Belize City, Tues. Dec. 7, 2021– The Feinstein Group, which owns Stake Bank Enterprise Limited, an entity that is funding the construction of the Port Coral cruise ship docking facility, is seeking legal redress against the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC), the Attorney General and the Department of the Environment (DOE) following the issuance of environmental approval to developer David Gegg’s Portico Enterprises Limited for the construction of Port of Magical Belize. Given that the construction of the Port Coral cruise port is at an advanced stage, and there are questions about the market viability of two cruise ports within such a short distance of each other (a few miles) in the Belize District, the Stake Bank developers are viewing this move by GoB as an act that threatens their sizable investment.

According to reports, the General Manager of Port Coral, Alvaro Duron, filed an affidavit in support of Stake Bank’s legal application to review the decision by the NEAC and DOE to grant clearance to David Gegg’s Portico Enterprises Ltd. (listed as an interested party in the legal challenge). Stake Bank is now seeking to have this decision be declared null and void before the Supreme Court.

According to Duron, given the DOE’s decision to grant Portico clearance, Stake Bank Enterprise Limited now faces serious financial losses due to increased costs of financing and the damage done to the public image of Stake Bank and its efforts to execute the project. He has further alleged that the president of the Mediterranean Shipping Company questioned his team about the status of the project following information that his members received from representatives of Portico regarding Port Coral. This occurred at a conference held by the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association back in October.

Duron submitted a report to the court asserting that the actions of the NEAC and the DOE, which have created toxic competition between the two cruise projects, could lead to negative repercussions for the entire country. In his thirty-two-point argument, he explains that even if the competing ports would engage in a fifty-fifty split of the market, neither party would be able to meet their multi-million-dollar debt- servicing obligations. He also categorizes the clearance given to Port of Magical Belize as another case of corporate cannibalism, which will negatively impact all parties involved.

And while Duron argues that the NEAC did not take the time to consider how harmful their decision would be to the financial viability of the Stake Bank project, Kenrick Gordon, head of the Environmental Impact Assessment Unit, claims to have reviewed the pertinent documents at the ministry to familiarize himself with Stake Bank’s grievances. Gordon asserts that four meetings were held by the NEAC before approval was granted to Portico on March 9th of this year. Mr. Gordon also claims to have read affidavits from other parties such as Troy Gabb, Jose Garcia and Michael McFadden and asserts that their sworn statements demonstrate a bias in favor of Stake Bank. He stated that there is no exclusivity for cruise ports in Belize and exclusivity is not mentioned in the Stake Bank Act. Gordon ended his arguments by saying that under the advice of the Solicitor General, Stake Bank Enterprises Limited has no arguable case and is only seeking to, “frustrate, fluster and stifle any other project which is similar to its own”.