The Office of the Lieutenant Governor recently had banking board meetings held with local banks territory-wide which include Oriental Bank, Bank of St. Croix, FirstBank, Banco Popular, Merchants Commercial Bank and the Economic Development Bank. The banks reported that they have been approving more construction loans and increasing collaboration with the V.I. Housing Finance Authority which has programs aimed at aiding locals with homeownership. According to the VI Consortium, “the increase in approval of loans tied to home construction and homeownership in the territory follows complaints from lawmakers who argue that while local banks store hundreds of millions of government funds, they have not done enough to make funding accessible to locals looking to become first-time homeowners.” Read the full article here.
Starting today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE Crew (in partnership with the Nature’s Conservancy) will be having a two-week masonry training at Estate Little Princess St. Croix. The Estate Little Princess was established in 1749 and is a historically and culturally important site. The HOPE Crew program brings preservation and preservation trades to a younger audience. In partnership with CHANT’s (Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism) Invisible Heritage pre-apprenticeship program, HOPE Crew will focus on training five local youth in masonry techniques. Read full article on the St. Croix Source here.
The St. Croix ground lizard is so rare. Since 1969, the indigenous lizard had not been found on St Croix, having been eliminated by mongoose, rats, and degraded habitats. Recently, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources has experimentally returned the namesake St. Croix Ground Lizard to St. Croix for the first time in 50 years. It is one of the world’s most endangered reptiles!
In an effort to help recover the species from being endangered, the Division of Fish and Wildlife has reintroduced two experimental populations to St. Croix. Since 2020, a big cooperative project with different partners have tried to create an environment more friendly to the indigenous lizard population.
Organizations involved in the project include: Division of Fish and Wildlife, the University of the Virgin Islands, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, DPNR Coastal Zone Management Division, St. Croix Environmental Association, California Academy of Sciences, and Texas A&M University.
In March, Governor Albert Bryan announced that he plans on making St. Croix 100 percent solar-powered by partnering with a major energy firm that could build and maintain a solar plant powerful enough to easily energize the 84-square mile island. He cites that the rising cost of fuel could cause utility bills to go up and this could threaten the economy. He hopes to accomplish this in months and said, “I told my people think about it as we need to get the whole island energized in 90 days…” and avoid the high utility costs that the island experienced in 2008 and 2009.
The Virgin Islands Consortium also reported that Governor Bryan why he is prioritizing St. Croix for implementation. He said, “The reason why we’re looking at St. Croix is because it’s the easiest in terms of topography. We already had a 25 megabit plant that we were looking to install here, so it’s just fast-tracking everything.”
Question: What kinds of technology do you use to create listings?
Chris’ Answer: Because so many Buyers are shopping for property from off island, it is important to include as many details, documents, photos, and videos in a listing as possible. The technology available to us really supports our efforts to create thorough listings. Buyers have told us that they feel that they have already visited the property because of everything we include! Besides excellent photos, we take walk-through videos using a stabilizing gimbal and audio editing software to narrate the property tour. We also use a Matterport camera, which gives a high resolution 3D self-guided tour and a “doll house” view of the property. A floor plan of the property is created so that people can see the layout and flow of the rooms. Often we use a drone to take aerial photos and videos to show the surrounding neighborhood and the view from the property.
Examples:
Play drone video above to view the aerial footage of featured listing 29 L North Slob.Click on image above to launch the Matterport immersive virtual walkthrough for featured listing 14 Boetzberg.
Play video above to view aerial footage with narration for featured listing 86 South Grapetree.
