NEW YORK-St. Kitts' prime minister and assorted developers and hospitality executives were on hand at the Mandarin Oriental New York on Monday to trumpet Christophe Harbour, a new luxury development being built on St. Kitts' southeast peninsula. Two of the development's addresses will be a 125-room, 20-residence Mandarin Oriental and a 75-room Auberge Resort, both expected to open around 2010. Wolfgang Hültner, CEO of Mandarin Oriental Management, said St. Kitts was a wonderful opportunity for the brand due to its unspoiled landscape.
Christophe Harbour is a master-planned resort, which will surround a mega-yacht harbor and feature a collection of upscale restaurants, shops, luxury hotels and an 18-hole championship golf course being designed by Tom Fazio. The development will further St. Kitts' luxury credibility. For Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas, prime minister of St. Kitts, it will give the island a needed source of revenue after the island was forced to shut down its sugar-producing business. "We have unrivaled attributes," the prime minister said, " and this project shares in all of them." In anticipation of increased traffic to the island, new non-stop service to St. Kitts from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on American Airlines will commence in November and from Atlanta on Delta in February 2008. (DE)