Dept. Of Labor St. Croix Paying $322K Annually For Castle Coakley Rental On 20-Yr Lease

ST. CROIX — Officials of the Virgin Islands Department Of Labor (VIDOL) revealed to Senate members of the Committee on Finance on Monday afternoon that the department’s St. Croix arm was locked into a 20-year lease with the owner of the Castle Coakley building that it’s renting from for $322,000 annually.

The deal was reached under the John P. de Jongh administration and was revealed through documents the department provided to members of the finance committee, and confirmed by Commissioner designee Catherine Ann Hendry while under oath at the Fritz Lawetz Conference Room in the Frederiksted Legislative building.

Hendry said VIDOL was not utilizing any government properties on the island.

Sen. Kurt Vialet pointed out the disparity between the St. Croix rental of $322,000 annually as compared to the St. Thomas space, where VIDOL is currently paying $250,000 annually — with square footage for both properties being almost equal at 17,000 and 17,936 for St. Thomas and St. Croix respectfully. Yet, the difference in cost for annual rent is $72,000.

Yvonne Webster-Price, VIDOL’s director of administration, said the figures were agreed upon by the Department of Property and Procurement under the de Jongh administration, and that VIDOL has been in the St. Thomas location for over 30 years, and under 10 years at the St. Croix location.

“By the time we finish [paying rent for the St. Croix building], we would have spent $6.5 million to utilize the property,” Vialet grimly acknowledged. The department is currently paying $637,000 annually for its various rental spaces.

Sen. Clifford Graham, chairman of the Committee on Finance, pressed Hendry and other department officials further in relation to VIDOL’s rental spaces spread about the territory. The commissioner designee, who has yet to take the oath of office, along with Webster-Price, told the senator that the department currently has three rental spaces on St. Croix: Weisner Development; Sun Self Storage; and Sunny Isle Developers — the latter being where VIDOL’s workforce investment board has its office space, “because they are supposed to be separate and apart from the Department of Labor,” Webster-Price said.

VIDOL has 58 employees on St. Croix and 55 on St. Thomas, a breakdown that prompted Sen. Graham to question the logic behind the current prices being paid for rent, and the amount of storage facilities that house the department’s goods.

Graham then pointed to rental spaces being more expensive in St. Thomas per square-foot — yet the department was expending more on St. Croix for a space that, as pointed out earlier by Sen. Vialet, is about the same in size.

“You inherited that,” Graham told Hendry. “And unfortunately there’s a lease for 20-30 years. That is mind-boggling.”

The senator went on, pointing out that St. Croix, historically, has hovered around $15 per square-foot for space, while St. Thomas has roughly maintained “$20-something.”

Webster-Price tried to quell the Senator’s displeasure over the rent price, stating that before the department moved into the Castle Coakley building, it rented six different locations, and that the new, consolidated price saw VIDOL saving money.

But Graham remained unimpressed.

“It doesn’t justify the consolidation into one space as paying so much in rent based on average per square-foot for this district,” he said, reiterating that the cost per square-foot that the department’s currently paying is much higher than historic levels.

Other pertinent issues were discussed at the hearing, including workmen compensation; the issue of employee morale at the department; and the unemployment rates on the islands which currently stand at 14 percent on St. Croix, 10 percent on St. Thomas and 12 percent territory-wide.

Sen. Vialet also stressed the importance of local employment for upcoming projects, including the demolition of the Ralph deChabert Housing Community, as well as finding a solution for VIDOL temporary employees, some of whom have been in limbo for 20 years.

Committee members present at today’s hearing include, Senators Graham, Marvin Blyden, Sammuel Sanes, Myron D. Jackson, Vialet and Tregenza A. Roach. Senator Terrence “Positive” Nelson was absent.