While I don't have any direct insight I have often wonder what the deal was with the property around the golf course with all the old dilapidated buildings on it and surrounding it. We take walks around that property when we have stayed at Rainbow and these articles make sense to me now so just like the orient beach club property it seems this property also has some legal issues.
Mullet Bay is now Officially in control by the Insurance Company Ennia in Curacao. This Company has lost close to $ 800,000,000, million and is trying to retrieve this lost money.
Alltech--Most of us here have followed the Mullet Bay saga since Luis in 1995, although I am certainly not nearly as familiar as many here. It was a timeshare and wholly owned interval resort. After Luis, it never was rebuilt, as far as the main part of the resort. The timeshare section reopened after Luis and then closed relatively recently. Similar to many other properties in SXM, financial shenanigans ensued after Luis.
Thanks for asking Carol. Well to start it there is still a Court against the former Owner to get this money back , but seeing that the property is huge and its Curacao now that also has a stake , the biggest offer will be taken .
Leslie--which means, it will be sold to the highest bidder, which to me guarantees it will be a developer. To me, that means high rise condos along every inch of Mullet. What a horror show. God, I hope not.
I wonder if the new owner would be required to keep the golf course? Hopefully no more high-rise buildings but I could see nice patio homes and Villas or some sore of mega hotel complex or both. Prices I am sure will be out of this world and the Real Estate sales people very happy. Seems SXM is booming in new very expensive projects but oddly still cheaper than some USA beach locations. Time will tell.
Frankly I could less about the golf course. Of course I'm not a golfer, but I doubt actually that there would be that much consternation over losing the golf course, from either locals or visitors. What will destroy that area to ME is if they are able to build huge condos right on the beach, destroying any public access to the beach. And if there is no parking for the beach, then it doesn't matter if TECHNICALLY there is public beach access, as there would be nowhere to park.
Carol while I am an avid golfer the golf course at Mullet bay is 1 of the worst I have ever seen and has seen better days we do enjoy walking it in the mornings but I agree the loss would only be in what gets put on the course if they build a massive project.
Carol while I am an avid golfer the golf course at Mullet bay is 1 of the worst I have ever seen and has seen better days we do enjoy walking it in the mornings but I agree the loss would only be in what gets put on the course if they build a massive project.
Exactly , not a golfer but I'd rather see some grass than parking lots and buildings. Its a lot of property.
Time will tell how this will finalized. Curacao has 30,000 pensioners to deal with while St.Maarten has only 10,000 , hence Curacao will have the greater say . Hoping that someone with great positive intention for the Ecomony of St.Maarten do the right with their new development plan, prayers once again. Money talks at the end of the road.
If I am not mistaken there is an area there which is one of a few places where a bird nests---have forgotten which bird. I thought several people have shown interest in the property and they we told that "area" where birds nest cannot be developed, thus hampering interest of the likes of Greg Norman and an Arab person.
I'll attempt to find the article I read about protected lands for nesting for more info.
WLE, I would assume that the insurance company held a mortgage on the property. I can't think of any other reason or scenario where an insurance company could lose money in this situation.
WLE, I would assume that the insurance company held a mortgage on the property. I can't think of any other reason or scenario where an insurance company could lose money in this situation.
Ansary transferred ownership of Mullet Bay to Ennia as part of his shady dealings.
The public beach access is a critical concern for anybody who has ever been there. I still remember my first time and the water was like clear glass.
If they forget the “requirement” to keep a golf course, they might be able to come up with a some appropriate development that is finanacially successful that allows a good parking lot/access to visitors.
I’ve attached two old maps I have of the Mullet Bay Resort. Maybe Lesley can figure out the dates. One shows the casino on the ocean. The other shows it being moved inland. And also shows the 3 timeshare buildings - only one was built
IMHO, It's a shame to see the property in such ruins! Hopefully one of the big hotel chains will buy it and bring it back to its glory days!!! But isn't the beach public property no matter who buys the land??? It's one of our favorite beaches!!! YEAH and start over with that "Cow pasture" of a golf course!!!
We know of a very wealthy US developer who looked and liked it but he felt there was waaaay too much graft and corruption attached to it and too many pockets that needed to be filled to make it a worthy purchase .
Last edited by pat; 05/21/202401:31 PM.
Respectfully,
pat
"Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them."
I remember when Dawn Beach Resort was purchased and they put the Marriott there and everybody complained. Similar to that piece of land, if you end up spending as much as they needed to in order to purchase the land you will have to build something that generates the revenue at todays scale vs what it once did. Mullet will likely need a lot more rooms to fill to cover the nut.
Next is what will happen to the present beach bars, guessing the same fate as Ms B's.
After this many years, tough to imagine much change in that area.
We know of a very wealthy US developer who looked and liked it but he felt there was waaaay too much graft and corruption attached to it and too many pockets that needed to be filled to make it a worthy purchase .
That was probably one of my favorite moments asking those questions at a dumb golf meet and greet 😂😂😂😂
Carol, back to your original question, I read that article, as well as the rest cited above, and https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/curacao-pension-fund-offshore-ansary/. While you may already know this, from those articles, i see that Ennia is primarily an insurance company and when the Curacao Central Bank decided that Ennia did not have enough assets to pay its debts, such as insurance claims and pensions, they took over Ennia and are trying to collect as much assets as they can to meet those claims. Eventually, my guess is the Curacao government willl likely have to cover the deficit as a political measure.
As part of that process to collect assets, the Central Bank trying to get a judgment against Ansary and related companies. In basic terms, Ennia would take in premium payments and then make investments to generate monies to pay insurance claims and pensions, and if it had money left over , it would distribute profits to its shareholders. One investment was the purchase of Mullet Bay. The Sept 2023 court opinion dealt, in part, with a claim by Ennia that Ansary, while in control of Ennia, distributed moneys to shareholders ( another company owned by him ) claiming Ennia was doing very well, but Ennia claims that was a lie, and they want Ansary to pay back dividends that were paid to shareholders from 2009 through 2015. There are also claims that he diverted other monies to a variety of shell companies, and for other things that were not proper investments. While a lower court did find he had diverted over 1 billion Naf, on appeal, the court reduced the judgment, The only Mullet Bay issue in the Sept 2023 appeal was whether, in 2009 through 2015, Mullet Bay was worth as much as Ansary claimed on the books of Ennia. If not, it is likely the court could find that if they substituted the real value of Mullet Bay at those times, that Ennia would not have been able to declare a dividend to Ansary's companies , and thus the Central Bank may obtain a judgment against Ansary and his companies for some or all of those dividends. That part was not decided by the appeals court and instead that was sent back to be determined by the lower court. I didn't see any mention of this in the articles, but if in fact Ansary was overvaluing Mullet Bay on the books from 2009 through 2015, that is precisely why he would not have wanted Ennia to sell it or develop it, because that would show the true value.
In the end, since Mullet Bay is owned by Ennia, which is controlled by the Central Bank of Curacao, and Ennia apparently has lots of underfunded obligations, including pensions owed to residents of Curacao, at some point I would think the Central Bank would sell Mullet Bay. The Central Bank's primary obligation is to generate funds so the pensioners won't see their pensions cut, and yes, that means they would sell to the highest bidder. The article I cited suggests that Ennia is short approx $650,000,000 and that while the Netherlands offered to loan that to the Central Bank, the Central Bank said no because it is already struggling to pay back its Covid loans. While they may recoup some of that loss from Ansary, as the Central Bank pointed out in the article you listed, their mandate is to protect the policy holders of Ennia -so they if they have a strong offer from a developer, they don't have the right to take a much lesser offer from someone who is going to do a more sympathetic development of Mullet Bay.
Mullet Bay was not a timeshare. All units were individually owned and were rented out thru a management company - Sun Resorts, Marriott, there were several over the years
Mullet Bay was not a timeshare. All units were individually owned and were rented out thru a management company - Sun Resorts, Marriott, there were several over the years
The Towers at Mullet Bay was a 9 story timeshare on the same property. I think 81 or 83 units. They actually continued to work on it after Irma and then just closed up. Keeping owners maintenance monies paid after Irma.
Mullet Bay was not a timeshare. All units were individually owned and were rented out thru a management company - Sun Resorts, Marriott, there were several over the years
Mullet Bay Resort - the original property that opened in the 70s was definitely NOT. a timeshare. They were Units sold to people but they were erected on property retained by the developer which is where some of their problems began. The Towers at AMullet Bay, Which ultimately became just one building as opposed to the three oriunally proposed were definitely Timeshares. We had four weeks there which we used and loved for about 30 years of our fifty year love affair with SXM. Oh.... the wonderful memories!!
Respectfully,
pat
"Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them."
Yes, Ms B's was when they developed behind where her place was. Ms B probably had more of a case to stay than Scavengers, noting that the Dawn Beach destruction was before my SXM time but always assumed that Scavengers came post hurricane.
Pat - that's all correct re timeshare vs. ownership. My parents bought a unit at Mullet Bay in '72 and my husband and I bought in '73, visits yearly since then except for Covid. Definitely home for our entire family - enjoyed a very wonderful visit in April - eleven of us !
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