The Opposition to Foreign developers acquiring lands at Mt Wynne/ Peters Hope for hotel development was addressed by a representative of Pace Development on Wednesday 18th January 2017.
Joesph Romano Attorney and partner with Pace Development said he thinks it is based on “misinformation and gossip”.
“ I do not believe that this is a bad project for the Vincentian people or the country; I think it is an excellent development opportunity for everyone”.
Romano said they are taking all the risk in developing the land, putting in millions of dollars in infrastructure.
“ We cannot start developing a piece of land just like that, we did not buy a service parcel that was ready to go, so as a developer it is not like being a builder, developer assumes the risk of preparing the property for the development, and that is on us”.
When asked by the host Dwight “bing” Joesph about access to the beach, Romano said: “ well a significant portion of our project is not even on the beach, so that is the first misconception I want to point out”.
“ Our development is on the rock, the Mt Wynne ridge is not beachfront, we have a portion of Peters Hope, and we do not have the entire beach front, so public access is not going to be affected”.
“ We encourage public access to our beaches, we are only gonna take up about two hundred feet, there are 5.7 acres of the 37 acres on the corner right next to the mountain, so the public access is not going to be touched”.
“We do not have the ability to impede on access to the beach,” Romano said.
Ambassador Ellsworth John also on the radio program noted that the current road that leads to Peters Hope beach is nowhere near or in the way of the development.
Groundbreaking ceremony fo the Peters Hope development takes place Thursday 19th January 2017, at 2 pm.
