Even Stanley Selengut, who founded the eco-tourism business nearly 40 years ago, is in the dark.
Four months after the $13.95 million deal was announced to sell Maho Bay Campground the identity of the buyer is still unknown. So are his/her plans for the 13.8 acre waterfront property.
Selengut has just three weeks left to keep the tents and campsites open. His lease expires at the end of June. He spoke with Lynda Lohr of the St. John Source last week, telling her the new owner is “an environmentally-oriented billionaire who’s supposedly going to use it as a family estate.”
The buyer has not contacted Selengut, either. Which some people might consider rude, given that there’s a heck of a lot of work to be done between now and June 30 to clean up the campground.
A few weeks ago, Selengut said he could stage the world’s largest garage sale to sweep the site of millions of dollars of beds, silverware, glasses, blankets and so on – anything that’s not attached to the ground. That means the tents and the buildings will stay.
Hey, while we don’t know the name of the buyer, who might justifiably wish to remain anonymous, at least we know that the use will be single family, and that the new owner is environmentally aware. It’s sad that the camps have to close, but that is a tremendously better outcome than many other potential scenarios.
Kevin
The operating word here is “supposedly”. We can hope, but I suspect few billionaires really care about what is good for the environment or what the public thinks when money is king (we shall see…).
Billionaire environmentalist seems to be an oxymoron based on history – but perhaps StJ brings that out in people.
Really David? Wasn’t it an environmentalist billionaire the one who protect STJ in the first place?
Eric – I said that “perhaps StJ brings that out in people” – meaning exactly that… However, if you are going to base your comment on 1-2 billionaires (actually 55= years ago – not so many billionaires as now…), then perhaps wiser to look at 100s for a statistical evaluation.
again – the word “supposedly” was used – in my profession – this mean little until facts come into play. YMMV
I hope it is true, but history is not on our side.