David Johnson stopped the golf cart he was driving around the grounds of Oil Nut Bay last Thursday and pointed to a sculpted rock wall built into a ledge on one of the development’s roads. The wall was designed specifically to hide a 10,000-gallon freshwater cistern that will eventually provide water to the 88 villas planned for the development.
For Mr. Johnson, chairman of Victor International, ONB’s developer, the cistern is a symbol of his plan for the resort: “marrying the art of being a sculptor and the science of making it work.”
Construction on the North Sound development is progressing, the developer said, with the goal of finishing some aspects of the project — the beach club and the resort core — in 18 months.
Last Thursday more than 100 workers were busy pounding rebar, laying pavement, landscaping and putting finishing touches on a few of the resort’s buildings, some of which will be used during the Caribbean Superyacht Regatta and Rendezvous, a four-day event scheduled to start on Wednesday.
Mr. Johnson said that while the beach club facilities will be open and functioning for the event, they won’t formally open until November 2012. Ten houses should also be completed by then.
After the “resort core” is completed within 18 months, a complex of seven retail shops to support the community is planned.
Mr. Johnson said the villas will be privately sold and available for rent — the core of the resort’s business model. That way, Victor International will not bear the entire $400 to $500 million in capital costs necessary to build the villas, according to the developer.
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