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Johnson still keen about Mullet Bay ~ Wants Govt to clean up its act ~
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Jan 4, 2006 15:03 UTC
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PORT DE PLAISANCE - Prominent US businessman Bob Johnson (59) says he is still interested in the Mullet Bay property, but government should get its act together and, while protecting the public interest, pave the way for the development of the property.
Johnson, who was repeating his statement of interest made a few years ago, also called for balanced economic development of St. Maarten that takes into account the overall quality of life.
Johnson, BET Chairman, board member of Hilton Hotels and owner of the basketball team Charlotte Bobcats and more than 30 hotels with a total value of about US $1 billion, is visiting the island for a few days.
In an interview with The Daily Herald Tuesday, Johnson who has been a frequent visitor to St. Maarten over the last 25 years, said Mullet Bay could become the “cornerstone” of the island’s future economic growth.
“I would certainly be interested in serious discussions with anyone who has a viable economic business plan,” for Mullet Bay would be a good investment under the right conditions, Johnson said.
Mullet Bay, he added, could again become prime real estate if “the leadership would take progressive action.”
Government, he said, has a “greater responsibility” to the population than to a “few individual owners who don’t have a vision to provide a solution.”
“If government can’t move in to protect the public interest, then you have no real purpose for government. It must protect individual rights, but at the same time it has the greater obligation to protect the total public interest,” he said.
Johnson said he “can’t understand” why the Mullet Bay property hasn’t been redeveloped as yet.
“It has nothing to do with the land. The site is very beautiful and certainly very accessible. It has nothing to do with the airlift bringing millions of tourists to the island. So it must be a public policy problem, to put it politely. Someone in government needs to take aggressive action to cause Mullet Bay to be developed by the right developer,” he said.
The developer should have “sensitivity” to “proper balance” for economic development. Also, economic growth should go hand in hand with planned development and more important, with balance.
“You have to take into account the right mix of growth with environment and quality of life concerns. That’s very important to people like myself who want to invest,” he said.
“I’m not interested in investing just to get a quick return on a dollar, because without quality of life the investment will be short-lived,” he said, warning about “over-development at the expense of quality of life.”
Limitations, however, are not Johnson’s preferred manner of controlling that growth. “As a businessman I don’t speak of limitations on economic opportunities. I talk about balance.”
He suggested encouraging developments in areas that are not well-developed or developing roads, through tax incentives.
Also, when constructing for the wealthy, there should be a simultaneous development in building low- and middle-income homes. “So you don’t create a society of extreme haves and have-nots. In the long term that kind of balanced growth will do more for the overall economy than giving everyone a blank cheque to develop. That’s a prescription for disaster,” he said.
Johnson, as board member of Hilton Hotels, said he supported attaching brand names to hotel developments, which creates “attractive destination sites” because of the “huge benefits” that these brand names bring.
Hilton, he said, is always looking for developers who want to build a hotel and who want to have a Hilton franchise or brand. Though Hilton does more with franchise and management of hotels, the company in some cases would participate to a certain level, “looking to do an exiting project.” He mentioned Conrad, an upscale brand comparable to Ritz. He said Hilton would be “very interested” in a Conrad on St. Maarten if the right developer came along with the right plan.
Compared to other islands, St. Maarten is an “action island.” Its strongest asset is its “progressive” people. He said the island provided a “unique culture” with an important function as a hub in the Caribbean with Princess Juliana International Airport being a primary transit point.
The airport, he said, was becoming “more efficient” and he welcomed future plans for a parallel runway.
St. Maarten, he added, is interesting for Americans to invest in, especially in the view of the concerns of global terrorism.
Being able to assess the island, from the vantage point as a regular visitor for more than 25 years, Johnson said he too had noted the “dramatic” increase in development, the number of people, immigrants - “legal or illegal” - housing, hotels, timeshare. That has brought along traffic congestion, he added.
Johnson who has a house on Anguilla, is here on a chartered 180-foot mega-yacht Dream. He said he was looking at purchasing a piece from French side artist Francis Eck for his house in Delaware.
He is the first African American to own an NBA basketball team, the Charlotte Bobcats of Charlotte, North Carolina and he has established two financial service companies, a private equity fund in partnership with Carlyle Fund and a hedge fund together with Deutsche Bank, to raise funds to invest in businesses.
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