Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has given some insights into the confidential agreement that his government signed on Monday with Sandal Resorts International for the construction of a Beaches resort at Mt Wynne.
Gonsalves said the agreement has confidential clauses, which say all past and future correspondence and negotiations are to be treated by both parties as strictly confidential.
However, one party may make such information known to its managerial level employees or independent contractors, bankers, accountants, legal representatives or such other persons as must be previously approved by the other party, Gonsalves said at the signing ceremony in Buccament Bay on Monday.
He said that in keeping with the government’s investment policy, the investment incentives detailed in the schedule to the agreement or which may be granted in the future to Sandals will be registered by the government and disclosed to the Parliament.
He said Sandals will pay EC$41.66 million for the 51 acres of land at Mt Wynne, describing it as “a significant investment in land purchase”.
The prime minister said Beaches will be a 500-room, family-oriented, all-inclusive hotel resort, noting that the $500 million the company said it would spend to build the resort translates to about $1 million per room.
“The agreement mandates that Beaches procures locally produced agricultural goods and seafood from Vincentian farmers, fisherfolk and businesses subject to availability and quality required by the hotel,” Gonsalves said.
“The duty-free concessions for the import of food, wines and alcohol in respect of the hotel contain the following exception: with the exception of agricultural produce and seafood, which shall be purchased locally, provided that same are available in adequate quantity and of satisfactory quality required for a five-star luxury all-inclusive hotel resort.”
He said that if these are not available locally, Beaches may import the same with identical concessions.
“I just want to make the point that these concessions, which Sandals gets are identical to any Vincentian or other company which invests in a hotel 50 rooms or more. We are transparent about these things,” the prime minister said.
He said that as regards construction, his government has streamlined its system for work permits, “as is required for a modern, competitive, many-sided, post-colonial economy”.
The prime minister said he had spoken to Sandals CEO, Adam Stewart — who signed the deal on behalf of the company, Codelpa, the Dominican Republic company that built the Sandals at Buccament Bay, and Terence Des Vignes, project manager at Sandals Resorts.
“I said, ‘Any one time, I want no less than 50% plus one of the construction workers to be Vincentians because the only way you can do things with your friends is to be open up front with your friends and on what I know that I can defend politically and socially,” Gonsalves said.
“I say, ‘We have to trust one another so you don’t let me find out that you’re doing something which is underhanded.’”
Gonsalves said that during the time that Codelpa was in St. Vincent, “there was an oscillation of numbers, but the numbers did not go below what we had agreed upon”.
In 2022, amidst public commentary on the number of non-national construction workers on the Sandals resort at Buccament Bay, Gonsalves said some of the workers from the Dominican Republic were “specialists” in concrete works.
On Monday, he said construction companies would prefer to get the labour from where they are working, because it’s cheaper for them.
“They don’t have to deal with transportation costs to bring people. They don’t have to provide the housing. They don’t — the extent of any additional benefits they have to provide imported labour.”
Gonsalves said a construction boom in SVG has resulted in a shortage of workers.
He further said he had told the nation that it was in the interest of the country to have the Sandals at Buccament Bay completed as quickly as possible.
“Because when we have built it as fast as possible, it is the sooner that the people who are going to work permanently will get their jobs, and it would be sooner that the tourists will arrive, and that all the knock-on effects, including getting VAT.”
He said this is why his government sped up the granting of work permits, adding that when a list was sent to him, he asked local construction companies if there was a shortage of that particular skill set in the country.
“And that is the way in which we will proceed with Beaches, and that is the way we proceed with every entity that comes here,” the prime minister said.
“He says he’s going to build this in phases,” Gonsalves said, referring to Sandals CEO Adam Stewart, who spoke before him at the signing ceremony.
Stewart also said the design of the new resort will begin in 2026.
“I understand they’re going to do 350 [rooms] and then 150, but that will take account of how the design is going and when they get there. But that’s the ballpark, just like we have seen expansions here,” Gonsalves said, referring to the resort at Buccament Bay.
The prime minister said the projected total staff complement at Beaches will be approximately 1,700 for the first 24 months of operation, and 70% of the staff must be Vincentians.
“And we will have more than that, but we put certain numbers, which means that you will have nearly 1,300 workers from St Vincent here,” Gonsalves said.
Other workers will come from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and CARICOM member countries, and additional non-nationals from beyond the region.
“It’s an international resort. As Adam pointed out, 97% of his staff are from the Caribbean,” Gonsalves said.
He said some people will, for opportunistic reasons, want to be “village chauvinists” and object to non-nationals working in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“But those are the same persons whose families are in America, working and sending back money, and more than that, who’re going to Trinidad to work and Barbados to work,” he said.
The prime minister noted that Stewart has said that 150 Vincentians are already working in Sandals in four countries and 250 are lined up to go from SVG to Turks and Caicos to work at their Beaches resort, which opens on March 1, 2026.
The prime minister said that the 2,000 jobs that Tourism Minister Carlos James said four significant hotel projects in the pipeline might create was “an underestimate”.
“We have a stake in the Sandals. We are not shareholders of it, but we are stakeholders. And this country has benefited immensely from Sandals being here, and we will benefit immensely from Beaches being here, and I want us to proceed with dispatch as quickly as we can, consistent with all the requisites of a major project of this kind,” Gonsalves said.
