Bahamas Hotel Association

Negotiations at the troubled Ginn Sur Mer project are still ongoing for a joint venture partnership with Credit Suisse — the resort not having sold one unit since the beginning of the year.

The zero sales come despite continuing construction on the development that has employed around 370 local workers, officials confirm.

"It's taking a bit of time to work through the details," spokesman Ryan Julison told Guardian Business yesterday. "Negotiations are ongoing and there is no movement to announce at this point but discussions are ongoing."

It's negotiations that are eight months in making, with the future of Ginn hanging around those talks. While Julison assures construction on the project is still ongoing — mainly around infrastructure works — he said the decision had been made to suspend actively selling any of the million-dollar units until a decision is reached in the negotiations.

"Because we are still working out clarity and the joint venture and what happens in that perspective," said Julison, "I think it would premature given the state of negotiations to start selling to people at this point."

The company earlier cited sales being severely affected by ongoing economic pressures and its declining effect on the global real estate market, which ultimately led to a default under the credit facilities in June 2008.

Still unanswered at this point is whether or not Credit Suisse has won a larger portion of the Grand Bahama property than those lots it funded as part of an initial $675m loan. Under that loan agreement, it held the right to foreclose only on those particular lots and not the rest of the massive development.

As part of the joint venture, Ginn could have agreed to share ownership of a larger chunk of the resort, now under development. Guardian Business was unable to get an exact figure on the number of construction workers, however Julison said construction is currently ongoing on the Beach Club, the property's focal point, as well as telecommunications and water and sewerage works.

The progress now being made at the billion-dollar mixed use residential community is largely owing to the agreement between the government and the developer to place tens of millions of dollars in an escrow account, all of that cash directed toward completion of the project's infrastructure.

The difference between the GB development other Ginn projects now headed into bankruptcy may be the $160 million the company placed in escrow last year to meet the costs associated with infrastructure building. A restructuring agreement, entered into on December 23, 2008, saw two of the Ginn resorts thrown into a Chapter 7 liquidation process.

Last August Ginn boss and developer Bobby Ginn moved to reassure Bahamians concerned the loan default would ultimately cancel plans for the mixed use resort to be set around two golf courses and nestled on the western shores of Grand Bahama.

Source: The Nassau Guardian