The project includes almost the entire south eastern portion of the island, from just north of White House Bay, south. The development will feature a 300 acre harbor and mega-yacht marina with support marine related businesses, 2000 home sites most on or with views of the ocean, beaches, or harbor, six secluded beaches, a Tom Fazio championship golf course, several five star hotels, and a collection restaurants and boutiques.
They celebrated the opening of the mega-yacht docks the week before we arrived. There are a total of 23 slips for boats from 100 to 220 ft. Sale prices range from $1,875,000 to $3,000,000. They claim to have contracts on 14. The Pavilion and the Salt Plage where we had great dinners are both fully operational. The Park Hyatt, a 135-room resort in Banana Bay, is under construction and scheduled to open the end of the year. All of the lots except one have been sold along the magnificent Sandy Bank Bay with several already built and occupied, and another is under construction. The first waterfront house in the Harbor is under construction and all the lots in phase one sold. Phase two is scheduled for release this summer with the least expensive lot expected to be priced at $1,750,000. The are a number of hillside lots and non view lots behind Sandy Bank Beach which have been sold with houses built and occupied on several of them. The quality of the architecture, (which must go through an approval process by an architectural review board under control of the developer), the quality of the landscape architecture, and the quality of the completed construction were all excellent.
The only comparable to what they are creating at Christophe Harbour is St. Barth. However the differences are significant. There is only one public road that runs through the development which is the southern portion of St. Kitts. This road will run to a relocated ferry terminal which connects St. Kitts to the other part of this Island nation, Nevis, and Cockleshall Bay with its beach, which will remain public. Christophe Harbour will have a series gate graded communities, interconnecting with a private golf cart/bicycble path. The community will have its own new town which will be built behind the mega-yacht marina. The only development opportunities that exist on St. Barth are individual properties. You can't get to St. Barth with a private jet on a passenger jet airlines. The small short runway will only accommodate prop planes. St. Kitts has a international airport with VIP terminal to accommodate private jets. There are no golf courses on St. Barth. In addition to the already constructed mega-yacht marinas they are planning a second marina for larger boats under 100 ft. In addition to White House Bay where we stayed there is Ballast Bay immediately south. Both bays in combination create a large anchorage area with significantly calmer conditions then St. Barth.
According to David Nelson the country of St. Kitts/Nevis sought out a developer for this project, and is a partner in the development. The developer they choose were the principles of Kiawah Partners who have developed and managed Kiawah Island since they purchased the Island from a Kuwaiti led development company in 1988. The sea island is 12 miles south of City of Charleston. Under the development of Kiawah Partners, and it's CEO Buddy Darby, the 10,000 acre largely private gate guarded Kiawah Island currently has 7 championship golf courses, a private club, a 5-star hotel, 10 miles of beach front, 30 miles of river front, several world-class restaurants, sporting, shopping and culture activities, and 4600 property-owner families. The Island hosted the 1991 Ryder's Cup and the 2012 PGA Championship.
They estimate it will take 20 years to build out Christophe Harbour. My guest it will probably take longer. The sales strategy they are following is to sell some of the most expensive property first, which helps with cash flow and builds value for the less expensive home sites and slips to follow. They have done very little advertising to date concentrating on getting the word out at wealth management seminars and the like, to the height end buyers they are looking for. The build out has started a few houses at a time allowing them to slowly build a skilled workforce on the Island which will provide better costs then the imported labor needed to achieve the quality of the buildout to date.
This is a one of a kind site, and the developers appear to be doing everything right. The risk for all involved is how long it will take to build-out, and what future economic downturns will do to the world economy and how this will effect the project's development.
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