The Capital Area Yacht Club - now partially rebranding itself as Capital Area Yacht Centre - has been an Omani Institution for ages.
Its located in the beautiful little bay in front of Cat Island, in between the newish (and also very nice) Marina Bandar Rowdha and the British Ambassadors house on the coastal road to the Al Bustan.
For some time that little bay has been targeted by the Ministry of
Real Estate Tourism as a great site for yet another integrated hotel development. CAYC are currently battling the MoT in the courts, as luckily (and apparently at the last minute) they found the original Deed of Title given to the club by no less a personage than His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.
But even this apparently isn't stopping the greedy people at the MoT and their apparatchiks in the
OMRAN real estate development arm. They seem determined to forceably requisition every last scrap of nice coastal property that isn't already owned by someone important.
The zealots at the MoT are now I'm told just recently gave the CAYC 1 months notice of 'eviction' - despite the on-going court case over that very issue. That's not nice. And I'd be surpised if such intimidation is legal. The big meeting is tomorrow.
Now, I think the CAYC is a great little club. It has a restaurant & bar, a nice beach, a place to store your boat, all reasonably priced. In fact, and perhaps contrary to popular belief, most members are middle class Omani families who want a place from which to go fishing that is family friendly. Expats too like it, especially those who can't join restricted clubs such as PDO, or the various Military clubs, and want something more than the bland 5 star hotel pool and gym clubs. They often host weddings and celebrations too at much better prices than the big hotels too.
Why are MoT doing this? And who is the developer that this prime spot has been promised to? I don't believe the various rumours of corruption within Omran with people being given payments for signing off on contracts sigle sourced at significantly over the market rates. This very rumour was subject to a recent investigation by State Audit, apparently triggered by tendering 'irregularities' in the Yeti development.
And I'm reliably informed the Minister of Tourism, HE Rajiha bint Abd al-Amir bin ALI, has restarted construction of her massive house extension (built on the free piece of prime oil company concession land in Qurm that was given to her 11 years ago, while she was on their board of Directors), so presumably she was given a clean bill of health.
It looks to me like someone in the MoT has already made some commitments to someone who wants to develop that bay and make a shit-load of money in the process... But the plan then went a bit sour when CAYC found the magic piece of paper from HM. Damn.
Will Oman have any public beach property at all in 5 years?
