The first phase of a $40 million revitalization to give the Cliff House in Cape Neddick, Maine, a new “coastal chic” feel was completed this summer. A $93 million offer was made for the Jay Peak Resort in Vermont. And the stalled $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega-resort project in the Bahamas is now moving again and could be open by the end of the year, the Islands’ government announced.
The government of the Bahamas says it has reached an agreement that will lead to the completion of a stalled mega-resort financed and built by Chinese state-owned enterprises, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that China Construction will finish the Baha Mar project with financing from the Export-Import Bank of China, the AP reported. The complex would then be sold to a “world-class” hotel and casino operator, Christie said.
Construction would resume in September and the project will open before the end of the 2016-2017 tourist season, Christie said in a nationally televised address that followed Supreme Court approval of the agreement, the AP reported. He did not identify any potential operators.
“This agreement represents a signal achievement for the Bahamas, and a milestone in the troubled history of Baha Mar,” Christie said.
Baha Mar is a $3.5 billion project that was initially scheduled to open in December 2014 on 1,000 acres along Cable Beach in Nassau, the AP reported. It would include four new hotels, a golf course and what would be the largest casino in the Caribbean. After a series of delays, the developer filed for bankruptcy in June 2015.
The stalled project had been expected to increase the overall economy of the tourism-dependent Bahamas by about 12 percent, the AP reported.
Christie said that the agreement to finish and sell Baha Mar will ensure that thousands of Bahamian creditors and contractors will receive a “significant part, and possibly all” the money owed to them for their work on the project.
- In other news involving major resort projects, MeetingsNet.com reported that the first phase of a $40 million revitalization to give the Cliff House, in Cape Neddick, Maine, a new “coastal chic” feel was completed this summer.
Set on 70 acres atop Bald Head Cliff on the southern coast of Maine about an hour north of Boston, the resort features oceanfront restaurants and bars, a full-service spa and wellness center, and new meeting and event space, MeetingsNet.com reported.
The resort’s 25,000 sq. ft. of new meeting space includes the Cliffside Ballroom and a 150-seat amphitheaterMeetingsNet.com reported. The space will cater to upscale corporate events or presentations of up to 300 attendees.
Guests will have access to year-round recreation throughout the property and in the surrounding New England coastal area, as well as to the 9,000-sq. ft. Spa at Cliff House and an 18-hole golf course adjacent to the property, MeetingsNet.com reported.
The Cliff House will expand further with additional guestrooms and an adults-only pool by spring 2017, MeetingsNet.com reported.
- The Valley News of West Lebanon, N.H. reported that a bid has been made to purchase the Jay Peak Resort in Jay, Vt. for $93 million, but the person who is overseeing the property through receivership said it is not for sale.
A seven-page document was filed in a Miami federal court as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil fraud case against Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros, the developers of Jay Peak and other projects in the “Northeast Kingdom” region, the Valley News reported. The filing, under the letterhead of Bellwether Asset Management, is titled “Letter of Intent to Purchase Shares and Associated Assets.”
The document outlines steps for Bellwether to buy Jay Peak Inc. from Q Resorts, a holding company run by Quiros.
The properties are in receivership, and a federal judge would have to approve any sale, the Valley News reported. The offer from Bellwether is not under consideration by Michael Goldberg, the resort’s court-appointed receiver.
“The property is not being sold to Bellwether. We’re not even selling it at this point,” Goldberg said in an e-mail, the Valley News reported. “It was an unsolicited offer.”
Goldberg, in his role as receiver, has the authority to act as the owner of Jay Peak Resort, the Valley News reported. He has held that position since April, days after the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Stenger, CEO and president of Jay Peak, and Quiros misused $200 million in funding from immigrant investors.
In the federal EB-5 visa program, investors put up at least $500,000, along with a $50,000 administrative fee, and in exchange were promised temporary green cards and eventual permanent U.S. residency, the Valley News reported.
For eight projects, six of which are at Jay Peak, Stenger and Quiros received $440 million in funds and fees from EB-5 investors. The cases against Stenger and Quiros remain pending.
The document filed in the case called for the $93 million purchase price to be paid in two installments, with $60 million due at closing and $33 million due once the property had been turned over to Bellwether, the Valley News reported.
The document states Bellwether would purchase all 9,232 “outstanding” shares of Jay Peak Inc. and “all the buildings, land, etc. therein.”
However, an attachment to the filing, “Exhibit A,” which outlines the “associated assets” that would be part of a sale omits some big-ticket items, including Hotel Jay, the Valley News reported.
The document does list about 60 other assets, starting with “all rights associated with the name ‘Jay Peak Ski Resort.’ ” Those other assets included the resort’s water park, golf course, wedding barn, townhomes, restaurants, ski lifts and snowmaking guns.
Valuations of the Jay Peak ski area—not including the EB-5 capital projects—have varied, the Valley News reported. Quiros says it is worth close to $87 million, based on an appraisal from last year. An economist for the SEC has set the value at $41.6 million.
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