No sales tax, no income tax, no capital gains tax, no property tax, no inheritance tax -– no wonder Grand Cayman Island seems like heaven to the planet’s well-heeled bankers, financiers, and investors, not to mention at least one Republican presidential candidate.
The island isn’t a golf paradise, though, as it has just two golf courses: 18 holes at North South Golf Club and nine holes at the Greg Norman-designed Blue Tip Golf Course. And the future of the course at North Sound is in doubt.
For several years the courses’ owner, a developer named Mike Ryan, has been hoping to downsize North Sound. Specifically, he’s enlisted Norman to shrink it to a nine-hole track and combine it with the nine holes at Blue Tip, in an attempt to create what he hopes would be a destination-worthy golf venue.
But North Sound is bleeding money fast -– it reportedly loses between $60,000 and $100,000 a month –- and Ryan’s plans may have changed. Ryan is reportedly trying to sell the course to Dart Enterprises, a development group led by Mark VanDevelde.
“There’s only one other guy who has the interest and the money to invest in a golf course, and I’m talking to him,” Ryan told a local newspaper late last year. “Have we done anything? No. Do I hope we will do something? I hope so.”
So far, the parties haven’t been able to come to an agreement. It could be that VanDevelde is driving a hard bargain, because he has another option.
Last year one of Dart’s affiliates bought nearly 300 acres along the island’s western coast, a site that had been slated to become a resort featuring houses, a hotel, a marina, and an 18-hole golf course. At the time of the purchase, VanDevelde said that he had no immediate plans to build a golf course on the property. But he knows the game’s appeal.
“We recognise that golf facilities are very important, if not a necessary amenity to a world-class tourism destination such as Grand Cayman,” VanDevelde said last year. “We understand the need to provide our visitors and future home buyers with access to a golf facility.”
One way or another, it appears that golf will be a part of Dart’s future. The only question is whether the company will buy a course or build one.
Some information in this post originally appeared in the May 2009 and October 2011 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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VanDevelde said that he had no actual affairs to body a golf advance on the property. But he knows the game’s appeal.
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