This proposed development was given Citizenship By Investment (CBI) Approved Project status under the previous government administration and the developer, Charis Group, is already advertising this hotel as an approved CBI scheme: www.ccgrenada.com This means that non-Grenadians can purchase a stake in the development (plus pay a fee to government) and receive Grenadian citizenship.
But the development does not have planning consent. Outline consent was given for an earlier scheme but this is being challenged by judicial review in the high court. An application for full planning consent (for a different scheme) has not been determined by the Planning & Development Authority and is likely to remain undetermined until the judicial review grinds through the courts. Any demolition or construction activity is illegal until full planning consent has been granted and can carry a prison sentence. Various organisations and individuals have made detailed objections to the application identifying the illegality of many aspects of what is proposed and its extreme adverse impacts on the environment and neighbourhood. See: Why planning consent should be refused
So potential CBI ‘customers’ are being targeted to buy something that may never exist. And those selling the development know this. What will happen when CBI purchasers sue the developer because what they have bought doesn’t exist? Will they also sue the government for enabling this miss selling by giving it CBI status? Will they get their money back? Will their money be transferred into the government National Transformation Fund? Will they still get citizenship or will they get their fee back from government? Can the developer be relied upon to repay purchasers – and how can this be assessed when there is no public information available on the developer?
Legal action and bad publicity resulting from this would likely leave the CBI programme in worse repute than it already is and would provide more ammunition for the EU, UK and USA to get it closed down: Life after Citizenship by investment
This will then cause problems for born-and-bred Grenadians as visa-free access is closed down – as Canada has already done because of CBI. How was Charis Group ever given CBI status when nothing is known about its finances or experience and it can’t be tracked down?
We have suggested to the CBI that CBI Approved Status for the proposed Coral Cove development should be suspended until it has clean and clear full planning consent (if that ever happens) and that marketing and local CBI agents should be informed of this and advised to cease miss selling. We wrote to the new Chairman of CBI, Mr Richard Duncan OBE via Ms K Purcell, CEO of CBI on 23 August 2022 but received no acknowledgement or reply. We wrote again on 4 September 2022 asking for at least an acknowledgement of receipt but have received nothing. We will continue asking and drawing attention to this issue and to the fact that proper due diligence has not been done on an unknown developer involved in selling our passports!