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11:52 pm, Nov 14, 2025
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Applications for Retail Plaza Concept Near Main Street Approved; Enhancement of Iconic Downtown Sites Tabled to Later Date

Virgin Islands News

On Wednesday, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Committee held a lively discussion on various projects in the historic district of St. Thomas, focusing mainly on design reviews for commercial applicants, including iconic sites such as the Emancipation Garden and Fort Christian.

Regarding application HPC-38-2025, a design review for the Emancipation Garden, Educators Park, Fort Christian East and West Parks, and Vendors Plaza, the VI Office of Management and Budget’s representative, Somere A. Webber, presented an extensive project design to the board.

“They want to install a pergola in the upper section of Educators Park along with some steppingstone and a few concrete pads, to go down along with some date palms and other, I guess, landscaping efforts to this area,” said Webber.

Installation of irrigation lines, signage with QR codes for statue busts, and a transformer in Educators Park were also discussed. Moreover, Weber presented aspects such as the installation of Bermuda grass and informational plaques near Fort Christian, among other improvement efforts.

Correspondingly, after his presentation, acting board chair Enrique Rodriguez highlighted to the board his disapproval of the “I Love STT” sign in the Vendor’s Plaza location. He spoke about efforts to move it, inquiring with Weber to aid in its relocation.

“The background is just, it’s not a great photo op, and I’m so happy to see that sign moved to the Waterfront side of the water,” Rodriguez said.

However, as a result of the extensive redesign project presented by Webber, the committee voted to continue the application after conducting a more detailed review during an on-site meeting and walk-through.

Additionally, the board reviewed application HPC-48-2025 for the design of a Danish West Indian-themed retail plaza in Cardow and Post Office Alley in Kongens Quarter and approved the matter. Applicant Christina Lee Williams said she wants to create an artisan space for people to showcase their work.

“What we’re seeing right now downtown is just stores so to speak,” said Williams. “The plaza will serve as a gathering speed that enhances the downtown experience for both residents and visitors, because currently when a lot of tourists come to downtown, they ask for recommendations on where they can go for authentic food or certain experiences, and that’s that’s very limited downtown.”

According to Williams, the plaza will feature “gingerbread” style booths with historic features. The board appeared to be delighted by the idea. The application was approved in concept and the application will be continued for design development.

Furthermore, Williams presented application HPC-46-2025 for the use of blue paint colors with white and black trim details at Bjerge Gade 9A, Kongens Quarter. The board approved the application.

The Application HPC-30-2025 for the Garden Bar and Restaurant at Dronningens Gade 58A, Kongens Quarter, was continued for further exterior design development. It appeared that the board disapproved of the white, boxed design concept, with large signage presented by applicant Sherwin Rey.

“What you’re presenting to us is a beautiful space design for Redhook, but it’s completely out of place for the downtown historic district,“ said Rodriguez, who urged Rey and his team to coordinate with the Historic Preservation Committee to remain within compliance.

“Our concerns are the exterior,” added board member William Newbold.

Another board member, Kurt Marsh, spoke about the imitated arched doorways and hanging greenery that Rey said was placed to emulate a spout.

“I want to encourage you to take a step back a bit because you’re sterilizing the area a bit,” said Marsh

The committee voted to continue the matter at a later date.

The board approved application HPC-47-2025 for the design review of a wood trellis, a new business sign, a yellow alleyway paint color, and a menu board at the Veranda Escape Bar and Restaurant located at Dronningens Gade 16. Applicant Damni Ogando inquired with the board about the option to install an artificial grass lawn but was denied. The committee instead suggested that Ogando place grass in the crevices of the concrete tiles, rather than covering the entire floor.

Furthermore, the Port Authority’s application HPC-35-2025 was approved for revised elevations and a roof design at the Cruz Bay Fish Market. The applicant was also approved to paint the new building in the same color scheme as the St. John ferry terminal.

To note, applicants for HPC-42-2025 at Gamle Gade 14B, Kronprindsens Quarter, did not attend the meeting. Committee members William Newbold, Enrique Rodriguez, Mark Wiechnik, and Kurt G. Marsh were present.

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Calvert White and Benjamin Hendricks’ Bid for New Trial Denied

A federal judge on Friday denied requests from former Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White and business owner Benjamin Hendricks to secure a new trial or acquittal on the charge of wire fraud, one of two charges the pair were both convicted of last summer.
A jury found White and Hendricks guilty of honest services wire fraud and bribery in late July after a weeklong trial in the U.S. District Court on St. Thomas. Their attorneys quickly asked for a new trial on the basis of an answer Judge Mark Kearney gave to jurors during their deliberations, which attorney Clive Rivers said “failed to adhere to the rules of evidence that questions of fact should always be determined by the jury.”
“We read Jury Question 3 as including a question of law,” Kearney wrote in an opinion dated Friday. “The United States agreed. Commissioner White and Businessperson Hendricks did not. They objected to answering the question at all as invading on the jury’s province. We agreed with Commissioner White and Businessperson Hendricks to not comment on whether there is common knowledge about WhatsApp and text messages and phone calls using servers outside the Virgin Islands. But we disagreed as to providing the jury with the definition of wire fraud as part of Jury Question 3.”
Jurors had asked Kearney whether it was “common knowledge” that text messages, WhatsApp messages and phone calls between people in the U.S. Virgin Islands use networks, systems or servers outside of the territory — and whether those communications are considered wire transactions.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are presenting a question of both a fact and a law,” Kearney told the jury at the time. “As I mentioned to you yesterday, I don’t get involved in questions of fact. That’s entirely your province. You decide as to questions of fact. However, there is a question of law built into this as well, and I want to read to you what the question of law, I believe, is. Use of the telephone, internet, text messages, email, or other similar means of communication qualifies as interstate wire communications under the act.”
Rivers later argued that Kearney and “invaded the province of the jury” with that answer and that the “existence and effect of certain communications presented a factual question that was decided by the trial court instead of the jury.”
During a telephonic hearing last week, Kearney attempted to examine which part of the answer Rivers objected to and asked whether Rivers believed that his “statement as to the law was inaccurate — that use of the telephone, internet, et cetera qualifies as a state wire communication.”
Rivers began to repeat his argument that it was a question of fact before Kearney cut him off.
“No, that’s not a fact,” he said. “Mr. Rivers, don’t play with me. Is that a question of law or a question of fact I just read?”
Rivers eventually conceded that “the law is the law.”
Federal prosecutors have said Rivers’s claims are without merit. In his response to jurors, they argued, Kearney, “after discussion with all parties, identified a potential point of confusion within the question and attempted to provide a legal standard to answer that question and clear up any uncertainty.”
Justice Department attorneys noted that jurors heard testimony about wire transfers from a FirstBank manager, Herbert Vega-Lopez, and the government’s cooperating witness in the case, David Whitaker. Last week, Kearney asked trial attorney Alexandre Dempsey to respond to Rivers’s claims that the testimony was “insufficient to prove the jurisdictional element” of interstate communications.
“I strongly disagree with that contention,” Dempsey said. “I believe Mr. Vega testified that the bank servers are all located … in the territory of Puerto Rico. Combining that with testimony from Mr. Whitaker that he was present in the Virgin Islands at that time — where he initiated the wire transfer — Mr. Vega’s testimony was that that transfer, if initiated, would have to go through FirstBank servers that are located in Puerto Rico. He additionally went on to clarify, explicitly, that there are literally no servers of FirstBank in the Virgin Islands at all.”
Kearney also recently denied a separate request from White, who was not detained ahead of sentencing, to spend three weeks in Florida next month. Kearney noted that White is required to check in with a probation officer every week and said he would allow a shorter visit, “but it’s got to be at a period of time where he sees the probation officer one week and then sees him the following week.”

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