It’s very interesting how Saint Lucia’s most-reliable construction company and the Caribbean’s most-successful luxury hotel chain can be put together, like peas in a pod, in an entirely speculative story about a Caribbean nation’s next-big-move in its fast-growing luxury hotel and tourism sector.
According to a September 21, 2025 article in The St. Vincent Times (written by Ernesto Cooke) headlined ‘Is Sandals or Rayneau behind SVG’s next Big Tourism Play?’
‘Speculation is swirling around the identity of the developer poised to transform St. Vincent’s northwestern coast with the ambitious Cumberland Bay Resort and Marina project.’
It says that while Tourism Minister Carlos James has confirmed the development is underway, ‘the actual name behind the investment remains shrouded in secrecy – fueling intense speculation across the island.’
According to the article: ‘The rumor mill is working overtime, with two names consistently surfacing: Sandals Resorts International (SRI) and Rayneau Construction, a regional player known for its large-scale projects.’
It adds: ‘What’s interesting is that both have existing ties to St. Vincent, which adds fuel to the fire.’
Speaking a week earlier at a Tourism Stakeholder’s Conference, Minister James outlined the scope of the project, saying it is envisioned to be a major tourism driver, ‘boasting 10 over-water villas, 50 cottages, a 100-room hotel — and a marina capable of accommodating luxury yachts.’
The minister said the project ‘will provide major opportunities for employment in that part of the island and buttress the overall tourism thrust on mainland St. Vincent,” with projections for a substantial increase in room stock of approximately 4,000 (on the mainland) by 2026.
But the Cumberland Bay Resort isn’t the only major development on the Vincentian horizon.
The article points to a $375 million Beaches Resort (by Sandals) on the Leeward coast, promising around 375 rooms and requiring an estimated 1,500 workers.
Also under way is the 300-room Marriott investment at Peter’s Hope,’ described as ‘also set to reshape the island’s economic landscape.’
If all goes according to plan, the article says, these two resorts alone could generate over 2,000 jobs.’
It further states that, ‘Recognizing the need for comprehensive development, the St. Vincent government also announced a $20 million allocation for the construction and improvement of tourist destinations across the island.’
The article speculates too, on ‘whether the local infrastructure can handle the influx of tourists and whether local businesses will truly benefit,’ or, ‘Will larger international chains dominate?’
The writer argues: ‘These are critical considerations, as St. Vincent positions itself as a premier Caribbean destination.’
The experienced writer might not have revealed all he’d been told about the supposedly ‘mysterious’ project.
But it confirms St. Vincent & The Grenadines has been building its tourism product at break-neck speed since Sandals opened its first major resort there two years ago.
SRI is delivering on its promise to continuing investing in the multi-island destination (with 19 Grenadine islands), where the accommodation sector has expanded significantly since welcoming Sandals’ Buccament Bay Resort project — that started during COVID and continued despite all odds.
In Rayneau’s case, the company is involved in both construction and export of agricultural produce from St. Vincent & The Grenadines – and here again, like Sandals, the Saint Lucia-based regional company’s arrival, though criticized in the beginning, is now largely welcomed by Vincentians.
Meanwhile, a telling point in this speculative story is how it verifies the old media adage that ‘There’s nothing like bad publicity!’
SRI and Rayneau’s have faced and overcome their unfair shares of criticism at home and abroad, but each also has an impeccable delivery record that’s also largely unchallenged.
SRI continues to quietly expand its globally-branded portfolio across the Caribbean (also still looking at Trinidad & Tobago), while Rayneau’s is not-so-quietly expanding its portfolio and deliverables at home and across the region – building a hospital in Montserrat after completing another in Dominica and also present in Grenada and Guyana.
Rayneau’s is on top of the world in Saint Lucia today, as the company is about to deliver the completed new St. Jude Hospital in the island’s south – and in record time.
The company originally said it would deliver the long-delayed and overly cost-overrun project in two years, but Gajadhar says it could have delivered in one year, hadn’t government upgraded the list of medical equipment, leading to delays.
Gajadhar says he could have delivered since June 2025, citing ‘excessive paperwork’ associated with consultants as another contributing factor.
Yet, while Gajadhar has wall-to-wall public support for the speed and efficiency with which his company completed a job three successive governments had failed to –16 years after the fateful fire on September 9, 2009 – he remains under relentless criticism by the island’s major opposition party.
United Workers Party (UWP) Leader Allen Chstanet and his deputy, Guy Joseph – a former Prime Minister and a former fellow Cabinet minister who several times promised to deliver the hospital but each time failed — have each found every-way to criticize the project that everyone else is so-glad to see completed.
The opposition politicians claim the cost is ‘too-much’, doors are ‘too-small’ and the ceiling ‘too low’, even though this administration has — over the past four years — revealed, disclosed and exposed several instances of what investigators reported as clear cases alleged waste and misdirection of funds loaned and allocated for the project.
However, like SRI, Rayneau’s has nothing to lose — and instead, everything to gain – just from being associated with the supposedly-mysterious multi-million-dollar St. Vincent and the Grenadines hotel project considered the multi-island nation’s ‘next big tourism play’.
Meanwhile, Saint Lucians continue to marvel at the fact that Rayneau’s, which constructed the expansive Royalton Hotel at Cap Estate, is also quietly but steadily working on rebuilding the former Auberge Seraphine Hotel at Ganter’s Bay into what local Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott might have meant when he described the location as home to ‘White Egrets’ – one of his popular poems.