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Cupecoy Yacht Club


(Image taken from the website below)

The Cupecoy Yacht Club is a development being carried out by Orient-Express Hotels. See also here.

This Forum post at OrientBeach.com appears to have a few mistakes and is a little confusing, but it is useful to determine that the project was approved in 2004 along with the Cliff and The Village. Roy Marlin rushed through the permit requests because:

"The Executive Council considers these types of projects very important in the absence of the reopening of some of the former properties such as Mullet Bay and Dawn Beach. When investors are looking to put large sums of money into these types of projects on the island it is fitting for the council to deal with these matters expeditiously."

The writer mentions conditions under which these developments were approved. Clearly from the photos below, those concerning the 10 metres from the lagoon to be left by the developers as reserved zones appear to have been dropped or ignored.

Filling the Lagoon in Cupecoy - Photo Album

Then there is the matter of the old stone border wall. Destruction of the wall was halted and Roy announced an agreement with OEH to restore the wall and create a walkway.. As you can see from the photos below, this has not and will not happen. OEH now want to exchange the new road they have built over the old demolished wall for the public road. The plans show that the remaining section of the old border wall running under the road to the lagoon is also to be demolished.

SXMPE Blog Post - Cupecoy Border Wall - 29th March

OEH have also promised to make the project as green as possible, removing some mangroves would be removed and greenery would be replaced by even more. All mangroves were removed.

No environmental study has been made on what the effect of this development, destruction of mangroves and dredging of the lagoon has had on lagoon life and water quality. No excavations or study was made despite the governments archaeologist stating that previous excavations on the site in 1986 had determind it as a site of the largest indian village on the Dutch side.

"we recently received a casino permit" - 2nd November 2006

Cupecoy Yacht Club comprises:

200 - 240 one to four bedroom apartments/condos.
30 - 45 free standing villas.
20 retail stores
6 restaurants
5 bars
Gated community

SXM-Info - Construction Feature

Below you will find news, articles and more

SXM PE Blog Post - Romac Sotheby's Smoke & Mirrors? - 4th September 2007

SXM PE Blog Post - A brief tour of Cupecoy - 21st June 2007

Letter - Cupecoy - One more eyesore - 26th October 2006

Cupecoy Road to be exchanged with developer - 6th October 2006

Kadaster to Orient Express Hotels - Take me to court - 4th August

Cupecoy road dispute - 28th July 2006

SXM PE Blog Post - Cupecoy border wall - 8th April 2006- 28th July 2006

Cupecoy Border point/road to be moved. - 12th May 2006

SXM PE Blog Post - Cupecoy Border Wall - 29th March 2006

Letter - SXM Pride Foundation position on Cupecoy zoning and development - 11th February 2006

SXM PE Blog - Cupecoy, Destruction in name of progress - 11th August 2005

Orient Express development to be Green as possible -16th July 2005

Owners agree to repair wall at Cupecoy - February 2005

Archaeologist Haviser on Cupecoy wall - 15th February 2005

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Submitted by Flipper on Sun, 2005-05-29 23:27.

Cupecoy Yacht Club - Fashionable Not Monolithic
runmkm | Fri, 2008-04-25 16:05

I returned from St. Martin in February 2008.

I saw the progress on the Cupecoy Yacht Club and the area has been transformed.

While I agree it is unsettling that the environmental safeguards were circumvented, the low-rise nature (7 floors and under) of the development is significantly better that the Sapphire or The Cliff, which are just high rise concrete structures.

The "Village" will include retail area open to the public and a marina. It appears the entire complex will be muted in soft colors, owing its ambience to the Mediterranean.

You can see a model of the completed development on www.cupecoyyachtclub.net and judge for yourself.

The bigger problem with development in general on the island, seems to be the increased car traffic that accompanies these projects. Something will have to be done with the roads. My suggestion, albeit not a native, would be to redo the areas that require the bridges to go up several times a day in at least 2 locations that I know of. While expensive, it might be feasible to dig tunnels where there are now bridges. Or conversely, reconstruct the roads to elevate high enough to remove the bridges, not sure that is even possible.

But as the roads cannot be materially widened, I would think all possibilities should be on the table.

St. Martin is a beautiful island with beautiful people and should find some way to balance itself between remaining static and moving forward in a responsible way.

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I think the design and
nick | Thu, 2008-05-22 16:25

I think the design and layout of the slips could be better and made to look more natural, I took a mediterranean cruise last year while in greece, and this year going to the caribbean with a yacht, being from an island myself i'm always for keeping everything looking natural and not building just for tourists.

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Re: Cupecoy Yacht Club
Anonymous (not verified) | Fri, 2008-04-25 16:57

Question to you: will the project developers of Cupecoy Yacht Club / The Cliff / Caravanserai / Westin etc. etc. contribute towards the infrastructure upgrading? It's mostly their projects that have caused more congested roads, right? Without those projects the island's roads will still be quite congested but not as much as with these projects.

The big developers throw money towards the commissioners offshore accounts (just like in the US where the Clinton's having their offshore haven in the Caymans) and in turn they get carte blanche. They can do what they want, when they want. If we would have a government with any cojones, then they would demand the big developer's to pay their portion towards an upgrade in the infrastructure, electricity / water company, garbage collection etc. etc.

It easy to talk about how to upgrade, but it's really about finding a way to be mutually responsible for a sustainable future for SXM.

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