Tan Kay Hock got his asking price for the former Yacht Haven Hotel and Marina in Long Bay: $8.5 million. The long-pending purchase by the Chicago-based PRM Realty Group finally closed late Tuesday night. It was announced via press release Thursday.
Little detail was included in the written statement, and no one was available Thursday to expand on it.
The release did confirm that the new owners will demolish the existing derelict hotel, which has been closed for the past five years. "Future plans for the complex include a major upgrade of the marina and retail facilities," it stated. "Planning and design studies for redevelopment of the hotel site have already commenced."
The property includes an active 140-slip marina and about four acres of land adjacent to the West Indian Co. dock, St. Thomas's major cruise ship berthing facility. The West Indian Co. also owns the seven acres of landfill on the other side of Yacht Haven.
"We expect that they are going to approach us," WICO spokesman Calvin Wheatley said of the new owners. "What they need from us is a lease" to utilize some or all of the landfill property to the west of the complex.
Wheatley said that some time ago the WICO board took the position that it is willing to negotiate with whoever owns Yacht Haven. Prior to Tan's acquisition, the hotel was operated as a Ramada property; it was at one time a Sheraton hotel. There have been some informal communications with PRM, Wheatley said, but no agreement is in place.
An impasse between WICO and the former owner has been blamed in part for Tan's decision to sell the property. Reportedly, WICO was interested in Tan's plans for revitalizing the hotel but lost interest when he abandoned that portion of his grand development plan. Some of Tan's critics charged that his proposal was unrealistic.
Tan bought the property in a bankruptcy sale in 1997 for $5.5 million. He made virtually no improvements to it.
The purchase agreement with PRM was signed on April 19. An informed source described the deal as "a very difficult closing." Government paperwork assigning the existing Coastal Zone Management permit to the new owners was filed and approved in July, but the closing was postponed at least twice after that.
PRM Realty Group principals listed in the documents at the CZM office are Peter R. Morris, Calvin D. Denison and Robert W. Harte. PRM is a resort- and land-development firm. Morris was a partner in VMS Realty, a former owner of Frenchman's Reef Hotel in the 1980s.
A St. Thomas man, Clovis Tobias, also is involved in the venture, but it was not clear Thursday just what his role is, and he could not be reached for comment.
According to the release, PRM Realty Group also has an interest in resort properties in Hawaii, Colorado and New York.
