After years of going back and forth and operating on a month-to-month contract, the Government Employees Retirement System board and West Indian Company Ltd. are moving forward with an agreement on the management of Havensight Mall.
During a GERS board meeting Thursday, system officials said no further details would be released about the terms and conditions until the contract is fully executed. The final agreement is three years in the making, and has been on a month-to-month basis since 2009, when GERS openly sought bidders to manage the mall. Prior to that, WICO had been the manager since 1993, when the mall was sold to GERS.
In other action, the board rejected a proposed term sheet from Tibbar Energy, a St. Croix biomass company that was seeking financing from GERS for the operation of a plant on 70 acres east of the Anguilla landfill. Tibbar got approval from the Public Services Commission in June for a 25-year power purchase agreement with the V.I. Water and Power Authority for a facility that was expected to generate 7 megawatts for the St. Croix grid.
The board also:
– Hired Bert Smith & Co. to perform the system’s fiscal year 2014 audit for a minimum of $89,610 plus $18,505 for additional work;
– Approved $109,042 to pay property taxes and $80,505 for liability insurance for the Carambola Resort on St. Croix;
– Authorized GERS administrator Austin Nibbs to execute all retiree loans; and
– Increased retirees’ loan application fees from $20 to $45, effective Oct. 1, and voted to suspend all pending alternate investments, and all future alternate investments, until the board takes further action.
