To be completely accurate, the Coral Bay Marina project had begun years earlier, with a proposal from ex-Senator and Port Authority Chairman Robert O’Connor and Attorney Brion Morrisette for a smaller marina project, in a slightly different location in Coral Bay. Although receiving initial CZM approval the project faltered for a number of reasons, including the US economic recession in 2008, the need for rezoning, and an apparent lack of desire to continue pursuing the project.
Ms. Chaliese Summers and Mr. Rick Barksdale had arrived on St John around 2008 and sometime thereafter began discussions with the prior marina proponents to take over their Coral Bay project. Over the next few years Rick and Chaliese became increasingly involved in local organizations, without revealing their grand intentions to the general public. They were seen at meetings of the Coral Bay Yacht Club, at local church services, and increasingly involved in political activities.
In 2012 Summers and Barksdale published their “marketing pitch” to attract political and financial support. Their brochure depicted a high-end destination marina, replete with Gucci shops, boardwalks, sparkling white mega yachts, and a “plantation style” clubhouse. Not very Coral Bay. Not very St John. And it didn’t sit well with many …
By late 2013 Summers and Barksdale were ready to make their move. Their partnership with ex-Senator O’Connor provided an entrée into the highest levels of Virgin Islands Government, and particularly with then-Governor John DeJongh. Long before any permit application had been filed, long before the community was aware of the scope of their plans, Ms. Summers had convinced Governor DeJongh to make a clear statement in support of their project. In January 2014, during DeJongh’s State of the Territory address, the Governor publicly proclaimed his support for the “St John Marina” – leaving the public puzzled about what he was talking about.
It all became clear two months later, when “The Summers End Group LLC” filed two permit applications with the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources (“DPNR”), at that time headed by Commissioner Alicia Barnes. The scope and content of those two CZM permit applications shocked the community of Coral Bay, and the island of St John.
The Summers End Group (SEG) permit applications described a massive mega yacht marina, covering 30 acres of Coral Harbor, with 149 slips for yachts up to 210’ in length. The marina was to be constructed on 1200 concrete and steel pilings, with the marina docks alone covering several acres.
The land portion was to utilize seven contiguous parcels, none of which were owned by SEG. Four parcels were owned by local ancestral St Johnian families, two by Merchants Bank, and one by the Phillips family, long time Coral Bay residents.
But perhaps most disturbingly, the location of the marina was on the most exposed shoreline of Coral Bay, with direct unsheltered exposure to the southeast. It was the shoreline known from past hurricanes to be a graveyard of many vessels, tossed onto that shoreline by fierce tropical storm force winds. And to make matters worse, the seabed directly beneath the proposed marina is an expansive seagrass meadow, a foraging site for Green Sea Turtles, and the mangroves directly adjacent to the site were a well documented nursery for a number of shark species. All in all it was the wrong marina, in the wrong location, and people were shocked at the proposal.
The extensive documentation submitted to DPNR was rife with errors, undocumented claims about Coral Bay water quality, and thoroughly unsupportable statements about how the marina would “improve” conditions in Coral Bay. For those interested, and for the sake of history, here is the 2014 Environmental Assessment Report for the Summers End Marina: