St. Maarten Private Eye

Your are right. All these so called real estate agents bother me for quite some time. Some of them unqualified, uneducated failures that come from all over the world to sell property without any knowledge of this Island and its history. All of them comitted to the dollar. None of them comitted to Sint Maarten. Eventually they will all leave. Payton Cromwel's Coral Club is a good example. The once tranquile area is now destroyed forever by too many of his concrete cubes that are so ugly it even made the Westin architect shiver. (Good thing is they are right on the beach waiting for a hurricane to sweep them away.) I am happy that the courts did not give in to his ridiculous beach claims. If you ask me, he was just trying to confiscate a beach that is OURS for the purpose of selling it to anyone that makes a bid. Good it did not fly this time but why do we still tolerate these kind of people here?

You made a wrong assessment on this development as far as hurricane damage is concerned. That damage could only come from the sea, and the buildings are sufficiently far enough away from the sea taking into consideration that the shore-line is protected by a reef. Moreover they have build a seawall on top of metal sheeting going in deep enough. Buildings closer to the beach like the Great House suffered no damage from the sea in the late 1990's hurricanes, including Luis.

That the development looks as if designed by a four year old pre-schooler is a shame. Anyhow the proof is in the pudding. Need to see it finished first with buildings finished, land-scaping done, before I would pass my final judgement. Construction-sites never look nice!!

As for real estate agents coming from all over to do their business for the buck, that is so true. But it takes a professional to sell one of them cubes for 1.8 million dollars. A johnny-come-lately will never be able to do that unless he hits oil on top of a mountain......

And don't forget these people only do business by the grace of the people who put their confidence in them.

About Hurricanes.

I'm not sure that not suffering too badly in Luis and others the past decade really means that is won't suffer in future storms. A lot of factors come into play I think.

For sure it takes a professional to sell a concrete cube for so much money, particularly when you look at other real estate on the island and see you can pick up a nice private villa on a hill with a view for half that amount. Does being on the beach really mean so much? My own thoughts, and this is just an opinion from someone who has no money, is that anyone paying this amount for a cube is as dumb as the breeze blocks it's built from.

The whole idea of having a high priced exlusive resort is that you keep out the riffraff. We all recall that on Sunday's and even during the week in season there would be between 30 and 40 cars parked at Dawn Beach by Scavengers. How many spaces do you think will be available at the new resort?

My opinion on the "Beach of your own" slogan is that is exactly what they hope, to make the beach as private to their guests as they can do so.

Same down by Coral Shores.

Flipper

Something along those lines is stated on a billboard (yes, those ugly intrusive large signs that block natural island views) along our roads.
Now, for a statement like that, and it is a sign for the Westin property, we should have taken the westin to court. I wonder how the Westin is seeing all these bad images coming from SXM, afterall it is a name, a name that the Columbia Sussex people are using, leasing, franchising.

And I have to agree with the leaches called real estate agents on SXM, in the US one needs a real estate license, not here, any hasbeen loser, just come here johnnies can call themselves a real estate agent. When is the tax office going to investigate real estate off shore accounts?'

Lets take a look at this Cromwell fellow, does he have a police record? is he allowed to drive? is that his real name? Has his companies been audited by the tax department? In the end, this is not about employment, as what and who will Peyton Cromwell be employing at the Coral cube boxes? Maybe maids? Maybe maintenance men? Thats about it.

And will SXM ners get those jobs as maids? Well, maybe we should ask the Sundial students because I know the master degree students and Bachelor degree students will not take the maid jobs. These degreed students studied management, computer science etc, will Cromwell be giving them a job?

I also agree with the above post as to the location of these cube boxes called million dollar condos. Which insurance company in their right mind sold insurance for these boxes on the beach? I would like to know which bank financed this project and who is insuring these directly on the beach, close to the waters edge projects?

And to all you tourists who is even considering buying these things, better think twice, SXM does not need another Mullet Bay saga.