Will Vacation Rental Units Replace Vacant Offices at The Marketplace?

 

The management of The Marketplace complex in Enighed acknowledged that the vacant office space on the third level could be converted to short term rentals, but there are no current plans to do so.

With the territory’s prolonged economic doldrums continuing to impact the commercial real estate market, the management of The Marketplace commercial complex at Enighed Pond is exploring the conversion of vacant third floor office space into short-term residential rental units.

“It’s a possibility,” The Marketplace manager Debbie Marsh said in response to a casual inquiry about a rumored conversion.

While the announced closure of Scotiabank on the First Floor of the Marketplace at the end of August was a stark reminder of the territory’s economic malaise, the continued vacancy of several commercial retail units on the second level of the largest St. John commercial complex, including a restaurant space opening onto the veranda overlooking the Enighed Pond Port, and two almost-empty suites of offices on the front and at the rear of the third level of the complex have Marketplace management exploring options.

The University of the Virgin Islands St. John Academic Center occupies The Marketplace’s original Gym in Paradise location in the southeast corner of the third level; and third-level commercial tenants still include a beauty salon, a medical office, an insurance office and a deli.

Empty Office Suites
But, Office Suites I, a warren of a dozen professional offices on the south and west sides of the third floor stretching across the front of the building overlooking the Enighed Port is now empty and only one of three store-front/interior office suite is occupied by WAPA.

Office Suites II, which consists of two levels of a dozen offices of varying sizes at the rear of the complex which housed at least one Economic Development Commission (EDC) company in a large fourth-story office suite when the complex opened in addition to professional offices including law firms, contractors and St. John Tradewinds newspaper, now has only a construction company, a St. Thomas law firm’s satellite office, the St. John Community Foundation and Tradewinds Publishing.

There have been no plans submitted to DPNR for any conversion and the complex is not within the CZM, according to a DPNR official.