BVI News

Pier Park tenants owe over $300K to gov’t, says Premier

The Tortola Pier Park

Tenants at the Cyril B Romney Tortola Pier Park owe government well in excess of $300,000 for rent, Premier Andrew Fahie has disclosed.

“The total outstanding to date owed by tenants of the Cyril B Romney Tortola Pier Park is $360,56.24,” Fahie said while answering questions in the House on Thursday.

The Premier further said the outstanding amount accumulated between June 2018 to May 2019.

He did not expressly state how many tenants are delinquent in payments.

BVIPA to intervene

Fahie, however, said the new BVI Ports Authority board is tasked to assist the Pier Park with this matter so that the issue can be rectified.

As per the facility’s website, there are four tour operators, one real estate company, two telecommunication service providers, one eyewear company, a dozen clothing stores, six jewellery stores, one liquor store and two internet café/business centres based at the location.

There are also six health and beauty salons, seven gifts and souvenir shops, 12 food and beverage establishments, one footwear store, one electronic store, four car and bike rentals and two banking and money transfer establishments at the park.

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46 Comments

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  1. TurtleDove says:

    That’s a lot of places in a small area doing the same thing….maybe SOME of them need to start teaming up. Share the pie in an efficient way and reduce the liability.

    Like 17
    • Rent says:

      First, the only days most of the businesses are open are the days cruise ships are in port. The food establishments do not have seating for patrons and thus they only fill the need for the cruise ship passenger on the go. Second, it was promised that there would be 500,000 cruise ship passengers each year. Since the island is a s**thole, the cruise lines have cut back on Tortola as a destination to a third of what was supposed to come. Soooo, either reduce the rents to be in line with the number of cruise ship passengers OR have an empty port stores when the passengers come which will further reduce the number of calls the cruise ships make. You all need to get your heads out of your a**es and work with the tenants to make things work or you will have no tenants and no visitors which is really what the Belonger wants. However they still want the money. Just not YOU.

      Like 34
      Dislike 5
  2. resident says:

    if you cant pay then leave, we need the money

    Like 26
    Dislike 2
  3. Rent says:

    Things slow and they raised the rent during the slow season

    Like 4
    Dislike 9
  4. Well says:

    On a trip to the BVI last year my family visited the pier park which I found to be quite nice. Nonetheless it was quite empty and we practically had the place to ourselves in the middle of the day. One of the issues I found was that there is a disconnect between the Pier Park and the rest of the city and it lacks that flow so if you were not aware of it you would not know it existed. While I appreciate that its location caters to the cruise tourist the BVI is no different from any other Caribbean island that has a similar set up. For these operations to be viable they must be patronized by the locals and stayover visitors and effort must be made to appeal to them as well. It is well known that cruise tourists these days spend very little money. There is an obvious need to have some sort of development or redirection of traffic, whether vehicular or pedestrian that leads people to the Pier Park. I also think that the BVI needs to begin to realize that there is a ready market of regional visitors, like myself who are more that able to fill the gap during the off-season. I find the BVI to be a nice quiet getaway with quick access to St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. The hassle of going to Canada or the United States is not worth it anymore and you can always shop online. “Down the island people” like myself come with US dollars in hand to shop and enjoy what the BVI has to offer as well. We rent cars, hotels, patronize the restaurants and stores just like any other visitor. I had an experience in the Pier Park that I thought was really absurd. My family and I went to a small shop to purchase some drinks to refresh ourselves as it was a very hot day. When we got to the store the young lady indicated that she was closing up for lunch and so we were not served. We ended up going to the ice cream shop. I noticed though that the said young lady after closing the shop came outside and sat down at a table outside the said shop and had her lunch. There was about six of us in the group. Vacationing and exploring new destinations are very much apart of Caribbean peoples lives these days whether they live in Trinidad in the South or Jamaica in the Northwest and the BVI can take advantage of this market like everybody else. Just saying.

    Like 65
  5. What!!! says:

    So what is so hard about dealing with this??? Pay your rent or leave, easy. How come tenants are allowed to get away with this nonsense?

    Like 29
    Dislike 3
    • Friend says:

      It’s their friends. That’s why it’s a problem. Who can pay don’t get the space.

      Like 15
      Dislike 1
    • Guest says:

      Usually in the BVI if you hold anyone accountable to their obligations they run to a politician who is a friend or their family…

      Like 17
  6. Faith says:

    Hire Me. I will collect the rent money or put padlocks on the doors

    Like 22
    Dislike 1
  7. Smh says:

    They need to publish a list of the outstanding tenants and then you will understand why their debt grew to that that level under NDP. Andrew I welcome VIP to enforce payment on a level playing field where all persons are held to the same standard.

    Like 23
    Dislike 3
  8. :) says:

    First the Pier Park went over the initial budget by over $30 million now the tenants owe over $300,000. Cruise visitors will be lower than the originally agreed terms. So far Mark’s golden goose turned out to be an ugly duckling.

    Like 32
    Dislike 3
  9. OZYMANDIAS says:

    And you should see how most of them walk and carry on likr they profitable. BROOK SQUNTS

  10. Wondering says:

    Isn’t there someone with an overpadded salary overseeing the place?
    Guess that person needs to pay more attention to details.

    Like 30
  11. Dman says:

    Need to open it up to more professional, medical and government (if they can pay the rent) offices. It’s too big if your focus is getting cruise passengers elsewhere on the island (s). Beautiful facility though.

  12. One eye fowl cock says:

    Imagine craft alive millions owed, soon they will be out in the road selling.

    Like 14
  13. ndp heckler says:

    Every thing that the action man built are rent free……Craft alive and Cyril Romney Pier Park

    Like 14
    Dislike 4
  14. Ken says:

    One question: why did the government let this go on?

    Like 21
    Dislike 1
  15. Dig! says:

    If they dig deeper they will realize that the pier park is failing because of BAD MANAGEMENT! No way those people can afford those absurd rent rates relying on a few ships a week while security and management make the local customers feel like in there is not for them.

    Like 33
    Dislike 1
    • Thats the issue says:

      The businesses in the Pier Park rely too much on the ships and dont try hard enough to engage the BVI residents. If you go there on a holiday to relax its like a ghost town. They should have music in there on certain days to promote traffic during the week. Little promotions to encourage the residents to shop. But noooo. We never want to try something new here. Its take it or leave it once you’re not a tourist.

      Like 22
      • Tom says:

        I worked at one of the business in the pier park and believe me the business owners did and do want to do all of those things but the problem is the pier park management. They don’t want the businesses to do anything without their say so and when we would go to them with our ideas they would bawl and say they have no money to do anything.

      • @Thats the issue says:

        Right you are.

        The tourist industry is a critical part of our economic development. We honor and respect that.

        However, our government, past and present, philosophy of of sole dependency, is a philosophy that may be our down fall.

        Other reliable sources of revenue must forged and developed alongside tourism if we are to move our survival away from that fragile, can change in a heart beat, dependency industry.

        The creating and manufacturing industries have for to long been unexplored or neglected.

        To Skelton and the new parties. You have time to work on this. Do it.

    • ok NOW says:

      Thats why i dont go out there because those guards does turn me off…yo cant park here and yo cant park there and to add insult to injury social security block off their land where yo coulda park

  16. lol says:

    make sure all action man family rents up to date

    Like 17
    Dislike 4
  17. Vince says:

    The figure sounds like a lot but take into consideration that the pier park probably has about 70 tenants, so $300K outstanding is not actually that much and it is obvious that some of the businesses are not meant for the park so no surprise that some are falling along the way side. Less cruise ships and a bad local economy and this is what happens. So sad as it is such a nice place compared to the rest of road town.

    Like 5
    Dislike 7
    • Blah says:

      The Soup Shop got evicted for not paying rent on time so why aren’t these delinquent payers allowed to owe so much. The issue about lack of payments was brought up over a year ago and it seem like some are allowed to owe based on who they are or who they know.

      Like 24
      Dislike 1
      • @Blah says:

        If I read the story right months ago, soup shop was 14 months behind on rent. If anyone is over 3 months behind they should be given 30 days notice to settle up or be evicted.

      • @Blah says:

        Based on news articles there are over 60 tenants at the pier park. Soup shop owed 14 months in rent according to him when he made a public statement. I am sure if other tenants had that amount of arrears they would have been thrown out as well.

  18. Juan ping says:

    You all need to fire V***e cause his NDP friends let this slide for too long and he just don’t care.

    Like 6
    Dislike 1
  19. This says:

    is what happens when eggs a placed in one seasonal, fragile, unreliable and narrow sighted basket.

    A more viable and perhaps profit generating model would have been to advertise to, cater to and promote local participation right alongside the visitor, day and night.

    But no, the narrow sightedness catered to only on segment of the total economic pie, and the results are clear.

    Stands to reason after a step back and look then, all economic generators must be catered to if business of that type is to thrive.

    Segregation seldom yeilds good results, whether in business or in human existence, unless the segregated support is large enough to sustain it.

    Like 13
    Dislike 1
  20. Hmmmm says:

    The NDP really mash up the BVI.

    Like 8
    Dislike 6
  21. @Issue says:

    I agree. Every time I go there especially on a weekend the bars opened but the gate is closed. How does that make sense? I just go to another bar and forget about the pier. This is why I don’t even bother going there. Also in the day time the place is so dead even on weekends. The park itself is badly managed but now those that can’t pay are being put under the microscope while the management collect their big salary every month for doing nothing and that is not fair at all.

  22. Retired says:

    Wow, glad I didn’t invest in the TPP back in 2012 when the NDP commenced their ‘fund raising’ promotion for the BVI’s state of the art cruise ship pier and shopping center. Construction cost overruns, delayed openings, missing files, poor management and now tenants behind on their rent – what else can go wrong?

  23. Math says:

    The Pier Park should be collecting around $150K -250K per month in rent give or take based on the number of tenants out there, spaces, business types etc. They’re owed $360K over a 12 month period, where they would have billed $1.8 mil – $3 mil for that period, meaning around 15% – 20% of billable for that period is owed at this time. This should tell you that while the amount seems high, it has to be less than half of tenants that are behind and it should be easily resolved by government. If the business cannot turnover the money needed to pay rent then they should be asked to exit the park. If they are having a rough time then the board would put them on a payment plan and if that doesn’t work they should be asked to leave. Not sure why this is alarming or news to us given that as a result of Irma, there are a lot less ships and the local economy has taken a nose dive.

    Like 7
    Dislike 2
  24. H**h D*rley says:

    You need to have industry professionals operate the Pier as we proposed to do on behalf of the BVIPA. We were pushed out and idiots put in place. Just give me a call and we can easily correct the problems. Keep going with the path you are on and it will all fall apart. How do you collect the over spent $45 Million dollars.

    The Government still owes me $2 Million.

  25. musa says:

    every body cheating

  26. Stand up for your fair rights says:

    Let the Government eat the cost. The Government is fast to ask for moines that is owed to them but slow to pay out what they owe to people.

    Like 2
    Dislike 1
  27. Sam says:

    The thing is lots of people go into business without doing the research. For example, why would I buy clothes at the pier park or any where else in the BVI when there is are much better clothing on the web?

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