Plans For The Future
Overview
Nanny Cay is a full-service marina and boatyard with a hotel and residential units. It was rescued from bankruptcy and purchased in 2000 by the current owners, Cameron McColl and John McCoach. Over the last 10 years, the owners have invested and continue to invest in the growth and success of the business. Nanny Cay is now a popular and well-recognized marina attracting local, regional and international events, sailors and tourists.
Currently, the marina and boatyard accommodate a total of 440 motor cruisers and sailing yachts - 180 in marina, 260 storage. There is a boatyard with two boat lifts of 50 and 70 ton capacity. Nanny Cay has a 40-room hotel and two restaurants. It also has a chandlery, provisioning store, laundry facility, boutiques, dive shop, hairdressers, gym, fresh water pool and beach. Nanny Cay is also home to a number of marine related businesses and other offices.
The operations at Nanny Cay account for 300 jobs directly and indirectly.
Why the need to expand?
The marina has been running at full capacity for the last three years.
Successive governments of the BVI have recognized and pursued the need for a megayacht marina to continue to compete within the Caribbean and with islands such as Antigua and St Maarten,
The sun, sea, sand and wind together with its unique 60+ islands are the BVI’s major export over which it has total control – the same cannot be said of the financial services industry. As a country, efforts to attract additional visitors with additional amenities must be made - but with minimal environmental impact. Nanny Cay’s expansion offers the best solution to providing an accessible megayacht marina for the BVI with the least environmental impact.
Preliminary Stages
Nanny Cay is in the preliminary stages of planning the expansion. The expansion would increase capacity from 180 slips to 410 slips including 15 megayacht slips for yachts up to 200’ in length.
The planning is still in the early stages:
Initial forms have been completed and submitted, the Scoping Report has been completed and submitted, and an initial meeting with Town & Country Planning, Disaster Management, and Conservation & Fisheries has taken place. In addition the application for a seabed lease, for both the area to be reclaimed and the marina expansion area has been submitted to Government, with the necessary supporting documents. The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) has just started.
Environmental Impact vs. Economic Benefit
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will fully examine all the environmental impacts related to the expansion and allow us to develop a master plan taking all the environmental concerns into consideration. It is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the end of June, early July.
• Nanny Cay is already operating as a boatyard and marina with all the inherent environment impacts.
• All the infrastructure such as power generation, water supply and sewage treatment, is in place for the expansion.
• There would be minimal building on land.
• Nanny Cay has a proven track record of environmental caution illustrated with other improvements such as beach creation and townhouse building which had very little negative environmental impact.
• Any expansion would cause minimal additional environmental damage, particularly in comparison to the economic benefit and a new greenfield development.
• The expansion would create significant additional cash inflow to the BVI and 100 skilled jobs.
• With the economies of scale that the expansion can bring, operational environmental impact can be reduced further with the introduction of better recycling and mitigation systems.
Environmental Concerns
• Any construction work has an environmental impact and the EIA will fully identify the environmental impact of the expansion and supply recommendations.
• An Environmental Management Plan (EMP) - which outlines procedures to mitigate impacts on the environment from construction activities - will be a condition of the governmental permissions. Additionally, Nanny Cay is in discussions with Conservations & Fisheries to minimize environmental impact and plans to have an Environmental Committee comprising Nanny Cay staff, key stakeholders and consultants, to oversee the implementation of the EMP.
• Nanny Cay will be working with Conservation & Fisheries to develop a pilot project to transplant any live coral and fully track its success rate.
• The plans preserve the lagoon reef that lines the southern shoreline by building around it.
• The new outer seawall, created from rocks like the one at the marina entrance, would become a biomass in its own right and provide a protected nursery habitat. Multiple culverts through the seawall that will aid in the flushing of the marina would also act as a sanctuary and access for juvenile fish. Nanny Cay would undertake mangrove planting on the seawall. This approach has already met with success in other areas of Nanny Cay.
o Net effect of the expansion should be increase in sheltered marine habitat not a decrease.
• Sediment curtains, and other measures, would be used to protect the mangrove and other sensitive areas.
Socio-Economic Impact
A full socio-economic study will be part of the EIA. The new marina, coupled with the existing inner marina, will bring considerable revenues into the BVI. There will be an additional 200 yachts buying goods and services in the BVI.
- Local contractors, large and small, will be used for all construction and Nanny Cay doesn’t foresee any need for additional labour from overseas.
- Nanny Cay will continue to be open to the community for leisure and business.
- Nanny Cay will continue to handle all its own power generation (if required) water supply and sewage treatment, putting no strain on local services.