Symbolic ground breaking at the former Club Orient Resort. From left: Steven Patrick, President Louis Mussington, Stephen Payne, Lloyd Tackling and Christine Page. (Robert Luckock photo)
ORIENT BEACH--A groundbreaking ceremony for construction of a new luxury naturist resort on the grounds of the former Club Orient Resort took place on Tuesday in the presence of officials from the company Griselle SAS, Collectivité President Louis Mussington, and former Club Orient employees.
It was last year in April that the executive council authorised the president to sign a long-term lease for Griselle SAS relating to a project to build a five-star hotel on the two plots of land owned by the Collectivité following a call for “expression of interest” to build a hotel.
At the time there were two candidates who were interested in building a hotel but it was the proposal of Griselle SAS that the Collectivité eventually gave its approval for.
The man behind the new hotel project is experienced hotelier and former Director of Orient Beach Club (OBC) Stephen Payne, who has spent the last eight years trying to find a way to rebuild and reopen a naturist resort after Club Orient was destroyed in Hurricane Irma, but encountered difficulties along the way.
He has extensive background opening international brand hotels before creating his own company. He first came to the island in 1985 and fell in love with it.
“I stayed on the island for about a year after the hurricane, and during that time the PPRN [Natural Risk Prevention Plan – Ed.] regulations came in and that was problematic but I’ve been working on this for seven years,” Payne explained. “We decided to move to Sosua in the Dominican Republic as that was just a short hop to go back and forth from Saint Martin. I met with former Presidents, the late Aline Hanson, and then Daniel Gibbs. We made some headway but not enough to get the project signed off.
“But when the Mussington administration came into office, our fortunes changed. He was very good. He listened. He knew how important the creation of 150 jobs, and secondary jobs would be; he knew the tax revenue that would be produced, and how badly the French side needs another hotel.
“And the beauty about the former Club Orient as a naturist resort is that it’s an exclusive niche market attracting guests from all over the world. We are the only legitimate family naturist resort in the Caribbean, so it had to come back.”
Under the “Plan de Prévention des Risques Naturels” (PPRN) regulations implemented after Irma, the new hotel will take the form of buildings instead of chalets in the original resort, and there will be a mandatory setback from the beach.
“The chalets concept offered a real sense of community but with the PPRN we can’t do that anymore, We are talking with the architect now, discussing three buildings, maybe four, with oversize balconies and sea views.”
Payne regrets that the resort was not properly demolished and cleaned up much sooner. That has to be done before any construction can start. “ We estimate it’s going to cost over three million euros just to clean up the grounds. All the underground pipes and cables will have to be dug up. The hurricane took out the small reef at the Papagayo Restaurant and we are looking to see how to get it back naturally.”
La Griselle, as it is now, has former Collectivité vice president Steven Patrick as president and Christine Page, a former waitress and later assistant manager at Club Orient’s Papagayo Restaurant as consultant/coordinator. She has her own catering company “Taste of Joy” and finished second at last year’s Gastronomy Festival in the Private Chef category.
Lloyd Tackling, the US Government representative in Saint Martin, is charged with bringing in investors. According to Tackling the project cost is 49 to 55 million euros. A Project Director is also on board.
Said President Mussington: “I can’t take all the credit. Stephen Payne and Lloyd Tackling made it happen. They were persistent, determined and forceful. Knowing the hotel and the jobs it had, I could not say no. I got a team together to assist me to get the project off the ground. It was not easy because we had to discuss with State authorities. In the end we managed to get over the obstacles and administrative procedures at State services level. I insisted that we need this hotel.”
It will be at least two to three years before the hotel opens. The name for the hotel has not yet been decided on.
