Rocks and soil were recently dumped on the Phoenician beachfront property in Beacon Hill.
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Monday expressed serious concern over a residential building permit that had been granted for a commercial development in Beacon Hill without any stated justification and – according to case documents – against the advice of the Department of Domain Affairs. “This cannot simply be brushed off with a single sentence,” the judge stated.
The judge was referring to former Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI), Egbert Doran, who had asserted that “all legal requirements have been adhered to” in relation to the building permit issued on March 1, 2024, for a 58-unit beachfront condominium in Beacon Hill.
The planned development, which stands 24 metres tall in a neighbourhood zoned exclusively for single-family homes, was approved following a modification of the original deed restrictions and an exemption from the parking standards – both granted without any stated justification.
The permit was granted to the local Phoenician Private Fund Foundation, which, contrary to what its name suggests, operates as a holding and management company. Registered with the St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce under number 28125, the company is based at Front Street 5, and is owned by Ralph Ledee, proprietor of International Liquors and Tobacco Trading (ILTT) in Pointe Blanche.
On Monday afternoon, the Court handled the administrative appeal brought by the Pride of Beacon Hill Association (PBHA) – which represents homeowners on the small Beacon Hill peninsula – against the Ministry of VROMI. The case, filed under the “Landsverordening administratief recht” (LAR), focusses on the procedural legality of how the building permits were issued, rather than the impact of the minister’s decisions on neighbourhood residents. Any claims regarding such consequences would need to be pursued through a separate civil suit against the government and/or the developer.
In recent months, residents have reported heavy trucks travelling back and forth between the construction site of a contested high-rise, “Villa Sasha” on Fan Coral Road and the Phoenician site on Beacon Hill Road, dumping truckloads of rocks and dirt onto the latter location.
The appeals hearing was originally scheduled for January 20, 2025, when the Court was to consider both the legality of the reissuance of the building permit for Villa Sasha – after it had been revoked by a formal committee – and the issuance of the building permit for The Phoenician, which PBHA claims was part of the minister’s afscheidsbeleid (farewell policy), as it was signed just two months before the first Mercelina Cabinet took office.
However, the hearing could not proceed as planned, as the Ministry of VROMI had failed to submit all necessary documentation. Despite this, the judge used the session to question representatives from the VROMI Ministry, PBHA, developer Sasha Management N.V., and the legal counsel for The Phoenician.
During the exchange, the judge remarked that “VROMI needs to get to work.” While PBHA’s lawyer Fehmi Kutluer of Lexwell Attorneys at Law had provided the Court with all relevant documents, government attorney Richard Gibson Jr. of Gibson & Associates admitted he still needed to study the case further. Meanwhile, The Phoenician’s legal representative, Dana Kweekel of BZSE Attorneys at Law, acknowledged that she had not yet fully familiarised herself with the matter.
Given that construction had already begun at Fan Coral Road 12, for the Villa Sasha project, but had not yet started at Beacon Hill Road 16 for The Phoenician, the Court decided to separate the two cases. The case concerning Villa Sasha was handled on March 17, resulting in the annulment of the building permit. The case regarding The Phoenician was heard on Monday, May 19.
Four weeks prior, the three attorneys representing the Government, PBHA, and The Phoenician had received each other’s positions in the case and were given the opportunity to respond. At the start of Monday’s hearing, it became clear that the Ministry of VROMI and PBHA were aligned. “You have both concluded that the permit should not have been issued,” the judge observed.
To allow attorney Kweekel to present arguments in favour of the project, the judge proposed starting with the main objections – namely, the building’s height and the lack of parking spaces. According to the Ministry of VROMI, The Phoenician should provide parking for 93 vehicles on the premises. The architectural drawings show a two-level underground parking garage with a maximum capacity of 71 spaces: 32 on one level, 34 on the other, and 5 designated for visitors.
Kweekel argued that a motivated deviation from the Parking Standards is permissible. She stated that since The Phoenician will offer short-term rentals, not all parking spaces will be occupied at the same time, and there is sufficient space available in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood for additional parking if needed.
The residents, represented by the PBHA, strongly oppose any increase in parked vehicles in their neighbourhood, which has only one narrow access point – Beacon Hill Road, serving as both entrance and exit. They have consistently argued that additional roadside parking could obstruct emergency services, posing serious safety risks.
According to attorney Kweekel, the residents have no legal standing in the case, and the PBHA should therefore be declared inadmissible by the court. “The members of the association are not directly affected in their individual interests and therefore have no personal benefit to gain from this case,” she argued, submitting a written plea for the PBHA’s inadmissibility. The judge responded, “This is coming in quite late, but I will still take it into consideration.”
The homeowners have called on the Ministry of VROMI to uphold the principles of equality and fairness. Beacon Hill comprises approximately 160 lots, all of which are subject to the Restrictive Covenants of Beacon Hill Estates. These covenants stipulate, among other conditions, that no parcel may be used for purposes other than a single-family residence and limit construction to one dwelling per lot. Architectural plans must also receive prior approval.
In the draft zoning plan for Simpson Bay, the Beacon Hill area is designated as residential due to its close proximity to the airport, with a maximum allowable building height of three levels or 12 metres. However, attorney Kweekel presented a letter from the St. Maarten Civil Aviation Authority indicating that it has no objections to the construction of The Phoenician.
PBHA attorney Kutluer questioned why the letter – just a single page with only a few lines – was addressed to the permit holder rather than the Ministry of VROMI, and why it included no justification for the Civil Aviation Authority’s decision. “There are so many unanswered questions. This entire permit process, from start to finish, is difficult to comprehend,” Kutluer said.
In 2022, after the then-owner of the Phoenician Private Fund Foundation submitted a permit request, former Minister of VROMI Egbert Doran sought advice from the Department of Domain Affairs on amending the deed restrictions for parcels registered as 069/1956 and 111/1967 to permit commercial development on the site.
While the deeds were modified to allow commercial development, the Department of Domain Affairs found that a building height of 24 metres would be excessive compared to other properties in Beacon Hill. In its final advice to the Minister, issued in May 2023, the department recommended a maximum building height of 12 meters.
Former Minister Doran set aside the advice and signed off on the new long lease deed restrictions – allowing construction up to 24 meters in height – on January 10, 2024. “This was one day before the parliamentary elections,” said Kutluer. “What does that tell you?”
