{"id":279443,"date":"2022-01-04T09:03:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T13:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=279443"},"modified":"2022-01-04T09:03:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T13:03:22","slug":"commentary-gregor-nassiefs-response-to-sean-douglas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/commentary-gregor-nassiefs-response-to-sean-douglas\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: Gregor Nassief’s response to Sean Douglas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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from left: Sean Douglas and Gregor Nassief<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On December 30th<\/sup> on Q95\u2019s Talk on the Block, Sean Douglas hosting the program for the first time, managed to get five things wrong in just 22 seconds.\u00a0 That works out to a misstatement of fact every 4.4 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have Secret Bay in Portsmouth\u2026. A number of villas have been built\u2026. We are now hearing that they want to build\u2026. Mr. Nassief wants to build an extra 42 villas at a cost of some 60 million\u2026. We are hearing that villas are going for 7 million US dollars. Again, the need for transparency with respect to that because its our\u2026.. it\u2019s the taxpayers money that are being expended here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Misstatement #1<\/u><\/p>\n

The most egregious statement is \u201cit\u2019s the tax payers money that are being expended here.\u201d\u00a0 So Mr. Douglas is essentially saying that monies to be spent on building the villas is tax payers money.\u00a0 It is perplexing to me that after almost 8 years since the Real Estate option was introduced under the CBI program, such misconception still persists.\u00a0 Secret Bay has not received or spent $1 from the Government or $1 of Tax Payers money.\u00a0 I suggest Mr. Douglas refer to \u201cPart II: The\u00a0Business of Real\u00a0Estate\u201d in a DNO article written more than 2 years ago in an attempt to correct similar misstatements: An Open Response to Lennox Linton<\/a>; and to refer to the Government website and legislation as it relates to the Real Estate option under the CBI program.\u00a0 In simple terms, an investor transaction with Secret Bay is for the purchase of a fraction of a villa or a whole villa along with a parcel of land that the villa is on, which is separate from the same investor\u2019s transaction with the Government for Citizenship.\u00a0 The first transaction qualifies the investor to proceed with the second transaction but is separate.\u00a0 Monies from the first transaction belong to Secret Bay (as we are transferring title in property to the investor) while monies from the second transaction belong to the Government.\u00a0 No monies that belong to the Government are held by Secret Bay.\u00a0 This is the identical framework that exists for the real estate option under the CBI programs of St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Kitts and Antigua.<\/p>\n

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Misstatement #2 & #3<\/u><\/p>\n

Mr. Douglas says we are \u201cnow<\/strong> hearing\u201d that \u201cMr. Nassief wants to build an extra<\/strong> 42 villas\u201d\u2026.\u00a0 Refer to DNO article published February 19th<\/sup>, 2019: Govt and Secret Bay Residences sign contract for development of Secret Bay<\/a>.\u00a0 From the outset, Secret Bay\u2019s plan was to build a total of 42 villas, as outlined in the referred DNO article published almost 3 years ago, and the existing villas which we built in 2010\/11, 2013, 2016, 2018 (post Maria) and most recently 2020\/2021 are included in the 42.<\/p>\n

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Misstatement #4<\/u><\/p>\n

Mr. Douglas says \u201cthat villas are going for 7 million US dollars\u201d.\u00a0 The us$7m sale to which he refers comprised 4 villas, 3 pools and various other amenities, information also in the public domain and readily accessible on DNO: Secret Bay records vacation home estate sale of US$7 million<\/a>.\u00a0 So 4 villas for us$7m is an average price of us$1.75m per villa, an unremarkable price in terms of villa sales in the region, but a first for Dominica.\u00a0 And as expressed in the DNO article, this sale is unrelated<\/strong> to Dominica\u2019s Citizenship program.<\/p>\n

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Misstatement #5<\/u><\/p>\n

Mr. Douglas says that these \u201cextra 42 villas\u201d will be built \u201cat a cost of some $60 million\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0Mr. Douglas does not say whether this figure is US$ or EC$, but either would be significantly off.<\/p>\n

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Some background facts<\/u><\/p>\n

Some facts that may be useful to consider when speaking about Secret Bay and its real estate program:<\/p>\n