st. croix Carrying the Wait

Will 2010 be the year when the richest Indian tribe in the United States finally breaks ground on its long-planned beachfront casino in St. Croix?

In 2005, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation agreed to finance the construction of Amalago Bay Resort & Casino, which is to take shape on nearly 600 acres along the island’s northwestern shore. At the time, the tribe was ready and eager to diversify, because its super-sized Foxwoods Casino & Resort complex in Ledyard, Connecticut was rolling in dough -– enough to fund the construction of Lake of Isles Golf Course, a 36-hole, Rees Jones-designed complex in North Stonington, Connecticut.

Those were the good old days, when a casino was a veritable license to print money. Today, the tribe is being squeezed uncomfortably by the recession. In late 2009, it admitted that it needs to restructure more than $2 billion worth of debt.

Still, Amalago Bay appears to be moving forward, and the tribe’s St. Croix-based minority partner, a firm called William & Punch, says that it hopes to break ground by the end of 2010, depending on how well the economy performs this year.

William & Punch sounds like a British comedy team, but it’s actually the corporate face for a pair of St. Croix-based developers, Kevin Rames and Chris Elliott. The partners bought the Amalago Bay property -– consisting of the William and Punch estates -– in 2006, reportedly for $3.75 million. Early last year, they got permission to enlarge its beach, and last fall they told the Virgin Islands Daily News that an agreement was “almost finalized” with “a celebrity golfer” to design its 7,600-yard golf course.

I spoke with Elliott a couple of months ago, and he told me that the celebrity golfer hadn’t yet been hired. Several “signature” designers are being considered, he said, and he hopes to have a contract in place sometime this spring.

Amalago Bay will have condos and time-share units, a 378-room hotel, a casino, a marina with slips for 64 boats, a spa, restaurants, and retail shops. The golf course will be managed by Troon Golf.