Government Employees Retirement System grants six‑month rent abatement to Havensight Mall merchants amid declining cruise traffic

Monday,.July 29, 2013, VIRGIN ISLANDS: day, , : /DS. The Virgiri Islands Daily News 3~ Struggling Havensight merchants see rent-abatement as last chance for them to resuscitate their businesses By AMANDA NORRIS Daily News Staff ST. THOMAS —- For merchants at Havensight mail, it’s summer time, but the living is anything but easy. After being granted six months of free rent by the mall’s owner, the Government Employees Retirement System, many said this has been the worst off-season they -have experienced. They cited a perfect storm of prolonged road construction in front of the mall, fewer cruise ships docking in St. Thomas Harbor, competition from Crown Bay mer- chants and skyrocketing utility costs. When the GERS board voted to relieve.the tenants of rent obliga- tions from July 1 to Dec. 31, they. did so because tenants had accumu- lated a delinquency of more than $2 million and reported that they could no longer sustain the cost of doing business. The board dis- cussed the closure of Dockside Bookshop, which has announced that it will close within the next two weeks after 35 years in business. GERS. Administrator Austin Nibbs presented the board with two options: forego rent for six months altogether with the stipulation that tenants pay all arrearages by April 1 or give tenants a 25 percent reduction in rent over the next 24 months. The board decided the six month abatement, which would cost GERS a little more than $3 million, would be the most feasible way to give tenants a chance to pay’ the $2 million in back rent owed. “T don’t like this rent abatement, but if we want to continue to have tenants, we are going to have to help them,” Nibbs said. At the meeting, some board members were under the impres- sion that another Havensight busi- ness, ‘an office supply store called The Draughting Shaft, was also scheduled to close, but, according to. The Draughting Shaft owner, Terry Robinson, that was never the case. . Nevertheless, Robinson said, he has had discussions with GERS board members and attended meet- ings to inform them of the adverse conditions that had caused him to fall behind in his rent. Robinson said his business, unlike many of the boutiques and stores that cater primarily to tourists, had been unduly hit by prolonged construc- tion, with orange barricades diverting traffic into and out of the mall’s park- ing lots. aes NEW STORE HOURS | Miser ae Tetstey 439 Wrberstey 159 Thentey 826 Faw fety 405 ‘tenty = a ee Lb gen Effective January 4, 207 3 PLEASE leave ALL Bags FOOD & DaINKs AT THE COUNTER THANK YOU Dockside Bookshop in Havensight Mall is scheduled to close within the next, two weeks after 35 years in business. “Many of our customers are locals and residents, and many have called and said they just don’t want to come in because they don’t want to deal with, it,” Robinson said of the con- struction. Robinson is among a number of long-time Havensight merchants who say they have been in business for decades but never had to weather L200 See a Ts as ‘ t Daily News File Photo anything quite like the last six months. “T remember in the 80s the slow season was only three months, now itis a fullsix months,” Ram Mirpuri, president of the Havensight Merchants Association said. Mirpuri’s son, Minoj Mirpuri, owns . Bliss Jewelers. ' Ram Mirpuri said he hoped the Daily News File Photo Havensight Mall merchants say because of the ongoing Long Bay road , have had their worst off-season ever. The Government Employees Retirement System, the mall’s owner, has granted the merchants six months of free rent to help them repay $2 million in. overdue rent, SS We were almost closing down. There was no way we . could survive. We are extremely grateful for the abatement. It will be a big help. six-month abatement would be the “springboard” Havensight mer- chants need to recover. If not, about 30 percent of the association’s. mem- bership had reported that they would go under this year or the next, he said. “The mall has been hurting since Crown Bay opened. We lost about 500,000 passengers because of that,” Mirpuri said. He added that the larg- er Carnival cruise ships, the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas, dock at Crown Bay, where the har- bor can support them. Projections are that, with more cruise ships scheduled through 2014, businesses on the brink of clo- sure might be able to use the abate- ment to get through to a break- through season in the winter of 2014, Mirpuni said. Other merchants said their WAPA bills had tripled or quadrupled since they opened, leaving them to won- + der if an abatement would be enough - to counter the rising rates. “WAPA is killing us,” Sonny Panjabi, owner of the Casa Blanca jewelry store, said. Utility bills total $3,000 during the busy season, and — Sonny Panjabi, jewelry store owner $2,000 during the slow season, when hours of operation are cut back, he said. “We were almost closing down. There was no way we could survive. We are extremely grateful for the abatement. It will be a big help,” he said. Since the recession hit, travelers “seem to spend all their money on the trip itself, and they come with less disposable income,” according to Jerry Woodhouse, president of St. John’s Bay Rum, a fragrance compa- ny that supplies other Havensight stores and has offices behind the mall. Woodhouse also said that in the last decadehotels, which used to pro- vide transportation to shopping dis- tricts, have shifted to providing as many amenities as possible to guests and have limited the excursions to beaches rather than shopping districts. “They want to grab as much reve- nue as possible per customer while they are staying at the hotel, 4 Woodhouse said. . — Contact Amanda Norris at 714-9 104 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021720