According to the information provided to SMN News by Brookson, the cooperation agreement the owners have with RFT clearly states that: "If at any time prior to the transfer of title of the premises owners consider to sell the property to a third party, RFT will be offered the possibility to acquire the premises under exactly equal conditions as owners consider to accept from such third party."
Brookson said it has been years now that the owners have been trying to sell EWE to the Government of St. Maarten but no one who was in Government at the time showed interest in purchasing the property. "The RFT park is an initiative of the Carnival Cruise Lines and the former Minister of VROMI is the one that brought them to see the property, but he also took the investors to see his family's land in Madame Estate and other properties as well.
Brookson named two politicians who would rant and rave about the protection of EWE but when these persons were in government they made no effort to acquire the property. Brookson said he has a number of letters that he wrote to government offering them to purchase the property. Therefore the Government of St. Maarten always had the first option.
Brookson said he was informed that the new government had problems with the building permit of RFT and this surfaced when the present Minister of Tourism visited the office of Carnival in Miami after taking up office. It was reported to him that the incoming government had problems with the issued building permit because no provisions were made for the projected link 7.
Another element that the new government was missing from RFT's development plan is "a retaining lake" that is supposed to be inside the park to accommodate excess water in case of flooding. "While flooding is not an everyday occurrence, provisions have to be made for it to avoid what took place in 2006. Inside that basin a football field was projected."
Brookson said that if RFT had acquired the property he would have retained 10 hectares of the property which is located behind the Emilio Wilson Park. It was agreed upon with RFT and government that government would purchase these 10 ha upon issuance of the building permit to RFT.
With the sale to the present government, the owners will retain only 6 hectares of the property behind the Emilio Wilson Park with an offset of 50 meters. "It is clear that I have to hold on to a part of the property for my children and grandchildren because at some point they would need to build a home for themselves and government would issue the necessary permits. Also I have made a promise to the Ujima foundation to give them land to build an educational facility for the youth of St. Maarten." Brookson said the owners gave RFT through their lawyer the opportunity to match what the government of St. Maarten was offering and they did not respond. Instead they placed a lien on the property.
