BELIZE CITY, Wed. Dec. 22, 2021– Earlier this week, Supreme Court judge Lisa Shoman granted Waterloo Investment Holdings leave to join a case brought by Stake Bank Enterprise Limited against the Government of Belize as an interested party. Waterloo and its local subsidiaries, Belize Cruise Development Limited and Belize Logistics Terminal Limited, have now joined two other developers seeking to establish cruise ports in the country (Stake Bank Enterprise Limited and Portico Enterprise Limited) in the legal proceedings.
At a virtual Supreme Court hearing presided over by Justice Shoman on Monday, attorney Godfrey Smith, who is representing Waterloo, presented arguments supporting the company’s application to join the case as an interested party, and at the end of the hearing, Waterloo was granted leave to do so.
Interestingly, of the parties involved in the case, only Stake Bank Enterprise Limited argued against the inclusion of Waterloo. The company, along with the other parties must now file various submissions — in which their arguments will be placed in writing, prior to the hearing of the case, which is scheduled to take place on February 8, 9 and 10.
Portico Enterprise Limited, the developers of the proposed Port of Magical Belize, had been granted leave to join the case prior to Waterloo’s application, since the case brought by Stake Bank Enterprises Limited against the Attorney General’s office, the Department of the Environment (DOE) and the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) directly challenges the environmental approval that was given to their (Portico’s) project earlier this year.
Stake Bank Enterprises Limited, whose Port Coral cruise terminal project is at an advanced stage of construction, is contending that it would not be financially feasible for two cruise ports to operate within a few miles of each other in the Belize District, and that the granting of environmental approval to Portico subsequent to Stake Bank’s costly efforts to carry out infrastructural development on Port Coral, has imperiled the company’s sizable investment.
Waterloo, on the other hand, sought to join the case after the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) decided last week not to grant environmental approval to their proposed cruise terminal development at the Port of Belize. Waterloo is expected to bring a separate legal claim to seek judicial review of the committee’s decision.
They are joining this case in an effort to advance their increasingly tenuous bid to enter the country’s cruise industry, since Stake Bank appears to be seeking exclusive rights over the Belize City cruise sector via their case. They believe that the Department of Environment and the National Environmental Appraisal Committee failed in their duty to properly consult them as a major stakeholder within the industry.
The Stake Bank development is reportedly a $400-million project. According to Godfrey Smith, who spoke to 7News this week via Zoom, Waterloo has so far spent $10 million to develop a plan for its proposed project.