The V.I. government may go it alone in appealing a Territorial Court judge’s decision to block the Beal Aerospace land exchange at Great Pond Bay on St. Croix.
On Jan. 14 in U.S. District Court, the government appealed Judge Alphonso Andrews’ ruling that blocked the Legislature from exchanging public land with Beal. The company had filed its own appeal a week earlier, even as it announced it was abandoning plans to build a $57 million world headquarters and rocket assembly plant on the Big Island.
On Thursday, Wade Gates, Beal’s director of corporate affairs, indicated the company might withdraw its appeal.
"That document was filed prior to the announcement" of the withdrawal, Gates said.
Gates reaffirmed that Beal, which has an option to buy some 250 acres at Great Pond, was finished on St. Croix. He said he did not know what would become of the option.
The Turnbull-James administration is appealing Andrews’ decision on 10 separate issues of fact and procedure.
