St. Maarten Private Eye

Has anyone seen the million dollar house Roy has recently built above Oyster Pond/Dawn Beach?

Local word is that a number of Westin sub contractors have been working on it while being paid by the hotel.

This needs to be looked at very closely.

If the Westin permits were issued via fraud and kickbacks, the entire project could be rescinded and ordered torn down. Instead of 400 units, something around 100 units would have been more realistic there.

Roy's brand new house has beautiful ocean views, all fancy construction elements, etc.

If there is anything like an Attorney General or District Attorney on SXM, he should immediately launch an investigation.

If there is any indication these rumors are true, all building permits should be put on hold for any type of development beyond single family houses.

Hi,
I am glad I came to this site before booking my reservations to stay at the Westin Dawn Beach Hotel.
I stayed at Dawn beach for my honeymoon in May 1994. We enjoyed the island and the location so much that we returned for our first anniversary in May 1995. For my husband's Birthday in January he would like to spend it on a beach and after my suggestion of several other islands, his choice was dawn beach in Sint Marteen. When I checked on-line and read that the Dawn Beach Hotel had been destroyed in 1995 and the Westin was opening in December of this year I figured we could go there in January, however after reading how much destruction has come to the beach I am having second thoughts. I thought of calling the board of tourism, but what would they say. I know there are other beaches and hotels but the last time we were there we had decided that we did not want to stay anywhere else on the island. We liked the tranquility of the area since it was away from the hustle and bustle. We always rented a car and visited other areas on the island but we enjoyed returning to the serenity of dawn beach. I would imagine that the Westin would pay to clean up the beach after they have completed construction, they should have an obligation to do so and the local government should have stipulated that in some contract. I respect the opinion of those that live there and I look forward to your reply. Of course the Westin is promoting this wonderful development however after staying at the St Lucia Hilton and realizing that a fabulous resort is not that fabulous if the beach is awful (the beach is awful for a different reason), I am willing to go elsewhere if this beach has become awful.
Do you think the beach will be back to what it was?

If you think you will be reminicing your Honeymoon at Dawn Beach, make sure you do not have heart problems because when you see how the Westin, Coral Cable Beach Cond's and Oyster Bay Beach Resort have destroyed the area,, YOU WILL HAVE A HEART ATTACK. It is absolutely diesgraceful, as a matter of fact I was banned from Oyster Bay Beach Resort when I questioned the developer about an impact study on traffic and that if there were to be a disaster of some kind, many, many people would perish becuase there is no way all vehicles surrounded with nearly 650 apartments and rooms could get out of Emerald Merit Road and the main road that the Westin is on. They would all be running into one another and it would be a senseless slaughter of human life, but why should the developers care? They make their blood money up front.

That entire area is no longer tranquil.
Not only has Westin damaged the beach and it"s natural environment, but the area nearby the Oyster Bay resort is now so congested with ugly condo buildings.
It is impossible that this area will be tranquil with all the extra hotel guests and car rentals.
Oyster Bay will also start demolishing their 4 story buildings sometime soon, to build more of a high rise with elevators.
So you can kiss the tranquility in this area good-bye.
Tranquility can be found at la samanna, which is has a beautiful tranquil beach.

My own opinion is that the beach is never really going to come back in anyway like it used to be. The loss of the pond and the manner in which Westn raised the ground by about 2 meters with rock and dirt led to lots of flooding, washing that dirt and debris further out onto the sands. Then there is the 3ft 'embedded' road that they put on the beach too, which the sea now washes up against, again washing stones and dirt into the sand.

If you recall, Dawn Beach was a fine soft white sand beach, the only way Westin could restore it is to truck in similar sand, there is not enough nor would it be wise to try to dredge. Soft fine sand is expensive and would have to be shipped in or ground down specially, the other alternative is to use sand from the harbor, which is coarse and not fine.

At the end of the day though, Westin should NEVER have been on the beach at all, nor should they have damaged it in such a way that it needs to be restored. As for traquillity, with 400+ hotel rooms and condos in such a cramped setting, plus staff, I think the chances are slim. Construction will still be going on in Jan and probably Feb and March too. Oh, and everytime it rains heavy the sea will turn brown. Just my thoughts....

Flipper

Thanks for both of your replies. I think you have convinced me to either choose another island or another location on the island. Based on everything I have read it sounds like the entire island is under construction. I was quite concern that construction would still be going on in January at the Westin and you have confirmed that it would be. I can still remember when we went to the Hilton Tobago (I think it was 2003) construction was just completed on the hotel and not over on the condominiums, the place was so new we had to change rooms twice because everything wasn’t working like it should have (another experience I do not care to repeat). I will break the news to my husband that his favorite beach is no longer there as we knew it. I am really saddened by this. In the name of progress we sometimes fall behind.

T

any updated photos as of 11-30-06

Hi Flipper:

Thanks for your remarks. One thing for sure is that the Prison Like Condos are not selling, so perhaps when we run out of space at our prison in Pointe Blanche (of which we have), those could be an annex to our prison. It would serve the developers of the surounding Timeshare and Westin a damm good lesson. Can't you hear it now. "Oh yeah let's go to lunch, meet me at Oyster Bay Beach Resort. HOW do I get there? Just pass thru the prison gates and you will see the guardshack to Oyster Bay and they will give you dirctions to the Lobby.

I don't really have the time to go into it as much as I would like to, but considering:

The Netherlands Antillies just signed a tax information sharing treaty. ( I wonder who is going to inform our real estate agents who appear to be quite happy to help arrange in 'hiding' assets for people.

The US housing market, dollar and economy is not looking too good.

Some places along the US eastern seaboard, up to many miles inland are starting to have difficulties arranging insurance and mortgages due to Global Warming concerns.

Theo thinks the Tourism season will be great, ever the optimist. I would say there is plenty to to wary about. Seriously, in my opinion these boxes are so over priced anyway, only an idiot with more money than sense would buy one.

Flipper

Maybe someone else does, but when I drove past the other day it still looked like the ugly prison block it resembles. Not much different, still a F**ked up beach and an uglyass hotel.

Flipper

any photos of the grand opening of the westin dawn beach

I've followed your blogs with great interest. I really have mixed feelings about this whole devcelopment thing in Oyster Pond. I own a condo in Princess Heights and the value of real estate has just "skyrocketed". But I didn't really buy in Oyster Pond to make money, I purchased because I liked the area and the more secluded part of the island. It surely has changed and I'm sure it will not be entirely for the better. I go on vacation to St Maarten for 3 or 4 weeks per year, so I don't live there and when you're on vacation, you're looking for things to do and see. So now Oyster Pond will offer a lot more when we're on vacation. But I have no desire to look down on an ugly hotel that was put up in such a hurry that everything was compromised to get it built. I will miss Scavengers terribly. And we didn't even get around to talking about the roads and extra traffic. I doubt that this will be what "we signed up for" We'll be back in January and I'll let you know then!

Bob, Let us know when you are on island, as I really don't think people like yourself that own a condo will enjoy Dawn beach anymore.
The traffic, too many people on the beach, noise from beach bars and noise from a heavy congested area.
i personally would not have a casino in that area, as I think people that would like to gamble whould have gone to the other side of the island anyway.
Oyster Bay takes their customers a few times per week on a bus to a Casino, this helps allevate traffic as the guests do not have to rent cars and clog up the already congested roads.
In my opinion, this ugly WESTIN should become an all-inclusive as we cannot afford to have all these people using our roads.
SXM is killing iteself with an overdevelopment, at the end of the day, Mr. Roy Marlin is responsible for this and he will never be forgiven.
he has allowed too much in a short period which is hurting our quality of life.

Jess has a bunch of photos up of Dawn Beach.

SXM Living Blogspot

Please check the comments on SXM Living blogspot about the guests staying there for New Year's. IMO, Roy sold the area out so the political meetings could use the resort convention rooms. Mark my words and see how many times the Westin will be used for political gatherings.

Westin Hotel is holding the Island Government responsible for its failed promise of a paved road in the court documents that were filed on Wednesday so far there is no monetary claim but that part of the injunction will surface if the island government cannot live up to its promise within short.
SMN News understands that the injunction is aimed at forcing the Island Government to start construction of main access road to the hotel immediately.
http://smn-news.com/

I managed to catch some of Rollocks on Pearl FM tonight just after 7pm. At first I couldn't figure out who it was, it was really what the brits would call a 'bunch of bollocks', which should have given me a clue. I wish we had a way to record things like this and put them here.
It can't be very comfortable sitting on the microphone, but I guess that's what you have to do when you talk out of your ass.

LH