Second resort for Desroches Island

A second hotel project has been approved on Desroches, the largest island of the Amirantes Archipelago managed by the Islands Development Company (IDC) which receives up to SR 15,000,000 a year government subsidy. The developers are believed to be from South Africa.

Of interest to many in this project is the fact that the portion of the island on which the proposed development is to take place was previously sold as a leasehold for SR1 to STAR in 2002, the French owned company which seems to have been given a permanent tender to collect and dispose of solid waste in Seychelles. The “sale” of a portion of the island, it is believed, was principally compensation to STAR for not being able to repatriate their earnings back to France.

Official documents from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources reveal that the plan is to build 28 luxury villas on the portion of the island leased to STAR for 70 years by the Government, encompassing a total of 15 acres.  The villas to be constructed by the South Africans will be sold on the international property market. Desroches is well known for its superb diving sites.

It will not be the first time that land on Desroches is being sold as plots. One such sale was made to an unidentified Frenchman, at the time of the 1998 Miss World Beauty Pageant being held in Seychelles. But the ability of IDC to divide up the island and sold them as residential plots is controversial, since IDC has a mandate to manage the island. But under the terms of the lease to STAR, IDC is to guarantee sea transportation of cargo with Mahe, to and from the island during the life of the lease, as well as an air service for passengers. This, in effect, is an open ended commitment by the government to provide services, regardless if they are viable.

The new owners of the STAR plots is by Great Plains Safari Company managed by South African Colin Bell who identified the potential of North Island and led the team which bought the island and developed  a resort there which has won a number of awards from the world tourism industry. Great Plains Safari, based in Botswana, is believed to have bought 28 of the 30 plots which belonged to STAR. It is not known how much they paid but the area total14 acres. 

All villas will be sold as private residences, though it is anticipated that the majority will be sold into a rental pool and put on the international travel market as a villa destination and managed by a professional hotel management company. Under this new concept, which is popular in the Caribbean, an individual buys a villa while the hotel management company rents it out as a hotel room during the time the owner is not using it. The resultant revenue is divided between the owner of the villa and the hotel management company.

Two weeks ago a fire broke out on Desroches, believed to have been sparked off during site clearing work on the island although the incident was kept under wraps. The outbreak must have been relatively severe as it is believed that experience fire fighters were flown from Mahe to prevent the blaze from spreading.  Desroches, 230 kms south of Mahe or a 40 minute flight away is 3 square km in area.  It already boasts a 20 room hotel, the Desroches Island Resort, on the western side of the island.

The development was built by IDC and originally given to a company called MK Resorts, run by Maldivians.  They were given a 30 year lease on both Desroches and Alphonse Island, whose main attraction is fly-fishing. The lease was abrogated after a few months after many complaints of poor service from guests.  Currently, the property is being managed by a Mauritian group called Naiade Resorts. The property gained worldwide publicity recently when Prince William and his girl friend Kate Middleton spent a few days there.