Grande Bay Review

Well we have been promising to post a review since we spent a weekend at Grande Bay on St. John a while back. So here goes the good, the bad and the ugly. First off let me preface this by saying that if I were on the board that issued the permits for this development, and for that matter Sirenusa, I wouldn't have voted for the approval of either building at the current density levels that they have. That being said, the horse is out of the barn and is a mute point. This development is a fact of life and very likely over time will be thought of just like Gallows Point or for that matter Warfside Village as neither of them would have been particularly popular when they were developed either.

In the Real Estate business there is a rule, location, location, location. This development is based on that rule. It has to be the most convenient location for those that want to hang out in Cruz Bay that is available today. There is parking in the basement and you can walk to all the action in Cruz Bay. When you want to go to the beaches you just load up the car after a short elevator ride down and drive out. Frankly it couldn't get any easier. We stayed in a one bedroom penthouse condo. It is Small but fine for two people. It has a very nice little kitchen with granite tops and stainless appliances. The main living area is the kitchen and living room combined. With a very nice covered deck overlooking Cruz Bay. The dining area is outside on the patio. The apartment is finished out pretty well by island standards all though it has a few little finishing touches that need to be taken care of. Like cutting off the blinds and maybe touching up the trim here and there but hey this is the islands at least the blinds got hung. The pictures above basically tell the story, it is clean, safe and convenient. Right now the prices are very reasonable as well. I am sure as time goes on and the amenities are finished the prices will rise. Right now there isn't a pool and a few buildings are yet to be finished. So there is a little construction work going on but it isn't overwhelming in scope or noise level.

We rented ours from Kim "Dinghy" Morris. She and her husband run Noah's Little Arks and she is known around town as Dinghy Kim. Kim is helping to manage a few units in the building (one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, adjoining units, etc) and she can be reached at 340-998-1978 or dinghyjoe@earthlink.com

Jay

PS I guess I should have posted a price range. I don't know about the bigger units but we paid less than $200 a night for the one bedroom. Which by St John standards is relatively cheap.

PS I also wanted to add that the noise level wasn't a problem at all. When you are out on the deck, you hear the noises of Cruz Bay, which I enjoyed, but once you close the patio doors, you don't hear anything inside the room. They must have done some major sound proofing. In the evening, you can hear music from some of the bars (but it's not that loud), and one night there was something going on at the ball park so you could hear the announcer. In the morings you can hear the roosters and sometimes you can hear the ferries coming in or some traffic coming by. But we really didn't hang around much other than sleeping and getting ready to go somewhere..... Beaches during the day, out to dinner at night. So noise wasn't an issue at all.

Deb

View of downtown Cruz Bay from the penthouse apartment