Finally.. Link

Ridiculous, that it is taking this long.. Ridiculous.

Government.

Wednesday before we came home we drove down the street by where Coco beach was and saw a bunch of big piping and two large excavators , it looked like might be sewer or water piping i thought so must be ready to start something. There is so much work going on in the orient area,concrete,cement block on walls, and a whole bunch of roofing projects and general building projects. I would go to la noon for our morning bread and there would be 15 to 20 construction workers there having coffee every morning before going to work. Good to see that much going on, so hope on the road to recovery.

This is great news! Thanks for sharing.

According to a Facebook post with someone in the know on island its Waikiki and bikini.

That may well be the case. During and since Irma, there have been many cases of "someone in the know" providing inaccurate information both here and on other social media sites.

I really hope one of them is Kakao.

That tangle of trees and location kinda seems like it might be them.

I believe it is Bikini and Kontiki, at least according to Orient Bay Village Life, SXM on FB. But all we can do is speculate right now. I'm hoping they'll get moving a bit faster. Sigh.

Different,question anyone know why there are so many helicopters flying over Orient Beach today? Or the same one flying around alot.

Could be tracking the Regatta boats?

We were on the beach today. I was told construction on LaPlaya is to begin March 7.

This is great news!! Lets get the ball rolling, they will all be rebuilt in time. Thank you for posting!

Where is la noon located that you get your morning bread?

Harry--I hope that is correct with regard to LaPlaya. I was hoping they might be open for our trip in June.

It is located a couple doors away from where the petit casino used to be, i think they have a small kitchen there but didn't order anything. It is across the street from the village .

I for one think that taking the time to really think about the infrastructure and how best to go about rebuilding the infrastructure is a very good thing......the only thing you can be assured of is that a hurricane will happen again....just a matter of time.....so if you can design/construct something that can be deconstructed quickly and than reassembled quickly in an area that is somewhat more sound than that is a good thing.

These restaurant owners and employees should not be out of work for over six months already, in many cases SOLELY because government cannot figure out what they want to do. Government regulation is totally strangling the French side and preventing people who have the will and the FUNDS to rebuild, from doing so.

Valid point but where would one store all of these easily deconstructable components? I supposed several containers if properly anchored would be a possibility but could also be a logistical nightmare and rather unsightly if stored nearby.

Most of the large beach bars on Orient are all owned by the same company....have been to all of them, a lot of the staff were directly from France and hence I would guess that a lot of them have returned to France....but having said that the time issue is a concern. Be assured if this had happened, and it has happened in the USA, that those properties would never be allowed to be built that close to the beach/water......again it is a case where this area will have a hurricane again, it is not like this is a one time thing, it will happen again...so how best to handle it and keeping in mind that they want to build in an area that is prone to disasters.

Again, all valid points, but you'd think that the government would have thought of these things after Luis.

...and regardless, as was stated with regard to the rebuilding at Club O, apparently even NOW they STILL don't have all the building regs in place. Hard to comply with government regs to rebuild, when the government doesn't even know what they want.

I did a quick glance at CO. Looked like many chalets were structurally ok, just needed roof, windows,doors, paint etc. so MAYBE LESS regulation??????

MAny chalets had the foundation undermined or they were just gone, only a concrete slab.


I don't understand why they are burning building materials. Could reuse. AND the fumes from burning treated wood could be harmful.

So that's what was being burnt, refuse from where they were tearing down stuff?

That was what I seen included in the pile.

Also a container next to a concrete pad that had a 2 by 4 frame to support a tarp. The place was serving drinks and food.

We received an email today from Katy @ LaPlaya and she said they plan to be open for business on December 10th.

Darn. I was hoping for May.

Is that restaurant or accommodation or both for December At la playa?

IF they have a building permit for the restaurant (which I have no idea if they do or not), it shouldn't take nearly that long to reopen, so I'm hoping that is for the hotel.

As of the start of March, the Tabac next to Le Noon also had baguettes for sale, as did Ocean Star, the little grocery shop in the orange strip. Kind of hidden there, so you probably have to ask.

The closest full bakery we found was L'Express, in the orange stucco building inland of the Cul-de-sac roundabout. Lots of construction workers stop in there. Sandwiches, pastries, cappucino...

They are working on a foundation for a building near Yellow Submarine and I think in the area of where the parking was for La Playa parking lot was. The permit was in the name of Sarl Sindextour which is Nobert Luftman. There are two additional sites where some activity has happened. One is Kon Tiki and the other is between Kon Tiki and Yellow Submarine The additional sites have had truckloads of dirt added.

I asked that question on their Facebook page. The response was that December 10 was the projected opening date for the hotel, and that they expected the restaurant could be open sooner than that.

Bikini?

La Playa, Orient Bay, St. Martin

Good afternoon we would like to inform you that we schedule a reopening date on the 10thof December 2018. I m ready to take bookings and if you know your dates contact me by e mail at contact@laplayaorientbay.com and I will send you a proposition of stay

best regards katy

The hotel is projecting an opening date of December 10, and the restaurant (beach) is hoping to open before that. (From their Facebook page)

Hi, Carol. Bruno said both.

Huhm, like I said, IF they have a building permit, the restaurant should not take nearly that long. I'm guessing they don't have a building permit yet. The French side is truly standing in the way of people rebuilding..

Bruno responded to my question that the restaurant may be open as early as May. I think that's wishful thinking, but it sure would be great!

Sure hope so. Love to have it open when we are there in May.

That would be amazing. We are there mid June