By a Special Correspondent
BASSETERRE, St Kitts – The Government of St Kitts & Nevis has spent millions of dollars on Kittitian Hill and Christophe Harbor, with nothing to show for its investment. That’s the view of Dwyer Astaphan, a lawyer and former SKN government minister. Speaking on his radio show at the beginning of June, Astaphan slammed the successive administrations of Denzil Douglas and Dr Timothy Harris for failing to ensure that the two major projects on the island be completed.
“For the past ten years, successive administrations have sat and watched Christophe Harbor decelerate into stall mode,” he said. “There is no doubt in my mind that the area known as Christophe Harbor contains massive potential to bring sustainable development to the people of St Kitts & Nevis by building homes, hotels and golf course and other amenities.
“But it is highly important that projects begun, but not yet completed, be carried to completion. Poor administration also caused the stalemate we have seen today at Kittitian Hill – SIDF [Sugar Industry Diversification Fund] became owner of 90 percent of the project, money that could have been spent on developing other projects on the island.”
Kittitian Hill was established in 2006, an ambitious 400-acre project to build an environmentally friendly golf course complete with hotel and villas on the lush north coast between Mount Liamugia and the Caribbean Sea. When the project was seen to be failing, the Sugar Industry Diversification Fund, a government investment fund designed to invest the proceeds of the country’s successful citizenship-by-investment program, bought 90 percent of the project.
“It was ill-advised to buttress, support and prop up a development that had failed,” said Astaphan. “Another option would have been to find other developers. Now a beautiful project languishes, and a golf course deteriorates before our eyes. A development like this is too important for the country, and the government has to act.”
Astaphan was even more scathing about the prospects of Christophe Harbor, on the southeast of the island. On 15 June 2007, a contract was signed between the government and KHT Holdings, a SKN company with US connections, who had developed Kiawah Island, a golf and villa resort in South Carolina. That agreement was amended a couple of years later, with Charles ‘Buddy’ Darby emerging as the major shareholder in the project.
What the government allowed in Christophe Harbor was the creation of a new principality, “almost a different country”, according to Astaphan. “The government gave away too much, too many concessions. The very thing that Robert Bradshaw had warned about had been given to the developers on a platter.
“Since around 2013, Christophe Harbor showed signs of slowing down, but even then not enough had been done to convince me that we would see the project completed in my lifetime, or even yours. I am told there are maybe as many as 100 house lots sold, and 30 houses built.
“We know only one hotel has been built, the Park Hyatt, while the master development agreement called for two or more to be built,” said Astaphan. “The world-class golf course never materialised. The marina is not as large as it was planned to be. Promises, but no fulfilment. This should come as no surprise, because it follows the extraction of the high-performance group in South Carolina, leaving too much to be done by those who were left, and too few resources.”
In November 2016, Buddy Darby told the St Kitts & Nevis Observer that the aim of his organization was to help promote tourism in St Kitts and Nevis.
“We provide a lifestyle that like-minded people want and enjoy,” Darby reportedly told the paper. “The core of that is real. They want real things and they are environmentally conscious. The person who has to deliver on that lifestyle is very key.”
He also gave an update on the golf course that is yet to begin construction.
“The golf course is finalized and planned so we are in the stages of figuring out when to build it,” he said. “It will be the world’s most dramatic golf course built in the last 30 years. Six holes go along the Harbour, then it marches up to about 450 feet and the whole time you are looking at the Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans and looking over at Nevis.
“We have 30 completed homes, some of them very substantial. For a community this young that is a lot.”
Astaphan says that seven years on from this interview, no progress has been made, and the project is clearly stalled and failed.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the boss of the development, Charles ‘Buddy’ Darby, needs to deliver on the many promises that were made,” said Astaphan. “We are at year 16 and counting. We can safely say that the project has failed, God help us. They have even borrowed money locally, what happened to all the millions that were made from the sale of the hundred or more house lots?
“This project cannot be deemed a success, but it can be rescued. Urgent action is required, and the process must be started by the government. New life and capital, a new agreement are necessary at Christophe Harbor. A new deal has to be done, for the people of St Kitts & Nevis, and also the people who bought homes and lots there. We call on the administration of prime minister Dr Terrance Drew to act.”
