PHILIPSBURG--Bobby’s Marina makes commercial use of an area of 22,222 square metres of land and water in Great Bay, Philipsburg, without a title. The company paid for admeasurement letters, but never had these notarised. As a result, the marina does not have the corresponding deeds and does not pay land lease.
From the shipyard and marina after the bridge at Greenhouse restaurant only a small percentage has been deeded, divided over three small plots of land covering the paved part from the bridge to the paid parking lot and a piece of undeveloped land behind the diving school that borders the parking lot.
The offices of Bobby’s Marina Group Holding BV, the supermarket under the main office, the adjacent diving school, Aziana restaurant and the security hut and boom at the parking lot are located on plots that are not notarised and therefore still owned by the government.
The formalising of land and water long lease rights is required before any subsequent handling of requested building permits can take place, former Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Christophe Emmanuel wrote to Robert “Bobby” Velasquez, owner of Bobby’s Marina. The VROMI minister proceeded to order Bobby’s Marina to break down all piers and structures that had been erected without a building permit.
In his letter dated March 24, 2017, Emmanuel ordered: “All building structures located on the land and in the waters of Great Bay that are being used for the business activities of Bobby’s Marina NV and that are not permitted as such by means of the issued building permit have to be removed within 20 business days.”
The deadline for the order was April 21, 2017. The minister warned: “In case you do not comply with this decision, all required administrative enforcement measures shall be executed on my behalf, on your full expense.”
Bobby’s Marina then made the necessary payments to the Cadaster for the preparation of the certificates of admeasurement. However, recent requests to the Land Registry by Roeland Zwanikken, lawyer of Dock Maarten, the marina for mega-yachts next to Bobby’s Marina, show that these certificates were not notarised and that the parcels of land and water therefore still belong to government.
Because Bobby’s Marina does not pay a leasehold on 21,000 square meters of land and water that it uses commercially, it can charge lower rates to yacht owners than its competitor, which does pay leasehold for all the land it uses, including the jetties, Zwanikken said.
However, Dock Maarten does not pay the going rate of NAf. 10 per square metre for commercial use, but a reduced rate of NAf. 4 per square metre.
VROMI Ministry former secretary general Louis Brown wrote to Bobby’s Marina’s owner Bobby Velasquez on March 31, 2016, that because he had used the land and water parcels for many years without proper title, he would have to pay the canon with retroactive effect for a period of five years.
“The total canon for issuance in long lease of the parcels is set at NAf. 222,220 per year, based on a per square metre canon price of NAf. 10,” Brown wrote, noting, “As is standard, the canon level will be set for a minimum of five years, after which period these may be reviewed by the Government. As the prospective lease holder, you will be required to pay the costs for the preparation of all certificates of admeasurement and notary costs involved.”
Bobby’s Marina opposed the five-year-set canon price of NAf. 10, insisting on equal treatment compared to Dock Maarten that pays NAf. 4 per square metre for all land in use. Velasquez requested that the certificates of admeasurement in question were and would be used as one contingent property by Bobby’s Marina NV, including the three deeded parcels near the parking lot and behind the Texaco gas station.
Then acting director of Domain Affairs Raeyhon Peterson tried to find a way out of the years-long impasse in 2019. Together with legal advisor Jeannette Baidjoe he collected all information available for an advice to then-minister of VROMI Miklos Giterson.
The minister was advised to first take back Velasquez’s leasehold right on the plots near the parking lot. “It is proposed to withdraw the long lease and proceed to the sequential reissue of the leasehold right to the company Bobby’s Marina BV against an annual canon price of NAf. 10.00 per square metre.”
Domain Affairs advised the minister to simultaneously allocate all other parcels of land and water used by Bobby’s Marina to the company at a canon price of NAf. 4 per square metre, with a retroactive effect of five years.
Velazquez had already been using the water parcels since 1989, without paying any compensation. But Domain Affairs acknowledged that Bobby’s Marina NV was, at its own expense, part of the Boardwalk [the square between the bridge and the parking lot – Ed.] that had been paved. For that reason, the minister was advised to agree to a canon price of NAf. 4.00 per square metre, totalling NAf. 158,800 per year, with five years’ retroactive effect.
The annual canon for the shipyard and the jetties of Bobby’s Marina were set at a total of NAf. 196,218 for the duration of two years, to be increased to NAf. 356,820 per year.
In its 2019 advisory report, Domain Affairs confirmed that Bobby’s Marina had been guilty of “unjust enrichment” for years.
“It is apparent from the Island Decree of 22 April 1974, number 19, that the former island territory of St. Maarten has entered into a lease agreement with Mr. Owen R.F. Velasquez [representative of Bobby’s Marina Holding Group NV and Bobby’s Marina BV] against an annual advance payment of NAf. 850.00 with the purpose of “laying and having a jetty, slipway and building.” Authors Peterson and Baidjoe found that the rent had not been paid in the past 45 years.
After the fall of the government in 2019, the advisory report was set aside by the new VROMI minister Chris Wever; administrative enforcement action was not forthcoming.
“There should be a level playing field, but that is not there at all,” attorney Zwanikken said on behalf of Dock St. Maarten. “Bobby’s Marina is able to offer much lower rates because it pays negligible leasehold canon, has been building without a permit for years and is exploiting a paid parking lot to which it has no title either.”
Velasquez said in February this year, in an interview with The Daily Herald, that he would be expanding Bobby’s Marina with a fenced-off mega-pier and hurricane storage facility.
“The upgraded boatyard, new storage and mega-pier facilities will add to and complement Dock Maarten’s mega-yacht piers which can already accommodate at least six mega-yachts,” Velasquez said, emphasising that, “There is no vessel too big or too small for Port St. Maarten, Dock Maarten and Bobby’s Marina. Combined, these locations can accommodate well over 20 yachts in Philipsburg.”
Velasquez said that a new user-friendly and safe passageway is forthcoming that will run from Port St. Maarten through Dock Maarten and connect the new fenced-off mega-pier with Bobby’s Marina Village. “Users will enter Philipsburg through Bobby’s Marina where we will have a comprehensive information stand present to welcome and guide pedestrians into St. Maarten’s capital.”
Zwanikken noted that there is no consensus on joint development of the capital’s port area and that Bobby’s Marina continues, as always, to expand the marina without long-lease titles and without building permits. According to the lawyer, Velasquez also hinders Dock Maarten’s operations, where docking or mega-yachts are concerned, by obstructing free access to the neutral waterway between the two marinas.
Aerial photos taken by the owner of Dock Maarten show that Bobby’s Marina has docked a yacht in the neutral waterway, which, according to the lawyer, causes problems for the piloting of mega-yachts at the opposite Dock Maarten. This is also the case with the annual mooring of the so-called fireworks boat, a flat-bottom that is used for the end-of-year fireworks, Zwanikken said.
The existence of the neutral waterway has its origins in a drawing dated 2005, with signatures on behalf of Bobby’s Marina, Dock Maarten and the predecessor of Country St. Maarten. A 2016 court ruling underlines the importance of the neutral waterway. Under penalty of US $1,000,000, country St. Maarten was prohibited by the court from issuing a water plot on the dividing line of Dock Maarten and Bobby’s Marina, so that the neutral waterway remains free.
However, access is repeatedly restricted by Bobby’s Marina, according to neighbouring marina Dock Maarten.
