LAWYERS for the Pinero Group skirted comment on the court ruling that has shut down its hotel project in St Ann, but declared Friday that the victory for the environmentalists had raised the spectre of “uncertainty” for foreign investors.

“What investors do respect is certainty,” said Milton Samuda, one of three attorneys representing the Spanish developers, operating in Jamaica as Hoteles Jamaica Pinero Limited (Hojapi).

The other two are are Sandra Minott-Phillips and Dave Garcia.

“And they expect that when an approval process has been complied with, that they ought to be able to rely upon it and proceed with their investments without interruption thereof,” Samuda said Friday, speaking with the Sunday Observer outside the Supreme Court.

The multi-million, 1,918-room Bahia Principe Hotel development was ordered locked down May 16 by Justice Bryan Sykes after environmental lobbyists successfully petitioned the court, saying environmental regulators had breached procedures by failing to adequately consult with residents of Pear Tree Bottom, an ecologically sensitive area.

On Friday, Dennis Morrison, chief technical director in the Ministry of Development, refused to comment on the potential implications for investment following Sykes’ unprecedented ruling.

“It is too important a matter to be speculated. We need to see how the court deals with it. At the end of all of that, then we will be able to say what the implications are,” he told the Sunday Observer.

He acknowledged that investors and potential investors would undoubtedly sit up and take notice.

“This would have caused investors to be watching very keenly to see what happens and be able to draw implications from that. That is the most you can say, because the judicial process has not ended. Until the case is settled one way or another, it is difficult to be definitive about the implications,” he said.

The Supreme Court ruling is already seen as an indictment on the regulatory process, which environmentalists in the past have said lacks rigour.

Sykes had based his decision on the absence of a ecology report, which explored the benefit of flora, fauna ad geographical features of the area, in the environment impact assessment (EIA), done for the Spanish developers by Environmental Solutions Limited, that was publicised before the construction of the hotel began.

The public, Sykes said, was thus left to evaluate the development project on the basis of insufficient information.

On Friday, he granted a stay of his verdict until June 27 for quashing the environmental permit to give the parties more time to prepare their case to the court, but he also noted that his personal reading of the EIA had left him feeling it was an unreliable document.

Beyond that, he said the EIA showed little evidence that its creators could speak with authority on the site’s marine life, water quality, coral reefs and oceanography.

“Obviously you can’t pass judgment on NEPA until the case is complete,” Morrison said, adding that people had always been free to challenge any permit issued by the agency.

Said Samuda: “I would think that for the government, for investors, for environmentalists, it is a critical case and the outcome will affect all parties,” he said.

Earlier in the week, the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce waded into the maelstrom, saying Pinero had already invested more than US$50 million and that the case would undermine investor confidence in the island.

In the same breath, the chamber sympathised with the developer now faced with the possibility of having its 1,918-room Bahia Principe Clubs and Resorts project stopped.

“We sympathise with the Piñero Group, which, having already spent in excess of US$50 million, in good faith, now faces the prospect of having its Bahia Principé project halted at this late stage, through no fault of its own,” the chamber said.

The Pinero Group purchased the 200-acre Pear Tree Bottom property from TankWeld Limited for an undisclosed sum in 2003, and announced plans to invest between US$60 million and US$100 million to develop the site.

The Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and the Northern Jamaica Conservation Authority (NJCA) – along with four private citizens who are the applicants in the judicial review of the EIA now before the Supreme Court – were opposed to the plans from the outset, suggesting instead that NEPA reserve the area for marine research. The site, they insisted, was simply too rich in bio-diversity.

Their views were captured in the EIA done in 2005 by ESL.

“We went to court as a last resort. It came after 10 years of advocacy. We did not do this lightly. It was after 10 years of trying every other thing possible, including the Public Defender,” noted executive director of JET, Diana McCaulay.

Recommendations from JET and NJCA

. Declare the area a national nature reserve/wilderness area;

. Maintain the beachfront as a scenic natural coastline;

. Any resort development proposed for the area should be designed and operated as a first-class eco-tourism resort;

. The resort should be integrated with the local communities and not run as an all-inclusive resort; and

. A resort at Pear Tree Bottom should promote the unique values of the area and Jamaica itself.