Gov’t makes fresh attempts to develop Prospect Reef
The government is making yet another attempt to develop the state-owned Prospect Reef Resort which was destroyed in the 2017 hurricanes that ravaged the BVI.
For years, promises have been made by successive administrations to redevelop the property, but the government has always cited several problems encountered in trying to restore the hotel to its former glory.
The last reported update was given around January 2022 by former Premier Andrew Fahie, who stated that progress was stalled due to some legal concerns.
But at a press conference earlier this week, Premier Natalio Wheatley said the government will soon invite bidders to submit their proposals for the development of the hotel.
“Very soon, I’ll be engaging the Prospect Reef board on issuing a Request for Proposal for development. We see Prospect Reef as a hotel that can offer convention centre services to our business community and assist in hosting meetings, conferences and so on. So Prospect Reef is a very big part of what we are intending to do and the public should see a Request for Proposal very soon,” Premier Wheatley explained.
He added that once development proposals are submitted, the Prospect Reef board will choose the bidder they wish to develop the property. But the Premier cautioned that no work has started as the government is getting ready to start the bidding process.
“When the Request for Proposal goes up, anyone who is interested will be able to put forward a proposal and they’ll have a fair and transparent process to select a proposal,” the Premier stated.
After the 2017 hurricanes, the previous National Democratic Party (NDP) government signed a $90 million deal with ICA (BVI) Group Corp to redevelop Prospect Reef. That deal never materialised and when the Virgin Islands Party formed the next government, they announced that they were seeking new investors for the property’s redevelopment.
Using the property as a business or convention venue — as announced by Premier Wheatley — was not the original reason previous governments gave for the redevelopment of the resort. Initially, it was stated that a four-star or five-star resort was needed on Tortola and later on, the government said the property could be used to advance culinary arts training locally.
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Our government should not be involved in the hotel. business and convention centre business.
Why do we own Prospect Reef?
Put it up for sale and make it easy for an investor to buy ( red tape)
Our tax dollars will be wasted developing it and someone’s friends or relatives will make a lot of money.
If there was demand for a large 5 star hotel on Tortola, private enterprise would have developed one. And a site with no beach is not attractive.
Current large hotels in Road Town are hardly used
There little to no incentive to invest in a labour intensive enterprise in Tortola, whether a hotel or houses while the labour laws, ludicrous trade licensing laws in the hands of an anti enterprise director and hostile anti investor attitudes remain as they are.
There are much better places in the Caribbean to invest
They need to sell the place and get out of negotiating what it should be
I always thought it would be a good site for a middle school. Location is pretty central and I feel strongly that the middle school should be separate from the high school…others may have suggestions that are viable..I don’t think another hotel has any merit.
We will be suing big time…sue sue sue
School, high-end office park with 10 room boutique hotel and conference center. The sports federations are constantly being asked to host Caribbean area conferences and yearly meetings, as well as sporting events.
But Government should not be more involved than making suggestions for its use!!
Government has not even managed to clean up the debris after Irma yet.
Something like coral world would be nice
The next hurricane storm surge will wash the remains of this impractical resort out to sea. Just let it return to a mangrove covered coast that protects the higher land in the Fort Burt area of Tortola.
Agreed, particularly this part:
“There little to no incentive to invest in a labour intensive enterprise in Tortola, whether a hotel or houses while the labour laws, ludicrous trade licensing laws in the hands of an anti enterprise director and hostile anti investor attitudes remain as they are.”
No serious investor will put down millions under these conditions. I have long determined this for myself dating back to 2007.
The trade and labor laws are a MAJOR impediment to major investing in this territory. This is a problem for locals, but worse for anyone not from the BVI.
IMO, serious investors should stay away from any major investment in the BVI until the conditions change. Not worth the headache, and most importantly the financial risk.
Life is too short to deal with what you will have to in order to run a successful business here. When one considers that there are other investor friendly places where one can set up shop, it’s a no brainier.
That’s unfortunate because the BVI is lovely, but the reality is what it is.
There is an anti-investment mindset here that not only stems from the government bureaucracy but unfortunately the culture as well. The politicians cannot be seen as being investor friendly because they will be labelled as selling out the country. Selling out the country in the minds of some results in no votes.
Please first fix the roads, please work on getting a proper incinerator for the pockwood pond area and look into getting the water woes that is plaguing this country under control Thank you
Excellent site for another much needed Government Administration building
Excellent site for another much needed Government Administration building
To government, we have possible Celebs from the BVI in our near future Olympians or Basketball Super Stars. We need “proper” facilities to attract athletes/Celebs from all around the world and not just for vacation! If we have top notch facilities for concerts etc, we can pull tourists all around the caribbean/world which will in turn strengthen our economy.
Rent stalls etc to ensure that funds are coming back to maintain the facility. Doesnt onñy have to be food, but different kinds of merchandise.
But hey maybe I’m thinking to big
There are more practical uses for the space and government involvement in building a hotel will NOT be in our best interest. We still haven’t built a senior’s home after wasting $$$ up at spooners. How about using it for that. That location isn’t good for a resort. Something with acres of landscaped foliage, infinity pools and ocean vistas would be more fitting for a resort and should be privately built. We’ve spent $$$$ on the 1st time home owner buildings that lower income earners can’t afford and higher income earners are repulsed by. Government should stay out of the hospitality industry. Get your employees trained in customer relations instead
We own Prospect Reef because a crony of our politicians needed to divest himself of the financial black hole it had become…so government bought it. You could consider it a bail-out, if you like. The intention was never to make it a going concern. It was simply to help (with taxpayer funds) a friend to many politicians and elites.
Walkaway whilst you are upright, this can be the territory’s worst nightmare. If you can find a buyer great, otherwise let it revert to its original natural self.
Until the anti enterprise, willfully obstructive and power mad woman in charge of trade licensing is got rid of there will be no business progress in BVI.
Get rid of this obstruction Lorna.
@ Simple answer @what…..
Yes Prospect was bought by the NDP administration from a “crony” for the specific purpose of housing an extension of the HLSCC curriculum in the form of culinary arts and hospitality training. It was a good idea. But because it was not a VIP crony they let the idea die.
However this same leopard administration never supported it, never got behind the idea and instead built a kitchen at paraquita bay lagoon hill. The money spent on the new kitchen could have started renovating and upgrading for prospect reef to be turned into a first class culinary and hospitality training centre as was intended. Now they are telling us about fresh attempts.
At this point I to agree with others that It should be sold. Not even leased, just sold.
Sadly politics has and will continue to be the detriment of this country.
But then building owners will be upset.. govnt must rent or else people in trouble..
Especially the road in Belle Vue, where ppl have to traverse daily and have to dodge craters and end up on the right side of the road on ppl side who are decending the hill
Any government run business is destined for failure. Private enterprise based upon capitalism ideals is more productive. It can then be accordingly taxed.
Irma only finished off what the government started when it just neglected the property after bailing out a crony. As others have said, the sensible thing is to cut their losses, but given the BVI business climate, there are not likely to be many interested outsiders. There’s no beach, so forget about the high end resort. Easier to continue to do nothing that accept the failures of the past and move on.
As others have so correctly stated, spending anything on this is a waste of money. And as First one hundred days in office said, the appalling condition of the territory’s roads needs to be addressed.
The reason it isn’t is simple: it’s easier to reward lackeys with a government job that has them sitting in an air-conditioned office all day doing very little, as compared to making them work out in the elements repairing a road. If given a choice, everyone would elect the former over the latter (no pun intended).
The territory should reassign at least 30% of its office workers to roadwork; services would not decline one whit, but to close this loop, the fact that the idea of investing in the development of this site demonstrates just how awful and out of touch the elected officials really are.
They patched the holes in the VIP representative districts just before election and ignore the others especially the big craters in the country road cause they were districts represented by other party members.
Not exactly accurate. One of the problems is the reluctance to accept foreign investment, preferring to keep everything BVI owned.
Seems to me that one of the premiers sold time shares in Prospect Reef , even though he did not own it. Big legal problem, so government took it over and sold the time share owners down the creek