Developers pull hotel from Crystal Harbour project
(CNS): Michael Ryan told the Central Planning Authority on Wednesday that the proposed nine-storey hotel set to be part of a controversial new project in Crystal Harbour is no longer part of the plan. But this was not enough to satisfy the numerous objections from existing homeowners in the area, who believe the size and density of this mixed-use development will still irreversibly change their quiet, exclusive gated community, undermining the quality of life they bought into.
Ryan, the developer of the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, is partnering once again with Dale Crighton, his co-developer on the original Crystal Harbour project and more recently the FIN project in South Sound, on what has been named Prisma.
At a special meeting of the CPA to hear the application Ryan outlined the new details of the development.
Despite dropping plans for the hotel, the proposed project still comprises five 7-storey apartment blocks, townhouses, duplexes, commercial and retail space, including a restaurant, and the extension of a canal on a 7½-acre lot along Crighton Drive, which is zoned Hotel/Tourism and Low Density Residential.
Ryan said this project had been on cards for decades but it had taken a long time to find the right design to maximise the project. He said it had all the benefits of development without any of the negatives associated with environmental harm because the site was already cleared and the Department of Environment has confirmed that it has little ecological value.
Ryans said that with the hotel dropped, it was a straightforward largely residential application with some retail. He added that it was nicely designed and would be pedestrian-friendly and provide more amenities for Crystal Harbour Community.
But it was his attorney, Samuel Jackson, who argued on the developers’ behalf regarding the objections. Jackson said that there was no valid reason in the law to refuse the application.
He told the CPA there was nothing to support the objectors’ assertions that it was inappropriate in scale. He described their claims as “absurd” and said that if the CPA turned down the application, they would be trampling on the constitutional rights of the landowners to develop their land.
He dismissed any claim that the objectors had “bought into” a low-rise residential development as it had always been zoned hotel and tourism, and refuted the claims that this project was not suitable for the area.
“What is really wrong with this suitability test raised by the objectors is that it is posited on that notion that a developer has to prove the worth of his development,” he said. “The reality is, given the type of zoning we have in this country… there is a presumption of approval based on that zoning.”
Jackson said that his clients didn’t need to prove their development was suitable to surrounding owners because it complied with the zoning. He stressed to the board members that in law they can only decline an application for “clear reasons”.
He said some of the objections raised by the landowners were irrelevant because they did not have the right to object to the variants that the developers are seeking “to make the project work”, as he stressed the limits of the planning law when it comes to who developers must inform about what.
“Folks are always concerned when large developments go up… but if you drill down there is no harm caused that would warrant you refusing the application,” he told the CPA, as he stressed the amenities that the development would bring.
However, Rupert Wheeler, the lawyer representing several of the homeowners in the area, said there were “significant and well-founded objections” because the project “will change the entire aesthetic of the community”. He said the project was very different from anything currently there and there would be a huge increase in cars and foot traffic of non-residents.
Wheeler also noted that the very same developers making this application had made owners in Crystal Harbour enter into restricted covenants over what they could build on the canal, which gave them the right to assume that nothing other than family homes would ever be built on canal lots.
Wheeler argued that the country’s development plan wasn’t in place just to facilitate development but to prevent over-development, and he listed several reasons why the CPA could lawfully decline the application. He said it was “obvious that the proposal was significantly out of step” with the existing community and “if granted would irreversibly change and undermine” the owners’ quality of life.
Two landowners also objected on their own behalf. One of them queried the density calculation and asked planning to re-look at the application because the numbers did not add up.
Another landowner argued that the entire development was unfair, given the restricted covenants that had been placed on owners, which had also prevented them from applying for any variants in the planning law. He queried the fairness of imposing restrictions on all the existing owners the developers had previously sold to, and now to change all the rules for their own benefit.
He accused the developers of trying to maximise profits while threatening the existing community.
“The trade-off here is the developers’ pocket over our quality of life,” he said, adding that none of the objectors wanted the amenities the developers were telling them they needed. “Have the courage to use your powers and discretion to do the right thing,” he urged the CPA.
See the agenda for the meeting in the CNS Library.
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Category: development, Local News
For many years Michael Ryan has been the topic of comments on Cayman News Service. An overview of some of his career highlights may be useful.
Canadan and Costa Rica (both failed)
UPI
https://www.upi.com/Archives/2002/06/11/Funny-Business-Putting-on-the-Ritz/5591023768000/
1998 – 2012 Ritz Carlton Cayman (failed)
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/ritz-cayman/cayman-islands-ritz-carlton-placed-in-receivership-idUKL2E8EG69V20120316
2012 Christian Foundation lost all of its investment in the Ritz ($240 million)
Huffingon Post
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/schwan-foundation_n_4718607
Fin Cayman’s damage to the environment
Cayman petition with photos (991 signatures)
https://www.change.org/p/dale-crighton-protect-cayman-s-reefs-from-construction-development-damage
The public documents/drawings at Planning showed the hotel floor plans as being 3 bedroom,full living units – 2 per floor. This seems to be the latest “boutique” application for hotels – Barkers and GT1 the same…plus the units are for sale…so question is are these really hotels or condos?
Time Shares are back, baby!
Perhaps the developers should change plans and submit plans for a residential community on the site. One with the same approximate density as the complainer’s community. Make it into a low-cost housing development for first time Caymanian home buyers. Let’s see what the elitists would say about that.
Great idea. Bring some equilibrium back to the community. Force reintegration, and put some tourism workers near their work places thereby reducing traffic. Win win win.
I’m just here for the comments.
I hold to the idea that if you buy into an exclusive gated community, your “community” extends as far as the wall surrounding it. You can harp on development inside the gates, but have no right to screech about lawful development outside your exclusive gates. If you want to have an exclusive home with no neighbours, buy abut 20 acres and build your home right in the middle of it. Problem solved. This issue should give future developers a grand idea and one which I myself will use in future development plans. Buy enough land to maintain at least 300-foot undeveloped wooded buffer surrounding the community. Put restrictive covenants in place that no development or clearing may take place on that portion of the community. The buffer could comprise part of the required LPP or public open space or park space. Make it into a very exclusive community. Yes the land cost of such a planned community could potentially double (or more) but wealthy people wanting an exclusive private community nestled in pristine woods out of sight of neighbouring development would gladly fork out an extra few hundred thousand to buy or build a home in a very exclusive community tucked away in the woods with no prospect of having any development in close proximity. Yes this would exacerbate the already high cost of land by taking even more potentially developable land out of the market. But if we want to cater to the wealthy we need innovative products to whet their insatiable appetite for exclusivity.
So 2:32, if I buy in a neighborhood with canals I have no right to say to developers that you can’t fill in the canals in for another development to maximize the developers profits.
8:49: You are comparing apples to oranges, however, I shall indulge you on this: If it happens that your canal access was curtailed by lawful development, and the canal was not owned by Crown, and title to your property had no registered easement providing access over the canal, and if you did not check on your rights to access prior to purchasing the canal-front lot, there is little recourse you have other than perhaps a prescriptive right to access, provided that you enjoyed and used unhampered access via the canal for the entire prescriptive period. Other than that you may have to fight a potentially costly and protracted legal battle if the canal is filled by the registered proprietor.
In the Cayman Islands, ownership and use of canals is treated somewhat like roads: if the canal is developed over private land it can and should have its own land register as a parcel and its own parcel number, and it will have a registered proprietor; title to the canal “land” and the subject parcel will include descriptives setting out which parcels the canal access is in favour of. Often the developer or a holding company–or in the case of condos, the strata corporation–will hold title to the canal land. Sometimes the canal is a part of the whole development parcel and is lumped in as common area. There are even access easement parcels that are a single parcel that include a network of all the development’s accesses, both developed roads and canals in the same parcel(!). As is the case with a few canals in Cayman, Crown owns the canal as a discrete parcel. Crown may also have ownership of a canal waterway as its claim over Cayman territorial waters, in which case Crown claims up to the mean high water mark and the public essentially have unhampered access. However, sometimes a canal is there physically and on mapping and is a registered parcel, but the easements to the contiguous properties are not registered as having access over the canal parcel: this is where the legal rights of the parcels contiguous to the canal become complicated. Then there have been and are cases where developers are selling “canal lots”, but their parcels are not registered as enjoying access via the fronting canal. Lots of gray areas here. Of course to undertake your hypothetical filling works would require CPA permission, and a hella lot of fill. Considering the cost of fill and heavy equipment work, it is highly doubtful that a developer would profit from a sale of such land. It is one thing to dredge up and make land over a shallow area or swampy land, quite another to fill a deep canal. The economics is where your hypothesis likely fails.
Blah, blah, blah… I have many important things to say and will say them in no less than a thousand words every time…
@7:07:
How are you critiquing what was beyond you to read? Sorry my facts exceeded the limits of your attention span. Next time maybe I can get my preschool nephew to draw something with stick figures to suit your comprehension level.
4:51, Well, the economics works in the case of the above development because the developer intends to fill in the canal along the road.
Your understanding of law might be good but you failed that economics course in university.
By the way, the Crown does not hold the canal when all of the freehold has been sold to Dart as in the case of Safehaven. The Crown sold all of Safehaven including the canals to Dart a few years ago.
Who cares? we’re one decent hurricane or earthquake away from devastation anyhow…build baby build
You will also find that the developer of the proposed Grand Palazzio -100 units got a stamp duty waiver on the purchase of the land in Crystal harbour on condition of using Caymanian labour…what happened to that? the developer flipped the land to what is now Diamond Edge. HAs the auditor lookwed at that?
There is no “Cayman labor” my friend.
Anyway thank you Mr Ryan for removing your hotel plan, you are a great corporate citizen!
Yeah, looking forward to having 5 seven storey apartment buildings a block away.
Will be wonderful for the hood.
Mr Ryan is a tremendous developer as look at the great projects he has – Ritz, Deck Houses & Fin. Thank you so much for helping Cayman at your own expense!
Yes and a church from the US owed $200m and a multitude of local creditors lost their shirts on the Ritz Carton whilst Bush got an over riding commission on all sales and thus two condos. How soon we forget.
The government is owed big stamp duty but forgot to ask for a guarantee from Ryan. But you know who was in charge then. 😬😬😬
A full investigation of this project is long overdue. More red flags than the annual meeting of Matadors in Madrid.
Mr. Johnson, I fear our robust law enforcers are too inept or corrupt to investigate anything. It is all a sham to provide a veneer of sophistication and civility.
It’s already 15 years old. We have long exceed every statute of limitations for most claims.
No doubt what you say is true but everyone has moved on. I would argue that time and energy is better spent on prevention of future similar mistakes.
You could play the game of spot the Michael Ryan project that made his investors a profit? Michael Ryan hasn’t mentioned one. Ryan has been successful getting richer and richer with each project. His investors keep losing their money.
Zoned Hotel/Low Density Residential implies to me small cozy B&Bs. Not overpacked 7 stories apartment buildings.
And there are laws preventing any landowner from building whatever they want. Such as setbacks etc. Therefore please do not approve any setback. Regular people get zero waivers. Please stop approving waivers for the rich.
And of course , if Ryan has money to fund Fin and this development, please pay all previous fines.
Hotel means hotel. Doesn’t matter what you think it implies.
There is no regular people in Crystal Harbour, only the rich.
I suppose we should be grateful to Sammy Jackson for pointing out all the loopholes that must be closed to create a sustainable Development Plan.
Clearly the problem is with the Planning laws and the Politian’s who made them….the CPA is between a rock and a hard place. They cannot refuse the application as it basically complies.
With Ryan’s track record especially thus huge debt he still owes to the people of this Country, how in the God’s name is he allowed to remain in this Country and conduct business?
He doesn’t owe the debt; DART took care of it when they purchased the Ritz.
He (Michael Ryan) doesn’t owe the debt; the company that owed the debt went ‘bankrupt’ and CIG never instituted any debt reclamation proceedings (and never explained publicly why they didn’t that I can recall). Then Dart bought the Ritz (which did have debts to others which were then paid off I think you are right) but Dart did not buy the defunct company that owed the CIG money.
It can be argued that this is why you create companies. To contain the risk of debts accrued from the personal finances of the company owners. Limited Liability Companies, LLC, I believe they call them. There’s probably places with lots of lawyers and bankers doing that sort of thing as an international industry. Hopefully since that time the CIG has engaged one of those finance & contract lawyers to review the waiver agreements the CIG offer to people like Michael Ryan.
An ex lawyer writes: I suggest the owners go to court and pursue the argument that the developers have established, and are therefore caught by, a “building scheme” of their own making.
This may be a good start as it is Crighton himself that has restrictions on Crystal Harbour. I believe one of them is no commercial business permitted. Hmmmm
When is some one going to build an indoor running track, frisbee golf course, a dive pool, ihop, steak and shake, And a Waffle House
9:55, Coming soon to Crystal Harbour. Be patient.
where do we vote for this? Indoor running track would be amazing
Has Mike Ryan ever paid the Government what he owes them.(us) How is he even allowed to continue doing this. Why not seize his assets?
Guarantee the land is family of Dale Crighton and Mike Ryan is not a proprietor.
If CIG were to “seize his assets”, that would have to be Mike Ryan’s personal assets, which does not include the Crystal Harbour land.
Bloody nice house in Patrick’s Island though!
Yes. It is.
One would think the homeowners would request for full compensation for their land.
Hey let’s build a Block One Hotel next to Dales house. He’ll like that .
Have they found the Marl that disappeared yet? Can planning ask where it is?
Michael Ryan lol- never seen a man love controversy so
There is no way Ryan was ever the “co-developer” of the original Crystal Harbour subdivision. That development was well underway by the time Ryan arrived in cayman in the late 1990s.
Correct. Uncle Rex Crighton.
Perfect spot for a dirt bike track.
Landfill
With the developer’s plan now being altered, which excludes the hotel, there planning application is very likely to be approved.
As the infrastructure in the Cayman Islands is modernized, there are compromises need to be considered.
If the development is conducted properly in line with real environmental protection safeguards, it may very well go forward. Time will tell what happens.
Truth hurts. Peroxide, bandaid and move on. Pop heads happen. Life goes on.
These are Waynes friends. Development going through, unless it had mature mahogany trees.
Part of due diligence when buying a lot is to understanding zoning.
@4:04:
Yes! And not just zoning. The buyer should beware and be aware of Appurtenances such as access/easements, and Encumbrances such as restrictive covenants. Both categories are on the Land Register for the parcel. The public may request to view/inspect a Land Register for CI$5 per parcel. A non-certified but official copy of the Land Register for any parcel of land in the Cayman Islands is available for purchase by the public for a cost of CI$14 per sheet. A certified copy is $20 per sheet. Further copies of things like restrictive covenants registered against the title are at additional charge of $1 per page. This is cheap protection when it comes to checking out before you buy what might affect title to, and use of, your land. If restrictive covenants are appended to the Register, it is advisable to confer with an attorney so you have a clear understanding of what you are buying into.
All part of the game. Mike knows that. They were never planning to build a hotel there.
Ya Man that was just a ploy. Playing the CPS for fools.
Mike and Dale understand how to play the game.
They helped invent the game.
It is not a game. It is destroying our society.
No sympathy for owners that should have known this was in the plan from before they bought.
3:05, Yeah ding bat, everyone knew that 5 seven storey apartment blocks could be built in that neighborhood 10 years ago.
Just like everybody knows a 50 storey building can be built in Camana Bay.
Ha ha ha, what did Ryan think the community of Crystal Harbour were going to do, roll over and play dead? And what a name for this monstrosity, Prisma, sounds like a Russian gulag. Mike Ryan and his buddy Dale need to develop house boat communities since no one seems to like their hideously stark concrete, rabbit hutch like, abominations on land. Maybe then if there is an objection they can cut them loose and drift upon the seas.
Thanks CPA for standing up to crass commercialism and fulfilling your real mandate. I hope refusals of this garbage development continue and signal to other suitors don’t bother.
Lol. You got played.
This was a setup. There was never a hotel or hotel investors. It was planned to be dropped.
Not necessarily. There was a plan A and plan B. Waters were tested and they swiftly adjusted to the temperature.
Not sure where the mix use of business would want to be there unless it’s like a country club restaurant that only careers to those in the Crystal Harbour community. That could actually be beneficial perhaps. Imagine not having to work about driving home after happy hour drinks or just letting you kids go fend for themselves and charge for at the restaurant because you’re too lazy to cook and your helper is off.
I like it!
Fine. As long as the general public can access it.
What???? Allow the plebs anywhere near the place? That’s the whole point of a gated community. To keept the riff-raff and lowlife out. Snobbery in the extreme.
No they won’t have access
Then it will be unlawful ( if it hopes to serve liquor).
I agree with the home owners, they were told they have to build on plots no less that 4,000 sq ft then Dale comes along and says… screw that… I’m going to cram as much crap as I can into a tiny space. And did Ryan ever pay back that money to CUC and CIG he owed?
@2:19 “And did Ryan ever pay back that money to CUC and CIG he owed?”
I’m sure the answer is NOPE! I recall reading that one of his excuses was he couldn’t afford to repay CIG lol.
Of course he didn’t the company went bust because of the misappropriation of the bank loans…where is that money now? and he was a paid consultant ….a developer never uses their own money… he will do the same here, the land is not his, the cost of construction will be for the banks and he walks away with his commission plus monthly fee – nice!
Nope
Not sure if Ryan paid back CIG.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say no.