Pageant Beach Hotel got CI$10M duty waiver

| 21/10/2021 | 151 Comments
Cay an News Service
Pageant Beach Hotel site

(CNS): Documents released by the finance ministry have revealed that the developers behind the proposed hotel on the Pageant Beach site in George Town were given a 100% duty waiver on the project for up to $10 million worth of goods. CNS has been battling for a year to get access, via a freedom of information request, to the full details of the concessions waived by the last government on major developments, and the ombudsman recently ordered the release of several more records in relation to that request.

While a confidentiality agreement is in existence for the project, the ministry was directed to release details of the waivers. The documents also revealed that the developer was given a refund of just over $356,000 for planning fees.

According to the documents, the developer has been given a 100% waiver of import duties up to an aggregate sum of CI$10 million on all building materials, furniture, fixtures and operating equipment required for the hotel development. The waiver, which was renewed last year after the project was stalled long before the pandemic, is now valid until 2023.

The developer, who has no local partner, was also exempted from the need to advertise for one before getting the necessary licence to establish Pageant Beach Hotel Ltd. According to the documents, the developer is HHG Cayman Ltd, which redeveloped Treasure Island into Margaritaville after getting a significant amount of concessions, only to close shop there, too.

After previous delays, the Pageant Beach project got underway in December 2019, but in March 2020 the site was closed due to the lockdown. However, when the construction sector was restarted last summer, this site remained closed. Although work recently restarted at the hotel site, which has been branded under Grand Hyatt Residencies, there has been very little actual construction since the start of the work in late 2019.

The developers claim on their website that the condos are 80% but a new banner that has emerged at the site says it is now 75% sold and hey are still selling units at an average price of US$1,400 per square foot, which they describe as well below market rate.

According to the concessions agreement, the developer is also obligated to ensure a workforce on site of at least 60% Caymanian. They should also be reporting the current employment arrangements to what is now WORC.

See the relevant documents in the CNS Library (scroll down to HHG Cayman Ltd).


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Category: development, Local News

Comments (151)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    They could have put a few million dollars on to that $10 they waived and bought TI hotel and turned it into hotel school as well as taking a load off of NAU to find suitable accommodation for some people.

  2. Daniel Johns says:

    My dear departed Mother used to tell me, life is like an excrement sandwich, the more bread you got, the less excrement you have to eat…. And her words still ring true..

  3. Anonymous says:

    It’s a shame that we don’t have something here similar to the Grand Jury that they have in the United States where these Politicians could be indicted and their actions brought to light. Consequences being that they are fined and jailed if found guilty of corruption. I’ll be we would see less of these back door deals being done.

  4. Tired of the bullshit says:

    The disgusting and absurd fiasco that was Margaritaville – and the wholly disgraceful lack of any resolution whatsoever – makes it beyond ludicrous that HHG is able to conduct any sort of business in Cayman. WTF is wrong with CIG allowing these developers and their locally employed cowboys to continue to be in the business of f-ing over individuals who chose to invest and now stand to lose their investment?

  5. Anonymous says:

    Officially though McKeeva’s UDP Party is dead but Alden’s PPM is still breathing. None of them were any better. If fact just to ensure their power they joined each other which everybody saw through and now they sit on the backbench being disruptive and opposition for opposition sake and trying to make cracks in the new government in hopes they fall apart and they get a chance to usurp their power again.

    2
    1
    • Anonymous says:

      UDP is unfortunately not dead….look at all the boards and you will see that Mac is still running the country through his UDP worshippers.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Thank you CNS for being persistent on this. These duty waivers make me SO angry.

    At least the Grand Hyatt will generate 13% tourist tax in the future. But wasn’t a waiver also granted to Watermark? Which will not even allow tourist rentals so no opprtunity to even get the 13% tourist tax there!!

    • Anonymous says:

      This is exactly the issue for me. I can get on board with duty waivers when the development will generate ongoing income for the island, but why on earth are we subsidizing developers building high end condos for the wealthy?

      • Anonymous says:

        @9:49am.It won’t make sense until someone follows the money. It’s always about the money. No one in their right mind believes that some back door deals were not had..

      • Anonymous says:

        Ask Joe!

        • Anonymous says:

          I will never waste my vote for Mr. Hew again he has shown poor judgement and was giving away the country.

    • Anonymous says:

      Duty waivers aside these projects still generate revenue from Stamp Duty when the units sell. If Watermark sells for $250M that is quite a bit of Stamp Duty.

      • Anonymous says:

        Thats a straw man argument. Concessions from a government are a means to encourage economic activity in a sector. The Cayman real estate market doesn’t need it. With or without these concessions the projects would proceed to fill the demand. Hell, if CI Government was smart they would increase developer fees, not reduce them.

      • Anonymous says:

        And how many sales got in under the old rules where they only paid stamp duty on the value of the land and not on the price paid for the condo. A good number of them I’m sure since that was a marketing ploy the Realtors were using.

    • Anonymous says:

      They will collect the 7.5% stamp duty on the sale of the units which should be in the $30M range based on the sale prices.

    • Anonymous says:

      Well, it’s a good thing because in the NRA agreement DART is allowed to keep the 13% with nay hotel he owns.

      Alden, Roy and Joey should be shackled outside the Parliament with a sign around their neck telling the world exactly about their greed and what they have done to destroy our 3 little islands.

      • Anonymous says:

        That deal was not done by them. It was the previous Government. When the PPM came in, they removed that concession. But don’t let facts get in your way of your shackling.

      • Anonymous says:

        CNS…is this true?

        CNS: The NRA deal and amendments are in the CNS Library.

        • Anonymous says:

          The NRA deal which was renamed from the original For Cayman Investment Alliance deal was finalized after several versions by the PPM. They made a bad deal worse.

    • Anonymous says:

      No but 7% stamp duty on unit sales means that the government will recoup some money.

      • Anonymous says:

        How? they already lost 10 million..Stamp duty should not be used to replace what the PPM gave away without letting us know. BASTARDS!

  7. Anonymous says:

    We really need to start exposing these Politicians. If we have FOI then let it work. Politics should be done in the sunshine not in the dark bar rooms of South Coast Bar Country, Station or the latest greatest of the former Premier, Sea Inn.

    If we could get access to all of these under the table deals, this politicians would have no chance of ever getting elected again and Cayman would be the better for it.

    • Anonymous says:

      “If we could get access to all of these under the table deals, this politicians would have no chance of ever getting elected again and Cayman would be the better for it.”

      I applaud your passion for doing away with corruption but it appears that you know nothing about the WB ‘trickle down’.

      • Anonymous says:

        @10:07..Where there ia will there is a way..They thought they would get in power again and they would be able to bury this further.

        The only problem is Caymanians have good hearts and short memories…These needs to be asked about at every PPM political meeting, press briefing or ass kissing event that they have..We cannot let this just slide..

        Notice nothing from PPM on this to the Public..Shameful!

    • Anonymous says:

      Many of these reports are publicly available, like 4 versions of the convoluted and unenforced, untracked NRA deal. The problem is that people don’t read them, and expect someone else to do that reading for them. That includes the signing parties and their lawyers on one or both sides.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Roy, Joey and Alden didn’t think their shit would float to the top..Even the Bible says, “be sure that your sins will find you out.” We the people must ensure next time that these people are put in mothballs at the next elections. Cayman could never survive another government ruled by them. Read below and understand why the PPM was hellbent on keeping us in the dark. Keep digging CNS there is a lot more that needs to be uncovered from that 8 year reign of the PPM. Does anyone else see the common thread in the articles below?

    Roy..

    https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/12/minister-has-no-data-on-impact-of-concessions/

    Joey…

    https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/06/development-deals-to-remain-secret/?fbclid=IwAR1CeYGn2XNPC5ZrH2I0SXDuCbIOIx9CN16Zgg2eEVeJbZk9N8sUon5dtvc

    Alden…

    https://caymannewsservice.com/2021/02/more-development-needed-says-mclaughlin/

  9. Anonymous says:

    Isn’t HHG(Margaritaville) the company whose employees discovered their pension deductions hadn’t been put into a pension plan??? If so, how are they allowed to do business here?? I know my small business would have been shut down if I did something like that…

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, they are. I wish it were true that this was enforced on all businesses, large and small with the seriousness it deserves.

    • Anonymous says:

      …”If so, how are they allowed to do business here??”

      Because this is Cayman.

      How could The ‘Mac Attack’ get elected again, and again?

      Because this is Cayman.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because Alden & Joey Who let them continue!

    • Hastings says:

      I could write a book about the goings-on of the company but I can’t even though I was at one time intricately involved with them…basically, they suck and anything these touch sort of turns to crap the opposite of the Midas Touch.

  10. Robert Mugabe IV says:

    Wouldn’t the Govt be better off to give these concessions, duty free building materials and return of planning fees to all residents that want to build single family homes, say no bigger than 3,000 sq ft, but with a clause that it can not be sold, rented or transferred to another person for 10 years.
    That would stop all the ‘make a fast buck’ dodgy developers from getting their greedy hands on the concessions. It would also be great for all the locally owned smaller construction firms.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Only Cayman governement would have a confidentially agreement between them – a publicly elected body that is *meant* to work for the people and a private company that is for profit and 99% owed by foreign investors.

    l.
    o.
    l.

    Dont you love how they give these large multinational organisations breaks, but average joe gets to pay full wack.

    Fu*king a$$holes we have got in governent, seriously.

  12. Anonymous says:

    This is unacceptable and needs to be investigated. Some one has made lot of money out of this. Please PACT government do something. How come hard working local builders don’t get anything. Refunding planning fees????

  13. Anonymous says:

    National Vote.

  14. Doak says:

    1995: Auditor general raises concerns with waivers

    2015: Auditor general report: Government revenue collection ‘open to abuse’

    2016: CIG-Dart deal adds $13M to duty cap – Before it was signed McLaughlin said PwC had reviewed the deal and concluded that although it “remained imperfect”, it now had a greater commitment from the developer and the removal of the 50% accommodation tax concession was important.

    2019: Duty waivers still not monitored

    2021: Pageant Beach Hotel got CI$10M duty waiver

    http://www.legislativeassembly.ky/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/9782619.PDF

    https://www.caymancompass.com/2015/10/16/auditor-general-report-government-revenue-collection-open-to-abuse/

    https://caymannewsservice.com/2016/06/cig-dart-deal-adds-13m-to-duty-cap/

    https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/10/duty-waivers-still-not-monitored/

    https://caymannewsservice.com/2021/10/pageant-beach-hotel-got-ci10m-duty-waiver/

    • Anonymous says:

      Thank you for collating this!

      But in the background I can still crickets. People ducking their heads in hopes that nobody of consequence is watching to do anything about it, others sitting back hoping and waiting on some o’ dat “trickle down” biddness.

      The amount and scope of corruption within all facets of these tiny islands is truly disgusting and shameful. But not many Caymanians will actually talk about it up until now and it is sluggishly picking up speed.. Still barely a peep but soon…

  15. Anonymous says:

    Sorry; Caymanians are FOOLS! You can stop this if you had a backbone. Stop selling out your country. Stop making excuses. Stop allowing the rich to take payoffs and sell out the rest of the country. I cry for Caymanians who sell their country inch by inch for dollars. Your choice, you elected these fools.

    • Anonymous says:

      yep – plenty of spineless assholes that are electected and plently or idiot voters who vote them in yoy.

      Look at bush – the dude was literally on camera beating a woman and still could strug that off. Imagine anywhere else.

    • Anonymous says:

      There is no need to call us fools. This goes way deeper than any of us can ever imagine. Unfortunately, in countries that rely heavy on tourism, the locals are always put at a disadvantage.

      • Anonymous says:

        I agree you are not fools. All of this is intentional. Follow the money..

      • Anonymous says:

        I stand by my statement – HOW could West Bay re-elect Mac and have any sense of pride?

      • Anonymous says:

        Sorry, but you ARE fools (not sorry). You see it all around you and do nothing, say nothing, allowing it because it’s your cousin or uncle or you went to school with dem… whatever. That makes you complicate. And a fool.

  16. Anonymous says:

    more anti-develoment waffle…
    basically this cost cig nothing,,,,and then 100’s of million will be pumped back into the economy.

    • Orlando Bob says:

      4:11, This is not a hotel being built but private condos. Why should we give subsidies for the construction of private condos?

      We should not be subsidizing anything related to the construction of new private dwellings, only hotels.

      • Anonymous says:

        I’m not suggesting this project should have had such a large duty waiver anyway, but these aren’t really “normal” private condos.

        When I looked into purchasing a unit, I was told I needed *permission* from the developer if I wanted to personally use the unit for more than six months in a year.

        It’s a weird legal structure. The condo fees are very high for expensive units that you are expected to offer for rent through the Hyatt brand and management. The deal felt more like being a co-owner in a local Hyatt branded hotel, not buying a condo.

    • Anonymous says:

      Foolishness.

      That ole “trickle down development economics” trick has gotten old.

      We need serious developers with real money that are willing to pay what is due.

      Next!

    • You Wish... says:

      Can’t even spell development, much less understand basic mathematics or environmental limits.

      Facebook scholars always have the answers. $100 million in your dreams, buddy.

      What an idiot….

  17. anon says:

    Good job in getting this information, CNS.

  18. Anonymous says:

    At that price CIG could have just bought the property and we’d all have been further ahead.

    • Anonymous says:

      The difference is that a duty waiver is not a cost to Government. It is a waiver of potential income if the project gets built. CIG will still earn substantial income from planning and other fees plus the local economy benefits during and after construction. If it is not built there is no economic benefit to anyone.

      • Anonymous says:

        And the environment screwed, more trash, more pollution and more traffic! Is it really worth it?

      • Anonymous says:

        right that’s a great deal, just like the wonderful deal Bush gave Ryan on the Ritz then he went broke and never paid a dam thing.

        • Anonymous says:

          And then Alden & Joey Who gave Ryan more deals on his new project Fin. Real good job PPM!

        • Anonymous says:

          Michael Ryan is still here, still getting duty waivers for his God ugly FIN and at the same time destroying our precious shoreline all in the name of greed.

          Just tell me how the hell Joey and Alden could agree to give waivers to someone who still owed the government millions of dollars..

        • Anonymous says:

          Not true. Didn’t Mac get some condos?

        • Anonymous says:

          It was a good deal for Bush tho, and that’s all that matters tight?

      • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

        Bullshit. That money comes out of our pockets. Us. All the little people who don’t get to decide. That is money that would have gone into the government coffers, but to make up the difference comes out of fees, duties, licences and other costs.

      • Anonymous says:

        @3:03Pm and if you believe this, I have some swamp land in Arizona that I will sell you so that you can develop it..

      • Anonymous says:

        Me maths good.
        You budget $20m in income from duty. And $20m in spending.
        You waive my $10m in duty.
        You still spend $20m.
        No worry, you no lose any money. And you no own nice land. Trust me maths.

  19. Anonymous says:

    Duty is just for us poor ordinary people.

  20. Anonymous says:

    both waterfront hotels in the area are big white elephants…that may get built on the back of overseas money ‘investment’ schemes….

  21. Anonymous says:

    yo this pisses me off blood

    *kiss teet*

    no benefit for Caymanians

    sell-outs

  22. Richard Wadd says:

    I can fully understand Duty Concessions for hotels, but NOT private condos. If an extra $m is a deal-breaker for the buyers, then the CAYMAN ISLANDS ain’t for them. We wan’t residents and investors who are happy to input $ into our economy and people, not bargain hunters. The wealthy want ‘exclusivity’ and that should come at a cost to them, and not us.

    • Anonymous says:

      These units are being marketed as condos, but the condo fees are closer to what you’d expect a hotel to charge for their services.

      *If* successful with their plans, I expect it will employ the same amount of people as any ordinary hotel.

      The exposed rebar sticking out of the ground currently employs 0 Caymanians in the hospitality industry. One concern I’d have is if the concession was given without requiring a minimum *number* of employees. i.e. if the Hyatt brand exits and 100% of the rooms are turned into normal condos, then it would hardly need any employees compared to a hotel.

  23. Anonymous says:

    This just seems to be one endless loop.

    This is the type of thing you should get angry about. Not the forriners.

    Surely it would be beneficial for the CIG to spend this money on improving the standard of education so that more Caymanians can work in the industries which are more prevalent on the island?

    But no, let’s improve the profit margins of the developers so they can build yet another hotel.

  24. Anonymous says:

    What a disgrace. They may as well rename that place The Lido, because every time it rains it’s full of water that takes forever to drain away.

    • Anonymous says:

      Ya bobo. You see the rebar swimming in the water for weeks – definitely want that holding up my 10 story apartment!!!

  25. MERVYN CUMBER says:

    With a waiver of this size, the then Government could have bought the whole site with a few more millions and kept it as a land bank for future generations to enjoy. There should also be a time limit on how long any concession is available. This project has dragged on for years!

    • anonymous says:

      There is a time limit on concessions, however it is for stamp duty waiver for first time home buyers,only for the little guy apparently

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s dragged on because of a weak developer. Why give a concession to a weak developer. If the developer doesn’t have the necessary financial resources to do a development here, then we have the wrong developer. I think there may be a new group in charge here though.

      • Anonymous says:

        Unfortunately, Dart is pretty much the only strong developer you have.

        • Anonymous says:

          NCB, Davenport, Fraser Wellon, Mandarin/Melkonian, Trevor Watkins, Edgewater, Joe Imparato ….. Hey, do you notice all but one of these are Caymanian. Except for super high end developments requiring significant capital, we don’t need foreigners developing here.

      • Hastings says:

        This is so true, weak times 1000. That’s why they are doing pre-sales of the units to finance the project before it gets built. They did the same thing at MV.

  26. Anonymous says:

    And people still support PPM… disgusting. Finn Project now this! What else don’t we know?!

  27. Anonymous says:

    The PPM should step down now. This is absolutely ridiculous! How much more will we find out about their reign? Can anyone not see why they need to bring this government down quickly? They do not want any more of their shit to float to the top.

    They hide these things from us so that they can get re-elected. XXX

    The whole bunch of them makes my stomach turn. Let’s see if Roy will be holding a press briefing on this. I bet you won’t hear a peep out of them.

  28. Anonymous says:

    I don’t understand this! Our government provides these waivers only for the developer to walk away with tens of millions in profit. Simplifying matters, if we had implemented the duties, a $100 million profit would be reduced to $80miliion. The developer still walks away with 80% of the profit, they don’t need the waiver. The illogical point, which we pay for, it that these concessions are provided yet it costs the government money to facilitate these developments, new roads or repairing roads, moving electricity, new sewerage and water systems. This costs money yet the government doesn’t collect funds to even cover its own costs! CNS, you want more info, investigate Health City concessions. That is costing the government and people of Cayman more than is collected in fees!

    CNS: With Health City, you also have to take into account how many lives it has saved. What is a life worth?

    • Anonymous says:

      Health City serves the local community as well as attracting people from over seas. I can’t stand all the concessions given to developers but Health City seems justified to me.

  29. C'Mon Now! says:

    This likely never gets built. HHG already has two significant failures on this island, look what happened at Margaritaville and Locale.

    If this does succeed it will be because of a new developer picking up the pieces after Mr. Howard has cashed out.

    At some point you are what your records says you are…

  30. Anonymous says:

    you must weigh up the concession against the positive economic benfit of the development to the overall economy.
    if this injects $200m into the conomy…then this is a great deal for cayman.

    • Anonymous says:

      Is that number achievable? Got any evidence? Probably not and you sound like a realtor or a developer. ‘Great deal’

    • Anonymous says:

      Mega “if”. More like “if” never happens with these projects. Besides who’s crystal ball and what shaky projections predicts these pie in the sky figures?

  31. Anonymous says:

    And they blocked all the water(blow holes) beach access with fencing next to the cemetery.

    I contacted CPA 2 years ago about this issue, they laughed in my face and told me to screw off.

    Developers and theses board members are making the public pay while they profit millions.

  32. Anonymous says:

    Hopefully they can get this project done sooner rather than later. That area is a long term blight and this project would be a vast improvement.

    • Anonymous says:

      How can an open piece of land, which it was for a long time, be a blight? Across the road down in Dog City yes not so picturesque, if thats your concern I agree but not this site? It looks worse now as a very slow moving construction site quite frankly. I too hope it gets finished rather than just the foundations being done.

      I’m no expert but my guess is the speed of development looks like it’s linked to the sale of units there and cash flow, which brings into question the financing situation?

    • Anonymous says:

      Not likely, the original developer defaulted and it is now being run by the lender. This project is going nowhere. 80% sold my a**.

      • Anonymous says:

        I sense a theme with HHG properties = Original default and the public wins the debt, supported by lenders who will milk the property and pray they will break even.

  33. Anonymous says:

    These developer duty waivers make ZERO sense!! I get so angry over these. I will eat my shirt if they are actually at 60% Caymanian staff.

    • Banana Republican says:

      The former Minister of Planning Joey Hew is directly to blame for negotiating such a one sided agreement and his Progressive Cabinet members including former Minister of Finance Roy McTaggart now leader of the Opposition who approved these shady deals. None of the deals make zero sense at a time the Cayman Islands is going thru a construction and development boom.

      There is far more to these these stories and concessions agreements than what PPM and developers want revealed to the public because the allegations of corruption may be found to be legitimate. Then the house of cards will come tumbling down in spectacular fashion.

      • Anonymous says:

        I’m not one for conspiracy theories but suspect you’re right on the corruption and I agree with your point about the need to provide concessions when the construction / property industry is going nuts. Seems illogical.

      • Annonymous says:

        Where is FCO ???? How could they give up income due to the people of this country in such a secret manner!

        Suggest all duty waivers more than $1,000 should be approved by the parliament in the future.

    • Anonymous says:

      Want rice and beans with that?

    • The Cayman Seer says:

      Just because they don’t have to pay millions to the Cayman government doesn’t mean they don’t slip a few million to certain people on the sly! You don’t think the people in charge would give away all that money for nothing, do you?

    • Anonymous says:

      What you call “duty waiver” is in-fact a long-standing incentive called “The hotel aids law.”
      Hotel developers are entitled to apply for duty reductions.
      Is the law still in place ..?

      • Anonymous says:

        Sorry, that should be …Hotels aid law….

      • I Doan Thinkso says:

        A law ??? That sounds like more bull crap !

      • Miami Dave says:

        1:00, But this development is not a hotel but private dwellings.

        • Anonymous says:

          It is a hotel with sales of units that are returned to the hotel for generating income to the individual unit owners.
          Same as Ritz , but without the loss of two units.!

      • Almost Laughing says:

        Yes. Hotel Aids Law (1995 Revision) allows developers of hotels outside of the SMB/GT Corridor, on application to the Licensing Board, a licence to import pretty much everything needed for a new hotel- concrete to cushions, structural steel and rebar to stainless steel fridges and cutlery, roof sheets to bed sheets- at 2.5% duty rate. The Law is in existence but the Licensing Board is not (yet). Apparently, no hotel has yet to make use of this concession but only one meets the location criteria defined in the Law allowing for grant of the duty licence, and that is Mandarin Oriental Resort at Beach Bay.

  34. Anonymous says:

    This is OUR public money these politicians gave away, and took efforts to OBSTRUCT and HIDE that fact. That’s $10mln that won’t go towards a vocational school, or mental health support, anti-domestic violence support, or drug rehab facilities. At what point does the FCU get involved to investigate what Unity/PPM/CDP members received in exchange for deals over the years? XXXX There is no point in gifting commercial breaks to bad actors that won’t be returning a substantial multiple of the concession in medium term social benefits. Watch them hire >85% work permits when it’s done. Cayman gets nothing.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hey Roy can you, Joey Who and the fallen leader Alden kindly explain another sweetheart deal and why it is shrouded in secrecy? Since you are the wonderful opposition and as you explained yesterday that you all have to “do your job”, do you think one of you could find the time to explain to us taxpayers why our money is being wasted like this? Seems like you guys only beat your gums when it is time to rough up the current goverment but are very secretive when it comes to the cr#$ that went on during your time in power.

    • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

      Exactly! Why are we trying to entice them to build here? They should be trying to entice us. The Cayman Islands are the desired location. We don’t need them.

      This waiver makes me sick. There go all our duties and loss of valid community-enhancing projects. We need to change this paradigm that seeks overdevelopment and waiver of duties. If ANYONE gets a waiver, it should be the common citizen for their first house, or first investment property.

  35. Anonymous says:

    Opening mid 2022🤣🤣🤣

  36. Anonymous says:

    Not to worry good people they will make it back on the $3 package tax they charged me for a $5 item.

  37. Anonymous says:

    How does this benefit Cayman!? Duties on large developments should be going into the public purse to help Cayman as a whole. If you waive them how do we as Caymanians benefit!? These developments tend to hire ex-pat workers for cheap so it doesn’t even open up job opportunities. The only people I see benefiting from this are construction companies and building supply stores like ALT. This nonsense needs to stop. This is unsustainable. Im not anti-development but these big builds are out of character with our island. This angers and upsets me so much.

  38. Anonymous says:

    Meanwhile the average Joe have to pay every penny in planning fees to add on a porch to his house.

  39. Anonymous says:

    Joey you have zero shame!

  40. Anonymous says:

    Where is the Auditor General’s investigation into this matter and report?

    • Anonymous says:

      Same place the high school building project audits are. They don’t exist.

      • Anonymous says:

        Even Roy said he couldn’t figure out the benefits of concessions..or maybe he knew but would have been the death of the PPM.

  41. Anonymous says:

    Concessions and duty waivers for what? If you cannot afford it do not attempt the project. Government rejects Caymanians every day and there is no waiver of fees to build my duplex or add on a garage to my house. PPM is sellouts pretending to want to help the people they only help themselves and they friends

  42. Anonymous says:

    PPM can never be trusted again to run the country

    • Anonymous says:

      Party affiliation makes no difference Mac did essentially the same waiving the height limit with Ritz.

  43. Anonymous says:

    Ha ha ha….yet they charge me $22.65 usd impprt duties at airport….i am caymanian….ha ha ha ha ha….

  44. Anonymous says:

    The legacy of joey hew is best described as giving away cayman for nothing but the reality is we know somebody in power benefits from such poor decisions because nothing in life is free

  45. EYES WIDE SHUT says:

    Joey Who and ppm strikes again what a disgrace. This is more evidence of giveaways for friends and business associates by a ppm led government. They cannot be trusted to do the right thing in the best interests of Cayman and Caymanians

    • Anonymous says:

      They can be trusted to watch out for all of us since they are the opposition! Just watch old Roy’s You Tube speech of yesterday. Utter bullsh*&

  46. Anonymous says:

    Are we REALLY so in need of development in this already crowded island, particularly the western part, that we have to give away these precious dollars (aka waivers)?

  47. Anonymous says:

    As it is around the world.. taxes, duties and tariffs are only for poor people.

  48. Anonymous says:

    WHY?? Duty waivers should be used as an incentive for developers during an economic downturn or a need for a specific type of development. That’s my opinion!

    • Anonymous says:

      EXACTLY!! Only in a downturn! Not in BOOM times. No incentives necessary at the moment and haven’t been necessary for 10 years.

  49. Anonymous says:

    And the CIG moans their coffers are drained — disgusting!

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