Officials from the National Marine Fishery Service will adhere to a deadline this spring for analysis of the impact of the proposed Williams & Punch resort, news which developer called "a step in the right direction" for a project he estimates can create as many as 3,000 jobs.
V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen said recently that she had met with officials from the agency and was told the NMFS Habitat Conservation Division will meet the April 26 deadline for submitting analysis of the proposed development’s impacts to essential fish habitat.
Perhaps more important, the delegate announced Sunday that the officials have said they won’t delay until the last second. Christensen said she was told that if the analysts find anything of concern, they will notify the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency in charge of issuing the permits, who will in turn inform the developers so that efforts to mitigate the impact could begin immediately.
At stake is the final piece of the permit puzzle that will allow the project to go from an idea first aired in 2006 to actual shovels in the dirt, and three years later a 322-room development with a casino and a man-made lagoon and marina.
While it’s still too soon to know if the agency’s report to the Corps of Engineers will be positive or not, Christensen said the attitude they presented was "very positive."
For Chris Elliott, one of the St. Croix partners in the project, that was welcome news.
Elliott said he doesn’t anticipate trouble, because "our impact is very low, especially for a project this size."
The resort, now being called Amalago Bay, borders Rainbow Beach on the south and Sunset Beach to the north. Other amenities planned are three swimming pools, an 18-hole public golf course and a widened beach.
Christensen has arranged a March 6 meeting between the Environmental Protection Agency and the developers’ representatives and scientists.
At a community meeting earlier in February, Elliott had said if the developers can get the Corps permit in April they should be able to break ground this year. He said consultants hired by the developers have estimated the three-year construction phase will employ an average of about 600 people a month, with a high of 1,000 for some work.
When the resort opens he expects to hire about 800 people right away, and when it is fully built the resort will employ more than 1,200 people, Elliott said, with support businesses employing as many as another 2,000 in everything from laundries to bakeries
