. The project will go over budget (like Pier Park, Peebles ectc), and is not likely to be completed in time.
BVIs does not have a great deal of liquidity nd will probably have to borrow the money. A 7% over 10 years, it costs about $58,000 a month to carry a loan of $ 5 million. The Territory gets about 7,000 overnight visitos (on average per month). Assuming that 20% of those visitors came via West End, they’d have to levied about $ 40 each to cover the load payments. Then there is the environmental arrival tax plus departure tax, so basically $ 75 ontop of their ticket price, based on a $5 million cost to complete the building.
Just saying…
One thing to also consider is creating a WE ferry won’t increase the amount of revenue the islands received from a ferry trip. Unless the total amount of people that use ferries on the island increases. But it looks good on paper I guess.
So the building brings in people willing to pay for it? They I was thinking that the overall BVI experience did that. We in trouble buddy
What kind of ignorant stupid thinking is it to believe that the building cost could be recovered by visitors. That’s our Minister of Finance folks
Will it ever be built?.
Is this an example of Virgin Islands architecture?
All the years we here planning designs and estimating cost and this and that. We have lost those revenues. Irma was 7 years ago! Get it together people