Business View Caribbean
        
        
          
            3
          
        
        
          the Caribbean Sea to the south, and very close to the
        
        
          French border, sits the Blue Mall and Blue Residences
        
        
          St. Maarten, a complex designed and built by Fondo de
        
        
          Valores Inmobiliarios, a Caracas, Venezuelan-based
        
        
          company that was founded by Luis Emilio Veluntini in
        
        
          1992. In 2002, Veluntini directed his company toward
        
        
          building more malls and shopping centers, in addition
        
        
          to its portfolio of office building and commercial cen-
        
        
          ters.
        
        
          Stacy Paul, Blue Mall’s Marketing Coordinator, re-
        
        
          counts the genesis of the St. Maarten enterprise: “Be-
        
        
          fore Blue Mall, there was not a shopping center of that
        
        
          caliber on the island,” she says. “We had various little
        
        
          commercial centers comprised of business offices and
        
        
          retail outlets, but nothing of this kind.” So, Blue Mall’s
        
        
          developers decided to fill the void with an ultra-mod-
        
        
          ern looking edifice that would house a combination of
        
        
          retail outlets and residential condominiums.
        
        
          “Construction started in 2005, but we were not able
        
        
          to finish until 2011,” Paul continues. “The residences
        
        
          were finished, but the commercial sites took a little
        
        
          longer. We had a progressive, soft opening in Decem-
        
        
          ber 2012, just with a few shops, because we wanted
        
        
          AT A GLANCE
        
        
          WHO:
        
        
          Blue Mall St. Maarten
        
        
          WHAT:
        
        
          A modern shopping mall with retail out-
        
        
          lets, restaurants, and condominium apartments
        
        
          WHERE:
        
        
          Cupecoy Bay, St. Maarten
        
        
          WEBSITE
        
        
          :