by Linda Straker
- Over 200 investors in Kimpton Kawana Bay CBI-approved project
- On 31 August 2023, dispute under arbitration since 2021, was resolved
- Investors will have opportunity to present claims for evaluation and compensated accordingly
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has assured that the over 200 investors of an approved Citizenship by Investment (CBI) project who will be affected by the Government’s compulsory acquisition of the land and the property, will be able to seek the necessary compensation.
“Anyone who has an interest in the property will have an opportunity to present any claims for an evaluation of their interest in the property, and will be compensated accordingly,” he announced during a news conference on Tuesday, 19 September 2023.
In 2016, the then Government of Grenada approved a proposal by True Blue Development for funding the Kimpton Kawana Bay Project under its CBI Programme. However, around March–April 2021, Grenada halted approval of CBI applications for the project claiming certain financial discrepancies. The developer then sued the State of Grenada, seeking US$111 million in compensation.
Prime Minister Mitchell said upon assuming office in June 2022, his administration decided that the matter should be resolved with discussion led by a committee composed of retired banker Richard Duncan, attorney Leslie-Ann Seon, and businessmen Hassan Hadeed and Henry Joseph.
On 31 August 2023, the Government of Grenada and the group of US investors who had been working through True Blue Development to build the Kimpton Kawana Bay Resort jointly announced a resolution to the dispute that had been under arbitration since 2021 before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
In the news conference, Attorney-General Claudette Joseph said that the acquisition of the property was not a financial burden to the state because the cost to settle was way lower than what was requested in the arbitration documents. “Just to clarify for the listening public, that the State of Grenada was sued for US$111 million, and we settled the dispute for US$22 million, which is less than a third of what we were sued for,” said Joseph who is also the Minister for Legal Affairs.
“In the arbitration claim, there was no claim to the property (the land) as such because the property was owned by the True Blue developers. In the settlement, we were able to get the property back for the people of Grenada, and that settled the arbitration dispute,” she added.