Pair of Dart deals total $111.2M

A pair of major land deals by the Dart Group accounted for nearly 18 per cent of Cayman Islands real estate activity in 2011. 

Dart purchased a patchwork of properties from developer Stan Thomas for $99.2 million, and also bought land for the proposed Bodden Town District landfill for $12 million, according to Lands and Survey Department records. The combined value of the two deals was $111.2 million, out of the $632.1 million in total property value that exchanged hands in Cayman for the entire year. 

Thomas properties  

Dart’s $99.2 million purchase of Mr. Thomas’ properties was finalised in January 2011 and included 64 parcels of land. Six Dart entities were involved: Blossom Estates, Shoreline Development Company, CIYCAM, Ironwood Properties and Kenneth B. Dart. The deal includes $15.5 million for the former Courtyard Marriott, which as part of the ForCayman Investment Alliance with government is being redeveloped into a new hotel and resort. A nearby parcel in the same block was also sold to Dart for $3.2 million. 

A significant subset of the deal involved $63 million for 35 parcels in the Seven Mile Beach and West Bay areas, including land in the vicinity of the proposed Esterley Tibbetts Highway extension. In addition to West Bay, Dart purchased land near Smith Cove, the northern portion of the Bodden Town District, Half Moon Bay and Colliers. The vast majority of the deal, though, was for land in Seven Mile Beach/West Bay, totalling $88.0 million. 

According to records, Mr. Thomas had purchased the Courtyard Marriott property from a company called HIR for $12.4 million in May 2007. In that instance, the government had assessed the value of the property at $25.6 million for stamp duty calculation. The government did not perform such a value assessment when Dart purchased the property from Mr. Thomas. 

Future landfill  

In June 2011, Dart purchased three parcels of land near quarries and the Midland Acres development from Civil Works Services and Scotts Equipment for $12 million. In October 2011, the Central Planning Authority approved a six-lot subdivision of one of those parcels, totalling 561 acres. One of the subdivided areas was designated for the creation of an “Eco Park” – otherwise known as a solid waste management facility. 

In March 2011, Dart withdrew a similar application before the Central Planning Authority for the same parcel of land, after attorneys for Scotts Equipment (which had a 11/57 share in the property) submitted a letter stating that co-proprietor Civil Works Service had agreed to sell the property to Dart without consulting with Scotts Equipment. According to the letter, Scotts Equipment had intended to use the parcel in order to expand the existing quarry. 

Dart’s impact  

Last year, there was a relatively few number of freehold property transfers, yet the overall value of transfers was relatively high, driven by the high average value of the transfers that did take place. The major Dart deals exacerbated that trend but were not the sole reason for it. 

The value of property transfers in 2011 was the highest since 2006, when there was $691.1 million in property transfers. The average value of transfers in 2011 was $370,000, the highest for any year since at least 2006, the first year for which records are available, and when the average value of transfers was $249,000. 

Removing the two Dart deals from the equation, the value of transfers in 2011 was $520.9 million, far more than the $307.2 million in transfers in 2010 and $397.0 million in 2009 – but less than the $558.1 million in 2008 and $551.4 million in 2007. Without the Dart deals, the average value of transfers in 2011 was $317,000, which would still be the highest average value on record.