Cap Juluca Resort was ushered into the top of the news in Anguilla on Tuesday this week when the new owner, Adam Aron, representing his two partners and their company, Cap Juluca Properties Ltd, entered into a signed Memorandum of Agreement with the Government to own and further develop the world-class property. Mr. Aron, known “to put his money where his mouth is,” handed over to Government a cheque for one million US dollars in Stamp Duty for transfer of ownership of the resort to his company which could have been paid later.

Signing Ceremony and Stamp Duty Cheque Presentation

Four copies of the agreement were signed by Mr. Aron on behalf of his company and Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming on behalf of the Government of Anguilla. The signing was witnessed by Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, and Cap Juluca’s Employer of the Year, Carol Richardson. Other Cap Juluca personnel present included the Manager of the Resort, Gary Thulander, representing the management; and Human Resource Director, Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks who represented the employees.

“All of us know the story of Cap Juluca and what Cap Juluca means to Anguilla,” Chief Minister Fleming said at the start of the signing ceremony in his office in the presence of local reporters. “This Government, and a number of us, have insisted that it is in our best interest to have Cap Juluca operating, and sometime ago we were very concerned about the property when it was at its lowest ebb,” the Government leader stated. He was grateful that Mr. Aron had come forward offering to be the new owner and investor. He praised him for his reliability, commitment and what he had done so far to substantially improve the resort as well as for his future plans for its further development.

Mr. Fleming reported that for a long period the Government and its local technocrats had been working on the Memorandum of Agreement which was carefully crafted and that they were now satisfied with the document. He observed that up until the signing of the new agreement Cap Juluca had been operating under the old licence granted to its previous owners. “With the new arrangement, 84 acres of land have been retrieved from the old lease and that land will now belong to the people of Anguilla and this Government wants to see a National Park in that area,” the Chief Minister reported. He stressed the Government’s appreciation for the owners of the resort, his delight that the workers were now happy and remarked that “a good Cap Juluca is a good Anguilla.”

He went on, addressing Mr. Aron: “We recognised this for a long time and on behalf of the people of Anguilla I want to thank you for the step you have taken thus far. You took it during difficult times. You had our confidence and you have lived up to that. I wish you all the best going forward and the people of Anguilla will benefit from the operations of Cap Juluca.”

Mr. Adam Aron showing Cap Juluca's plans at Chief Minister's Office

Mr. Fleming also thanked Dr. Aidan Harrigan, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney General’s Chambers, Tourism Adviser Donna Banks, his Permanent Secretary, Foster Rogers, and Director Lands, Gifford Connor, who worked with Government in taking the process forward.

Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, was also grateful to Mr. Aron for delivering on his promise. “One of the things I admire about him, beyond his passion, is his courage because the Cap Juluca deal is not an easy one to make,” he articulated. “It involves a lot of risks, there are a lot of unknowns and whenever there is a matter in court, it is no longer in any of the parties’ hands. It is in the hands of the judicial system so [Mr. Aron] is taking a big risk which depends on the outcome of those proceedings. The fact that he was prepared to take that risk is an indication of how much he really wants to do something about Cap Juluca and how strongly he feels about the product.” The Minister was pleased that, in addition to Government and the investors, Cap Juluca’s staff and a number of interest groups, including Anguilla Tourism Investment Limited (ANTIL), must take credit for the final outcome of the agreement.

“The Government of Anguilla wanted a number of things,” he pointed out. “We wanted to ensure that a portion of the property is returned to the hands of Government, particularly the pond resources as a National Park. That has been achieved. We wanted to ensure that the property remained as a Cap Juluca brand, and not any other international brand, that the size was not overwhelming, that it retained the image and brand name established over the years, and that has been achieved. We also wanted to know that the people of Anguilla had an opportunity to have ownership in Cap Juluca. That has been achieved because it is possible for the Government and the people of Anguilla to be involved in the ownership up to 20%.”

Mr. Banks was of the view that Mr. Aron was very helpful in achieving those goals and that all the concerns of the neighbouring local and foreign properties had been addressed in the Memorandum of Understanding. “It doesn’t make sense for the Cap Juluca property to exist if it doesn’t make money for Mr. Aron and for the people of Anguilla, and create jobs. It must be a win-win situation to have successful negotiations and I think we have achieved that and we have finally signed the Memorandum of Understanding,” the Minister of Finance said.

The signing ceremony

He stated that the Tourism Investment Committee and other personnel had been working on the document up to last week and that it was approved at an emergency meeting of the Executive Council on Monday this week. “The signing is symbolic but it is also an important milestone in Cap Juluca’s history because we are officially signing over the ownership to Mr. Aron’s company. His partners have really put their trust in him and we have also put our trust in him as well.”

He emphasised that the one million dollars was not a donation to the Government but was for Stamp Duty. “It could have been paid later, but because of the economic situation in Anguilla and the fact that we wanted to get money as quickly as possible, Mr. Aron at the same time of signing the Memorandum of Agreement, is also transferring the property officially over to his company," Mr. Banks explained. “It is a good day for everybody. The Government of Anguilla has 2.68 million EC dollars in the Treasury which can be used for very important work right now in the social sector and this can be very useful. It shows that Mr. Aron is committed to working with us to achieve our objectives…I know that he also has a passion for health and we can expect a lot of things from him in this area. He is cognisant of the importance of health services to tourism. We are so happy to have him on board and we know that he will continue to live up to his reputation that he has already built as we move forward with this venture”.

Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers, took the opportunity to thank Mr. Aron for donating a new state-of-the-art ambulance to the Princess Alexandra Hospital which has already been commissioned.

Mr. Aron presents million dollar cheque to Dr. Harrigan

Mr. Aron spoke about his interest in Cap Juluca and his pleasure of becoming the third owner of the property in its 21st year. He said it was his 34th trip to Anguilla and that during that period there had been several important accomplishments. These included the first phase of renovating the resort; a quick recovery of the over 10 million dollar damage done to the property by Hurricane Omar and the reopening and showcasing of the new Cap Juluca in eight weeks by Christmas 2008. The third accomplishment was the significant improvement of the service offered to guests, particularly on a complimentary basis, and what they expected “from one of the best hotels in the world.” He identified the fourth achievement as the Memorandum of Agreement guaranteeing the future of Cap Juluca. Moving to a map, showing the current main house, restaurants, the 18 villas and the new concept of the planned additional development, he explained what that further work would entail.

Under the new agreement, the Government has granted permission to build six more villas, at Maunday’s Bay: five down where the beach continued and where the present development was stopped and the other villa in another area. He thought that, at a leisurely pace, this could take seven to ten years to complete. There are plans for additional villas to be built on the vacant Cove Bay Beach and on upper and lower Maundays’ Point. Mr Aron said that the original architect, now 80 years old, who built Cap Juluca in the mid-1980s, and who was now retired, had been called out of retirement and with his son had already drawn up the plans for the new villas, reflecting the same architectural design of the present property.

“The important thing to know is that as we expand Cap Juluca, we will have the ability to sell some of these villas but in selling them, the hotel will still function very much like the hotel you know today,” he stressed. “On any one of the two beaches, when the owners of the villas are not in residence, the villas must be given back to the hotel and rented out to the hotel’s guests just like it is today….It will be the same number of visitors coming to Anguilla as now and should be the same amount of Accommodation Tax. Right now we only have 18 villas. We will have probably 24 at Maunday’s Bay Beach and probably another 15 on Cove Bay Beach.

Donna Banks, Curtis Richardson, Foster Rogers, Perin Bradley with Ken Hodge (standing)

“That means that with more villas and bedrooms, there will be more visitors to Anguilla and more Accommodation Tax. In addition, because we are selling some of these villas, there is a Real Estate Transfer Tax; so every time one of these villas is sold, the Government will receive 3% tax on the transfer of the villa. In addition, because these are going to be private residencies, we have agreed that we will pay Property Tax. There will be a significant amount of taxation income for the Government of Anguilla that will come even from the existing villas [some of which will also be sold].” He reasoned that with this income, plus the benefits to be derived from the 20% ownership in the profits of the company, a significant amount of money would be available to Government to put to good use for the people of Anguilla.
“This property has been mired in litigation for at least a decade and without this agreement being signed today, Cap Juluca is probably not worth what the amount would be owed in the various court documents,” Mr. Aron continued. “I was almost certain that as an independent observer, some day, when the courts finally settle all this litigation, Cap Juluca would do anything but collapse…With this agreement in place, Cap Juluca is worth a lot more than whatever the courts will determine and as a result there is enormous security in Cap Juluca now…Therefore Cap Juluca will be a definite source of employment for approximately 340 Anguillians. As we add more villas, there will be more job opportunities, more opportunities for the construction industry and for Anguillians to build some of the villas…and Cap Juluca should have the financial strength to be a good corporate citizen.”

He praised the Government for its efforts to save Cap Juluca. He said he had taken several financial risks before the Memorandum of Agreement because he cared for the employees and had great faith in the integrity and word of the Ministers of Government and knew he could trust them that this day would happen. He disclosed that he had invested 40 million dollars in Cap Juluca in advance of the signing of the agreement and was grateful to a number of other persons including the Directors of Lands and Physical Development; Dr. Aidan Harrigan and Foster Rogers for their assistance.

He was pleased to have the Manager of Cap Juluca, Gary Thulander, representing the management and Dr. Phyllis Fleming- Banks representing the employers and Cap Juluca’s Employer of the Year, Carol Richardson, at the signing ceremony.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News