March 17, 2008
By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
Cockle Shell Bay, St. Kitts – Nevis
The clearing of the construction site for Christophe Harbour has started at Cockle Shell Bay on the Southeast Peninsula. The project will span 2,500 acres with access to six beaches including Cockle Shell Beach, where the work began.
According to Mr. Mark Pavluvcik, Director of Development/Construction for KHT Land Holdings, the project will take 10 to 15 years to be completed. He added that the first phase was to remove the old buildings in order to assess the land for its future development. “Before you can have an official ground breaking we got to tear down some buildings first to make way for the new,” he said on March 7, when initial demolition began.
The new will include a mega yacht harbour, world class restaurants, shops, boutiques, luxury villas, two five star hotels and a championship golf course. Much of the work on the project has not been visible to the public.
“We have many consultants working behind the scenes to create this vision for St. Kitts,” Mr. Pavluvcik said.
“There are thousands of man hours being expended by architects, engineers and planners in developing this wonderful piece of property into an environmentally sensitive and very successful high end product for the island,” he added.
Within the next three years, KHT Land Holdings will be installing the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the two five-star hotels and the 1,500 residences. In addition, the company is responsible for constructing the golf course and marina.
Though the final economic impact has not been fully assessed, Mr. Pavluvcik expects it to be significant. He said the construction phase would use local people, as many as possible, and the final product would require local workers in the hospitality and service sectors.