TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Orient Update

Still no utilies for the resto's. Cheryl's [will call it that until I know the new name], Chez Leandra, Ethic and Orange Fever have no activity. Brothers still trying to get power - they have chairs out. Sun Beach has chairs and drinks from a cooler, Aloha still working on the building and Le String is sort of working on a roof
Good Time Charlies opened, soft opening with a cooler this afternoon. He is the large Kiosk immediately south of Orange Fever building, right in the middle
Seaweed today just north of Pedro's, pretty sure no one will clean it up, but we'll see tomorrow

This season wil be a right off for most - too bad

The bathroom building has showers on the end of the building, 3 shower heads up high [how to rinse off feet?] and no drain system so the paving stones will have all the sand rinsed out and the stones will move
Garbage is beginning to build up, not sure ifrom the 3 resto's at the north or others, but no pick up
The nice white folding doors on the resto's? open barrel hinges, punch and a hammer and doors will be off in less than a minute. The bathroom door hinges are closed hinges, except they rusting already, guess not SS

Our patio view is towards Mt Vernon, yesterday around 5pm, 10+ minutes of hard rain and the Mt Vernon hill disappeared

Last Saturday evening, people were hang gliding off the eastern end of Mt Vernon, must of been 5, maybe more

Back to my rum punch du jour
J&B

Thanks for the update. Sounds like things are not progressing very well. Maybe 2017 will be a better year for all those folks as this year is not looking too good.

Lots of months left in 2016. Heck it's only the first week of February.

Yes, but once the high season is over, they will have to wait until next year before they have lots of money rolling in again.They are missing prime time right now!

When I'm there for a month in May there are plenty of people frequenting orient beach. Been there in the summer months of June and July. Plenty of visitors to the island and Orient. You can't define a successful business with just missing a few months of high season, so it's called. Plenty of business to be done all year long and profits can be made from intelligent business practices. High season isn't the only profitable season to be had.

Scubaman,

I think you're dead wrong on this one.

All the island businesses, but particularly those that are tourist based, strive to produce year round, but most will tell you, it's the high season that defines their success or lack of same. They've only got three months left to make up for months and months of loss of income. That's pretty tough to do.

I personally believe the French side government should be thoroughly ashamed of what they've done to these displaced businesses and of their lack of follow through through-out the entire construction process.

But that's purely MY opinion.......... <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 also totally disagree. Missing the season can devestate a business. An example....what would any retail store or chain be like if they totally missed the Christmas Season?? Most of the profit for any establishment is made during their peak times. These poor owners have lost over SIX MONTHS of income.....including the high season of NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, JANUARY, and so far almost half of February. And....as you made mention too, the Summers still have people going to orient....BUT...they were closed During JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, and OCTOBER. Maybe not the peak months....but still business lost. I totally agree with Pat....the Government should be ashamed of what they did to these poor people...especially after the money these folks spent to clean up after last years hurricane damage.

We went by the area today. The stores are open and selling away. Most of the restaurants are customizing or finishing of the properties. They are adding covered areas above where the people will eat. There are chainsaws going constantly so we have been down at CoCo beach. Great spot, very good food and reasonably priced.

You say "most of the restaurants" are customizing their properties? The other day, someone said there seemed to be no action at all in 3 or 4 restaurants. How many of the restaurants appeared to actually be trying to open? Not having roofs on the restaurants to begin with was just crazy. Those dumb 'sail' contraptions were never going to stand up to the winds on Orient, let alone protect people from rain. Actual hard roofs are necessarily to attach roll down screens.

An actual update - we need a new contest - when will a resto actually be fully open and selling food with actual bathrooms
Currently no utilies for anyone
South going north [ie from Pedro's to Kontiki]
What was Cheryl's - nothing happening
Luis - open, limited traffic
Brothers - chairs out front, Monique [owner] doing some work on the inside
Chez Leandra - nothing happening
Store front [ name?] - little activity
Ethic - nothing happening
Good Time Charlies - open selling drinks with a cooler
Orange fever - no activity
Adam and Eve - open, using the door side of Orange Fever
Sun Beach - looks almost ready, roofing the deck, chairs out and serving drinks from a cooler
Aloha - no chairs yet, outside bar built with a roof
Sexy Fruits - working hard to open, probably the best construction work
Le Piment - chairs out today, some construction activity

So at best 2 getting close, a 3rd somewhat beind with Brothers being the 4th in line - the other 4 have zero activity
But no utlities so nothing really open
Bit of a wasteland, sad, but we continue to sit in Brothers yellow chairs, have to support someone trying

Today some media activity happening, not sure what the message was. No way this will have the activity it had for many months

Overall my impression is Orient tourist traffic is down
J&B

OK, thanks very much for the update!

Le Piment (as in Chrystal from Orient Village) has a presence on the beach now???

Having le piment on the beach will be a great asset.
Yea Chrystal!!

What about le String ?

My mistake - the last one to the north is Le String - obviously I enjoyed Norm's happy hour a little too much!

When I say no activity at the gift shops I mean not much evidence of traffic and purchases
Luis has 2 spots, un named has one, Adam and Eve have one and Sext Fruits has 2
J&B

This statement from the article sure is true - although not just in the way intended: "there was a lot more to it than meets the eye.” I would love to know how they "stabilized" that ground at a cost of over one million euros! Even better, I would like to see the RFP for "stabilizing" that bit of land - not that I think there is any RFP, of course.

Sorry, what's an RFP?

That article sounds more like it's talking about the Government and road building projects in Chicago....It's a load of ..?

Carol,

In the US it means Request for Proposal. I suppose there are other uses of the abbreviation.

OK, thanks.

yeah - sorry - I meant request for proposal - in other words, I was wondering (sarcastically) how the Collectivitie went about finding someone to "vibrate" (that is, shake) dirt - finding a machine in the Pacific (???) - for a ridiculous sum of money that would appear to be more than the value of the buildings now there - I wonder who had the friend or family member who knows how to shake dirt - ? And the option was either install a foundation 30 meters (!!!) deep or shake the dirt -??? I am not sure even Chicago could outdo this one.

Is there such a thing as shaking dirt to make it more stable???

vibrating compaction

But since the island is mostly a rock not much compaction is needed.

SXM??? Wendell

Carol - there is - but I cannot believe that it was appropriate for this parcel and I cannot believe it was really done for this construction.

OK, I know very little about construction.

Aww darn it. Was really hoping your report was accurate. Le Piment would have been a great addition to the dark side. Cheers Eh ?

I know very little. I was hoping one of TTOLers who do know construction would comment.

Was there when the place was being vibrated. Its a heavy roller which vibrates. They are used for all road projects, so I wouldn't think they got one in specially.