Cruisers who remember the 1970s and 1980s heyday of the Yacht Haven Marina will be heartened to hear that after nine years of derelict status this flagship property is ready to rise from the rubble of recent demolition.
“By September, expect to see every bit of the old hotel and marina gone and site work for the actual construction to be taking place,” says Elie Finegold, vice president of the New York-based Island Capital Group, the parent company of IN-USVI LLC and owner of the Yacht Haven Grande complex.
Phase I of the development, valued at $150 million, will be completed over the next 15 to 18 months and due to open by Christmas of 2005 or early 2006. This phase will include office space, 12 luxury condominiums, four restaurants of which three will sit on the waterfront esplanade and the fourth will be perched on the second floor of the yacht club situated out in the middle of the main marina base with a birds-eye view of the surrounding yachts. In addition, there will be retail space dedicated to marina services, and 5900 linear feet of marina with 700-foot of docks and 18-foot wide piers equipped with in-slip fueling and high-speed communications access.
“We have a permit for a 30 slip marina, but we will have the ability to provide dockage for everything from dinghies to a 400-foot megayacht,” Finegold says.
The marina will have a public access dinghy dock.
Phase II, projected to cost at least another $150, will open by the end of 2006 or early 2007. This phase will provide more retail space, another restaurant, a 70-unit hotel, an additional 10,600 linear feet of marina, a convention center and parking for over 600 vehicles.
“We’re focusing on the first phase first,” Finegold said. “It’s an enormous development and a unique opportunity to impact the local economy and bring the yachts back.”
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