Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has expressed grave reservations over the actions of the former Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) administration which resulted in the incomplete Kimpton Kawana Bay resort standing as an ugly site overlooking the world famous Grand Anse beach.
The 45-year old leader of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in the Botanical Gardens was responding to the dispute between Dr. Keith Mitchell and the Developer, former Ambassador Warren Newfield that resulted in work being halted on the hotel project for the past three years.
“For the life of me I do not understand the reasoning, the rationale for the former administration’s decision in relation to this project,” said PM Dickon Mitchell in an interview with Terry Forrester on the NDC HeartBeat radio programme.
The Congress leader recalled seeing video footage of the former administration praising the resort as one of the best projects on the island that was being built with funds generated from the sale of Grenadian passports under the Citizenship By Investment (CBI) programme but “in the very short order all that seems to come to naught.”
“All I could say from where I sit is that if you do have a dispute you ought to sit and try as much as possible, spend time resolving the matter so that the best interest of Grenada prevails at the end of the day,” he said.
There are unconfirmed reports that the rift between ex-Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and former Ambassador Newfield could be related to a dry up of funds from the resort developer into the coffers of the NNP.
According to sources, the Kimpton Kawana Bay resort outfit was no longer pumping huge financial resources into the NNP which allegedly forced the party to increasingly turn to the Silversands group involving Egyptian billionaire investor Naguib Sawiris to become one of its major financial contributors.
One insider in the CBI programme was quoted as saying that the powers-that-be in the NNP are now leaning more in the direction of the Silversands financiers and bent on influencing decisions taken at the CBI programme level in its favour over that of Kimpton.
During the public spat, Newfield accused the Keith Mitchell-led NNP government of being anti-private sector business and the then Grenadian leader retaliated harshly by labelling the ex-Ambassador as a racist and of failing to account for proceeds from the sale of passports.
Newfield then filed a major lawsuit against the Grenada government before the U.S-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes alleging that the Mitchell government was deliberately trying to frustrate the completion of the luxury resort.
According to current Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, the fact that the hotel site has been closed with an incomplete concrete structure just sitting in what can best be described as the most spectacular view of Grand Anse beach is not in the best interest of the island and the developer.
He said the Congress administration has spent the past year “seeking to negotiate a resolution to this matter.”
“My expectation is that in very short order we will be able to announce to the public that we would have reached a resolution with the Developer to be able to end the dispute and for us to get another Developer to move on with this Site.”
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell disclosed that “a lot of time and effort have been put into this” effort at seeking a resolution to the problem.
“We are quite optimistic that this can be resolved quite sensibly in the interest of the Developer, in the interest of us and so that site can be completed because if not, it will sit there as a white elephant literally – it would be a monstrosity, an abomination to have it sitting at the end of Grand Anse beach there incomplete like that.”
“So that’s not something that we are prepared to accept and certainly we will do everything within reason, within common sense and within good commercial practice to bring a resolution to this matter.”
“…I am relatively optimistic that we could do so in short order … and I will be able to come back to the public (to inform them) where we are with this.”
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell was also asked to comment on the ongoing Arbitration Process with the Developer before the International Court of Tribunal which he said is costing “the government and people of Grenada hundreds of thousands of dollars in US in legal fees.”
“That’s all the more reason why we are quite keen to have this matter resolved,” he told the programme host.
The Prime Minister who is a lawyer by profession pointed out that international arbitration disputes are “extremely expensive” and recalled the legal cost of US$6 million that was awarded against the former NNP regime of Keith Mitchell in a similar arbitration proceedings with WRB Enterprises in the Grenlec issue.
“If we don’t find a sensible solution to this, it doesn’t help anybody, it doesn’t help the Developer, it doesn’t help us, it doesn’t help our investment climate and certainly we can’t have an incomplete building of that size sitting on the site there.”