Latest from Club O

Posted on FB this morning:

This is not the update we expected to be sending out to you. Once again, the insurance company for the Copro has delayed payment of the funds necessary for our rebuilding. If you are frustrated by the delays, you can imagine how we feel.
The latest missive from the insurance company is the earliest funds will be made available will be October, no guarantee, but they see that as a possibility. Their reasoning is not worth repeating in the letter and Copro hopes to receive funds sooner but understands that it is possible it could just as easily be longer.
This means that our ability to re-open this coming season has unfortunately all but evaporated.
So, OBC has decided that it is simply not fair to continue to hold the advance deposits from all of you who were kind enough to allow us to retain them up to now.
Florence will begin to return advance deposits to everyone who has them on hold for a future stay. This will take a bit of time, as some of the credit cards are no longer valid, have expired or have other issues. She will contact you to confirm your credit card information prior to issuing the refund or you may contact her directly at reservations@cluborient.com.
We’re sorry for the bad news about more delays, but both the Copro and us (OBC) are doing everything we can to try and move forward and not let the seemingly endless obstructions deter us from our goal of getting Club Orient back to the paradise we all remember.
Naturally,
Stephen Payne
Director

I sure hope it means what they said but it could also mean that they are refunding all the advanced deposits with the intent to sell the property so as to not have any issues with potential buyers.

Hummmm,
1) Get ALL business affairs in order.
2) Contact or extend feelers for potential buyer.
3) Yep, sounds good, let’s run with that.
Note the sarcasm! I’m just saying it is very strange in my opinion, just me saying! I do really feel sorry for ALL involved. It’s a bad state of affairs.

Bingo!

Hoping it is just as they say and a plan exists once the funds flow.

I always love when people speculate. Speculate and Assume seem the same. The more actual facts one has, the more difficult it is to speculate.

Let me give you two very simple reasons there should be no sale to a potential buyer for the entire property. 1) the group of owners who have not financially participated in the CoPro certainly will not co-operate in anything, much less a sale. Some of these folks are friends, but I have plenty of friends that are not smart in business. 2) title to most units is still defective due to the never-ending Beauperthuy claims. I have represented at least three decedent's estates that have "sold" their front line beach front units. Despite the sale, record title is still in the prior owner. (two of those units are holes in the sand and no concrete) I predict (but it is a guess not more) that the insurance company is using the lack of harmony within the owners' group as a tool for the delay, but that the log jam will be broken. As I have said before, this would be a good time for the French legislators to address, once and for all, the stupid state of the law on the Beauperthuy title issue. The Dutch did this years ago and I have not heard screams from any of the current Beauperthuy heirs, descended from those who earlier wandered off to, and were lost in, the Republic of Texas.

The owners are a smart group. They will figure this out and the resort will be back

Good to know Maitre_Jim, hope your correct. It's sad all those employees are held in limbo over insurance wranglings.

It is just so sad for the employees and the owners that it is taking so long.

It sounds like to me that management is done? Refunds and restructure? The insurance money is due and when it is received the homeowners will surely rebuild.
Everything takes time but IMHO the property should have been cleared of all buildings clearly not able to repair. The strong customer loyalty needs to see some effort on the homeowners to want to keep their long time loyal clientele.

You caught 'em. The homeowners are just lazing around eating bonbons. [/sarcasm]

Seriously?

Club O released some further/more in-depth information today on Facebook:

"Thank you for all the comments and statements of support. We’ve said it before, but you truly do not appreciate how grateful we are to have such loyal and wonderful friends.
Some of you have asked various questions and don’t feel we have responded with detailed answers or explanations and wonder why we seem to only be limiting our postings to general updates.
You’re right! We have tried to keep our postings as simple and truthful as possible, as the details often would take a great deal of explanation and for those of you unfamiliar with how differently things operate outside your home country, sometimes it just doesn’t seem to make sense.
I have worked in countries all over the world from Asia to Europe to Central America and of course, the Caribbean. One of the first things I learned (the hard way I might add) was that no one in the country you are working in cares how it is done in the States. You are not there to change, comment on or give advice on how things are done, “back in the States”. If you can’t accept that, you shouldn’t be working or living in someone else’s country.
Having said that, we are going to start posting one or two FAQ’s daily to explain some of the things which are often mentioned by people who comment on social media. We are not going to go into great detail, as it often can get very complicated and simple questions can often require very lengthy answers.
I will also point out that Orient Beach Club is a French corporation and like any corporation it does not always post everything online for public consumption of a privately held company.
Finally, as a blanket statement I would disregard about 99% of what you see on social media. It is often written by people who have not even been on St. Martin, but instead heard from “someone who knows”. Some of the people posting have also heard directly from a waiter, beach boy, a local who they met on the beach etc.
We’ve said it before. If you want to know if something is true or not, just email us and ask! If we know the answer, we’ll tell you. If we are unsure, we’ll tell you that as well.
With all of that said let’s start with the FAQ’s

WHAT ABOUT THE EMPLOYEES?

Immediately after Irma we set up a private online site for all employees to discover if they or their family needed help, where they were located and what they needed that we could supply.
Nancy Tieman was kind enough to start the go fund me page for employees and thanks to your generosity we were able to give each employee approximately $1000.00 We posted pictures of the happy day when it was distributed.
As a side note we should also thank Windward Island bank for bending (breaking) a host of rules to assist us. In addition, we had to hire off duty Gendarmes for security, so people would actually get back home unmolested. It was a big undertaking, at a rather sketchy time on St. Martin.
The employees have been receiving "chomage partial" every month since Irma. OBC pays each employee 85% of their net wages, plus holidays and vacation at full pay. OBC only receives back from the government a smaller percentage of minimum wage.
Employees also can work while receiving this money, so some employees are actually doing better than pre-Irma! Most however, are not able to find a job, as our unemployment rate is about 63%.
The Government limits this to 1000 hours per year. They have the ability to extend it and have once since Irma. As of now, chomage partial will end on November 2018.
When chomage partial ends an employer must pay full wages, even if the employee is not working or terminate the employee. Termination is a time consuming and expensive proposition. The employee would then be eligible of Assedic or unemployment. They would receive their full salary from the government for one year (or two in some cases).
The above is just a thumbnail overview of the question, “What about the employees?” You can see why we didn’t include it before in our postings. If any of you are really interested in this stuff, please let us know and we’ll keep it up as long as there are questions."

I think some owners are one of the reasons it's taking so long

Bingo! A unified group can rebuild and an Home Owners Association and board members that can not agree is recipe for disaster.
November 2018 chomage partial will end? Management meets all these owners who can not agree? Sad Sad sad!

Thanks jenniboston. Very interesting. How do companies budget for this massive outlay without revenue or insurance reimbursement. Hopefully the insurance covers some of that.

Anyways, there seems to be alot of moving pieces and i hope a large number who want to rebuild something have the will and wherewithall (insurance plus ither funds) to rebuild a very special piece of the earth.

And others have said, the customer demand will be there when they are done.

This sounds like the end of the Mullet Bay Resort story....sad when a few get in the way of a good time

Please read carefully. I found this from not to far back, enjoy! Just a conversation folks, please don’t beat me up!

https://www.sxm-talks.com/the-daily...ntends-to-rebuild-says-managing-director

"Co-proprietors haven’t collected yet on the total insurance payout, they are asking all the owners to write substantial cheques to rebuild their units"

“Co proprietors are awaiting 5-million euros although they need 15-million euros"

This was a daily herald article and things have changed since the interview. I did miss this tidbit about 5m need 15m.... If my math is correct 165 units divided into 5m is 30k each?

It is from April 2018, what is stated there may be history by now.

In fact, I posted a link to the Daily Herald Article on April 19 so it is by no means anything new.

April 19 Link

30K would not rebuild those units, in my opinion.

30k was just enough to rebuild my kitchen! Club Orient needs to bring in French electricity, water and septic. There is not enough money to rebuild Club Orient without owners opening up their wallets. I can not believe every owner would cough up the funds needed.

The more variables involved, the harder it is to get anything done. Time will tell what the outcome will be, but if Club O does find a way to continue to move forward, it can still be years before any type of progress is made. Delays that may eventually make them decide to sell. I would not rule anything out at this time.

The Brink family sold Club Orient to COPRO and if I remember it was a not so friendly transfer of the property. I agree too many cooks in the kitchen now!
I was good friends with the Brink Family and was a loyal customer to their resort and a guest when they owned a villa in Mount Rouge. Martin Brink was a child back then and I played the piano for them in their home. Miss the family and wish they still owned Club Orient!!!

Were the units (at Club O) that were privately owned all insured by the same insurance company? If not, what about the other Insurance Company that paid their client (prop owner) for their loss? Would that owner be able to rebuild without the others ? Or could the owner just take the Insurance money and walk away?

The owner I know who was a friend but will probably never talk to me again said this " I insured my chalet and have received my insurance money. I can rebuild without Club Orient but will wait till the group insurance is received." All owners were in a group insurance but some owners took out extra insurance. Owners can rebuild on their own but would not be hooked up to electricity, water and septic. These owners would not be part of Club Orient resort and are on their own. IMHO it is a mess!

It really does sound like a mess. I would not blame any of the owners for not rebuilding looking at the uncertainty of the future of Club O. I would be hard-pressed to invest any of my money in a project like that, anyway.

Just a thought with regard to buying in a country other than ones own......

A very dear friend and an even wiser businessman once suggested to me when we were seriously contemplating purchasing a condo on St. Maarten he was trying to sell, “Never invest money in the Island (or anywhere outside the country....) unless you can afford to lose every penny and not be overly concerned about the loss.” Things can and often do go wrong with international investments and you have to be prepared for the worse case scenario since laws and protections there aren’t the same as you’re accustomed to at home.

We thought long and hard about the wisdom of his words and ultimately passed on his condo ($150000.00 in 1986 or 87) and purchased our timeshare ($20000.00 plus) instead and to this day I hold no regrets. Oh, and btw, that same condo was ultimately destroyed in a hurricane called Luis while, had we bought it, we would have still had a hundred thousand dollar mortgage to pay off and a lawsuit in which we would have had to participate in to be able to recoup any of our monies.

I don’t know about French or Dutch real estate laws or policies but I’ve heard enough situations of buyers remorse from Island vacation home owners to know my friend was right, at least in our case. I bet there might be a few owners at OBC that might feel the same way.

Ps - Amended to add: sorry Elaine and Bill. I meant to direct this post as a follow-up comment to the post before me and I’m too lazy to delete it and repost the thought.

Pat, we too thought about making a purchase there at one time. I'm sure everyone that visits the Island has dreams of "living there". We had a little lady named "Katrina" that turned our world upside down in 2005. Fortunately we were able to move on. We certainly would have loved to bought there, but after what happened to us in 2005 and what happened to SXM last year, we made the right decision. Last time we were there was for my wife's birthday, October 2014 and we rode out Hurricane Gonzalo in one of the Mini Suites. We were a bit concerned during the storm, but made it through. We just hope to vacation to the beautiful Island when possible, maybe in August of 2019.