TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Mullet Bay redux

Same group who stole insurance money from Mullet Bay!
http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-ma...ntral-bank.html
Amazing.
irina

Yes, that report would lead one to wonder. I had once heard that someone at had taken insurance payments from Mullet but never paid against coverage so when it was needed it wasn't there. Also heard that very same thing happened with Le Galion Hotel.

Ron/Don,
I think you have it mixed up with what happened to the Dawn Beach Hotel, which were timeshare units. The insurance agent took the premiums,but never passed it on to the company. After Luis hit,something I'm sure he thought would never happen, there was no coverage on the property. The agent quickly left the island. Everyone lost all there.

I remember it as does RonDon - rumor was that ---- collected the insurance on the condo units and did not pass the monies on to the owners at Mullet Bay. I don't know the situation at Dawn Beach Hotel or Le Galion Hotel or La Belle Creole - all came to an abrupt end on September 1995. As I said just rumor, no proof one way or the other.
(just found this article and added link - settlement made)
====================
LINK

On my first trip to SXM in Jan. 1997 I stopped at Dawn Beach and asked the owner of one of the businesses in the area what the building was and I was to that it was Dawn Beach Resort and no work was being done on it because their accountant absconded with the insurance premiums instead of paying the insurance company. Therefore there was no money to rebuild and the place went under. I might have been misinformed, but the person who told me the story was a long time business owner in the Oyster Pond area.

But it wasn't that he took the money - the insurance was received and the owners and land owners couldn't come to an agreement as to how it would be rebuilt. Luis didn't leave the resort destroyed, it was the storm after that caused most of the destruction. Don't get me wrong - lots of shady stuff with The landowner. If I read and understand the article correctly, each owner was "bought out" so to say. That was my understanding from the info I was given from the GM of The Towers many years ago.

Well one of my posts didn't make it.
Yes there was a buy out but it was very small as I remember it.
My point in the original post is that it is Ansari who is involved in both Mullet and Ennia.

kim:
Your story is correct about the Mullet Bay Resort.

Kindly look at the link I posted for the final outcome of the Mullet Bay settlement.

I should have added that my post was about the Dawn Beach Resort which RonDon mistakenly referred to.

Regarding Dawn Beach, over the years we, too, heard many stories as to how the insurance agency took off with the insurance policy purchase funds but we weren't as closely attuned to that situation beyond knowing what a gorgeous place it once was and feeling the sadness at its loss.

But with regard to Mullet Bay Resort, it's sad to think back to what was arguably once, in its day, the most beautiful resort on the island but at least we can still revisit the wonderful memories we had from so many trips there prior to 1995.

As we were told, Kim is correct about the original hurricane damage at Mullet Bay - the resort could have been salvaged after the first storm IF the land owner/insurance policy holder had been of a mind to but it was fairly easy to see that wasn't his game plan. We were scheduled to visit there in late November of '95 and had to change our plans at the last minute due to the storm damage that had ravaged most of the island, but we did get back in April of '96 and we saw a damaged property there but one which could have been rehabilitated but that just wasn't in the cards.

Thus it ended up in litigation for years and while the individual unit owners did ultimately reach a court settlement with the Ansary family and all its shadow corporations, they had lost at least ten or more years of their property usage along with amassing a huge debt to their lawyers to get to the point of a settlement. I cringe every time I think of how very close we came to being among those disgruntled owners.

It's pretty sad when you stop to realize how many shady developers over the years have managed to screw so many would-be island dream owners. Mullet Bay Resort is but one of many properties and the Ansary family but one of the many names of unscrupulous developers who have taken advantage of people on this island and there will probably be more still to come down the road since history so often has a way of repeating itself.

"Has anyone read the new time share owner protections that have been promised almost forever?" she asks with tongue firmly planted in cheek? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

I posted a link above with more details on the Mullet settlement.

Bobcat,

Thanks for your posted link. I read the article you cited at the time of the settlement but appreciate you posting it for those who might have been interested.

For newbies to the island, those who discovered St. Martin after the final clean-up of the debris left in the storms wake, none of this would mean much but to those who had stayed there in its earlier days, this really was an incredibly nice property.

There were many configurations of buildings ranging upward from as few as two units per building and which could be used as single bedroom units or one or two bedroom villas, but to the best of my recollection, none of the buildings were more than two stories high, all with different views and configurations inside the units. They were laid out abutting the golf course from the oceans edge at Building 90, the most prestigious of all the units and the one that frequently housed Dutch royalty when they visited the island, and along all the roadways that travel through the area up to the hillside area that is now pretty much blocked from visitors.

The resort had little minibuses that travelled the roads all day and much of the night taking you anywhere on the property you wanted to go with drivers who loved to tell stories of their island.

There were two huge pools and countless eateries from a NY style deli to a very formal restaurant called The Gourmet and in between, there was an ice cream parlor and even a steakhouse, The Frigate, that featured the island's only salad bar at the time, this being our favorite among all the hotel options.

Along with what was once was a beautiful and extremely well maintained golf course, the resort featured its own popular casino and countless high end clothing boutiques as well as a disco and several smaller shops that sold everything from the NY papers to a Spritzer and Fuhrmans (sp?) that sold very expensive high-end jewelry.

Our first trip in 1973 we stayed in a single bedroom, the smallest available rental there, and in later trips we generally stayed in a two bedroom two bath villa style unit where we could cook ( or not!) and really enjoy our little slice of island living.

If you wanted to buy a tee shirt or book a parasailing trip, or even a trip to another near island, it was all there without ever having to leave the property. Nothing like it since and I doubt there will be in the future so I'm doubly glad we were privileged to have enjoyed the property in its hay days. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" />

Bobcat,
I did read the link. Read it originally in 2006. We were living on island then.
I remember the owners got about $90K for their units and they were not happy.
irina

Very well remembered and stated Pat - our favorite was also Frigate Steakhouse facing along the golf course - great salad bar with those now long gone small salad bowls that were common back then - the Italian restaurant and the Chinese restaurant come to mind, Chase Bank and the medical clinic and so much more....

thanks for reminding us..... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

BobCat and Pat,

I was lucky see to Mullet in it's prime before the big storm.

After I discovered Yvettes, I was chatting with Felix and learned he was a chef at one of the Mullet restaurants. I've never seen such pain a man's eyes as he told me about all the work and sweat that he used there and it was all gone and the place was just sitting there falling apart.
I've never brought that topic up again as we made our annual visits to Yvettes once or twice a week on our trips.

There are plenty for former folks who worked there that similar stories I'm sure.

Pa!- thank you for taking me on a trip down memory lane! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> Since we were one of the first to purchase timeshare at the Towers preconstruction, one of the perks we received was we were able to stay in Building 90 in February of the following year. I felt a little guilty- when I'd board the mini-bus and asked to be taken to Building 90, the driver would bring me there first even if there were others on the bus! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Lucky you, Sue.

We stayed at old Mullet in cliffside units right off the cliffside pool twice, and once along the golf course in an ocean view unit, all while awaiting the completion of the Towers building but we were never lucky enough to stay in Building 90. We almost made it there once but the owner of the one bedroom unit we were slated for called last minute and was due to arrive in the evening after the afternoon we arrived. Boo Hiss!! And now, it's all but a collection of happy memories.

Before the Towers purchase, we most frequently stayed tucked away on Hillside Drive in a really nice two bed/two bath villa, convenient to everything but away from it all, too, vaguely reminiscent of the Towers building itself.

We loved that particular spot and it's that unit we nearly purchased. Thank heavens sanity prevailed and the Towers marketing started just before we arrived. To this day, my only regret is that our purchase was only contract 18-1 and NOT 18-1 & 2. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />