GERS considers plan to build and operate grocery stores
Published: June 12, 2010
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ST. THOMAS — The V.I. Government Employees Retirement System is considering building its own supermarkets on St. Thomas, St. Croix and — eventually — St. John.
Yvonne Bowsky, a GERS board member, said the idea is to build grocery stores that are open to everyone but offer discounts to government retirees and workers with a GERS retirement plan.
GERS members would provide a “guaranteed revenue stream,” Bowsky said.
Asked why the retirement system is looking to build supermarkets, GERS Administrator Austin Nibbs gave a simple reply: “Everybody have to eat.”
Nibbs added that new supermarkets would encourage competition among grocers, which could drive down prices and help GERS beneficiaries save money.
V.I. Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Wayne Biggs Jr. said competition among local grocers has been a point of concern for his department. Biggs said DLCA is forming a partnership with its Puerto Rico counterpart, the Departmento de Asuntos del Consumidor, to ensure that although there are relatively few grocers in the territory, competition is healthy.
Board Chairman Vincent Liger said that GERS is looking at establishing supermarkets on St. Thomas and St. Croix first, then branching out to St. John.
The GERS board formed an exploratory committee — comprising Bowsky and board members Desmond Maynard and Carver Farrow — to look into the feasibility of building GERS supermarkets.
Supermarkets would fall under the “alternative investment” category of the retirement system’s portfolio.
The 2005 GERS Reform Act authorized the retirement system to invest up to 5 percent of its portfolio in such investments — which could include real estate, hedge funds, private equity ventures, managed futures, commodities, oil and gas investments or agricultural investments.
GERS officials have interpreted the act to apply only to those investments made after 2005, since its ownership of Havensight Mall, valued at $66.6 million, makes up more than 5 percent of its total portfolio.
Nibbs said the retirement system plans to use alternative investment opportunities to keep the territory’s money invested locally.
“Our focus is mainly trying to do local investments so we can get the same returns locally that we get on stocks and bonds,” he said.
— Contact reporter Constance Cooper at 774-8772 ext. 364 or e-mail ccooper@dailynews.vi.
