Pop-up bar appears set for big crowds

| 23/08/2019 | 89 Comments
Cayman News Service
Coral Beach, Seven Mile Beach

(CNS): With what appears to be well over 250 sun loungers, dozens of picnic tables, cabanas and many other seating units, a new pop-up resort on Dart property along Seven Mile Beach seems set to cater to significant crowds. Located between the Dart family home and Royal Palms, Coral Beach is due to formally open Friday and looks as though its target audience is largely cruise ship passengers.

While the private area above the high water mark was previously for the exclusive use of tenants at Camana Bay, the Dart Group has sub-let the beach area to a bar owner. CNS has attempted to contact the owner about the bar’s capacity and how it will charge people to use the facilities, and we are awaiting a response.

CNS popped down to the pop-up bar this week, which was open for business but had few takers, even though it is still free, while Royal Palms appeared to be packed to capacity as always. Staff were unable to say how much customers will be paying to use the facilities, though the beach bar and restaurant menu was not significantly more expensive than other local waterfront bars in the area.

Those leasing the new pop-up venue, who are providing beach resort facilities as well as operating a bar, have packed the area with seating and loungers, which, when CNS visited, were laid side by side down to the water’s edge across Seven Mile Beach and well beyond the previous gated-off private area.

The pop-up bar was given planning permission earlier this year and is meant to be a three-year temporary operation. The third party leasing the location has not been publicised but is said to be a well known local businessman and a politically connected family. In a release about what was described as a low impact facility, Dart said it was still considering future options for the site as part of the overall master plan for Camana Bay.

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Category: Business, Tourism

Comments (89)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Caymanians. Their own worst enemies.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Who is the political member that has leased it from DART?

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  3. Anonymous says:

    This is progress at its best…..only a selected few and well connected families will benefit. Same thing will happen at the new port and the Savannah bypass extension.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    It has been opened to soften the blow of the impending closure of Royal Palms.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Any one know the difference between a Pop up Bar and a Bar?

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    • Anonymous says:

      One pops up and one doesn’t.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Correct me if I’m wrong but it’s similar to the difference between a potty and a portapotty

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    • Anonymous says:

      How about making the George Town Centre “pedestrian only” Tuesdays through Thursdays and approve pop-up bars, restaurants and farmers stands?

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      • Anonymous says:

        …and use donkeys to move people around.

        Do you have any more ideas?

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        • Jim Ebanks says:

          Absolute fool!

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        • Anonymous says:

          Yeah – It’s call vision and traffic management.

          Individuals just like you helped to create the mess that is George Town.

          You couldn’t even organise a piss up in a brewery much less find a solution to “move people” other than suggesting donkeys which shows how outdated your thinking is.

          Move along dingbat!

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    • anon says:

      one is for dads, the other for sheep.

  6. Anonymous says:

    hopefully caymanians and the anti-dart brigade boycott the place….

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  7. Anonymous says:

    What a great idea to enhance our tourism product. Makes sense to me that when the dock is built more tourists will come and you then need the additional space for the tourists to enjoy the beautiful beach.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    May I suggest a wireless fence for stubborn dogs ($300 on Amazon) to keep the cruise ship tourist within the confines of the pop-up bar.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    You can contact your esteemed West Bay elected representative as he is the owner.

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  10. Say it like it is says:

    “A politically connected family” says it all.
    We are trashing our biggest tourist asset. We must never stop the Carnival, line our shores with thousands of cruise sheep, and line the pockets of our government connected mandarins with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    Shame on Cayman!.

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  11. Scotland Yard says:

    Agree with you on chairs being behind the vegetation line. However, those benefitting from that setup are locals. Question some of your elected members in parliament, specially the speaker. But, then you may not get an honest answer, check it out anyway.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    DART should show he understands CaymanKind and open up his entire residence, for free, to the cruise ship crowds.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    and here come the usual anti-dart comments……

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    • Anonymous says:

      Clearly Kenneth Dart does not understand environmental sustainability on our island.

      A 50 storey building coming next year. What absolute nonsense.

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      • Anonymous says:

        wrong. dart has the best environmetal track record of any developer in cayman ever.

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        • Anonymous says:

          8:03, if that is so, then make the environmental case for a 50 storey building? Environmental lunacy by any measure on a dinky island such as Grand Cayman.

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          • Anonymous says:

            We should not allow on Grand Cayman buildings larger than 10 storeys. I am not against development, but 10 storeys is high enough for this tiny island. We don’t need this place to become Miami Beach Caribbean.

        • Anonymous says:

          Where is the laugh button when you need one😂😂😂😂

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        • Anonymous says:

          …just saying shit.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Would these not interfere with turtle nesting?

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  15. Anonymous says:

    The amount of chairs suggest large amount of cruise ship passengers, they are horribly tightly packed together and past the vegetation line, the next storm should remove them and their chains. the admissions hut at the front and toilet facilities suggest this may not be a cheap entry fee. Presumably an agreement has been made between dart and government that due to future closure of royal palms and new hotel and the behind close doors agreed cruise ship dock he must provide somewhere else for cruise ship passengers to go. A focus on overnight tourist guests would be a much more financially rewarding experience for all the community tourists and the local environment. Let’s not turn beautiful seven mile beach into a European tacky beach destination with rows of chairs and cheap tourists . it is such a special unique beach let’s treasure it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Exactly! When is enough enough? Is trying to have as many tourists that the island can handle in one day the goal? I think being an exclusive destination is much more attractive, that’s what led me here the first time and all the subsequent times, but if it becomes a free for all, which it seems like it is, then I’ll search elsewhere for my hard earned money to spend.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Bottom line, the cruise passengers were there everyday anyway ghettofying the beach. Someone might as well make a few pennies off them, particularly if we are to have a few million more on the way.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Great. Let’s set up some of those inflatable water parks in front of DART’s house, and all the condos and hotels along seven mile beach. After-all, the sea is ours and we might as well make some money off it. We could even have massive polystyrene islands for tourists to sunbathe on.

      Alternatively we can treat the beach as sacred and tell all commercial operators to get back behind the vegetation line and stop both interfering with our prescriptive rights and destroying a national treasure while they are at it.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Looks amazing, can’t wait to go.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    At least these chairs aren’t rusted and broken. Man, I miss Hemingways.

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    • Anonymous says:

      And the old Holiday Inn, Driftwood Bar, Joey’s Rum Point Club, and the Beach Club. Progress sucks and the quality of life, and incomes of Caymanians, is diminishing as it accelerates.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    I weep for the lost beauty of SMB.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    The chairs should be behind the vegetation line. They are interfering with prescriptive rights for the biblical to use and enjoy the beach. That beach is a national treasure for all, and is being cheapened and destroyed for the benif of persons who are neither from or will remain long term in these Islands.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You could have just stopped at – The chairs should be behind the vegetation line or the high water mark.

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      • Anonymous says:

        High water mark is not relevant. The public’s rights extend to the vegetation line.

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        • Pat says:

          Rubbish!

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          • Anonymous says:

            Sorry Pat – please educate yourself as to prescriptive rights. The public have enjoyed rights to the full width of seven mile beach since long before it was called seven mile beach. We all have the right to peaceably use and enjoy the full width (and length) of the beach.

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    • Anonymous says:

      See ‘Politically Connected’ for you answer bobo. Yep, a Caymanian has sold you out AGAIN!!!

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