Published On:Monday, November 02, 2009

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

THE lead developer of Lyford Hills has told Tribune Business that some $20-$25 million will have been invested in the subdivision's infrastructure once it is completed, with some four to five lots being sold per month despite the recession.

Tennyson Wells, the former FNM and independent MP and Cabinet minister, said all the sewerage lines had been put in for the 126-lot Phase I at Lyford Hills, with 70 per cent of the trenching for electricial, water and communications lines, and "40-50 per cent of the water, telecommunications and electricity" piping installed throughout the three-phase project.

"The infrastructure is going in," Mr Wells told Tribune Business. "We opened it [Lyford Hills] in May of this year, and we have all the sewerage lines for Phase I in. The roads are in throughout the entire subdivision - the base roads for phases I, II and III.

"I was hoping to have Phase I completed by the end of November, but hopefully by the end of January we should have completed it. We are about a month-and-a-half to a month behind the schedule of where we thought we would be now. The main reason [for the delay] was equipment problems."

Still, Mr Wells said he and the development team expected to "roll into Phase II within the month", that stage featuring 95 lots available for sale, with the third and final phase including "150-something" lots.

Lot prices, the former MP said, range from the $120,000s to around $300,000, with some four to five lots sold per month in Lyford Hills since the development started in May.

"We have sold about 20, and for quite of number of others, people are in the banks dealing with funding," Mr Wells added. "The interest in it has been very high. A lot of people want it, and we have sold four times as many as in previous developments."

As for his other real estate projects, Mr Wells said sales at the 115-lot Yuma Estates had "been very slow this year" as the economic contraction bit, prompting himself and the other investors to "take the bank out of it".

"We have purchased some of the lots ourselves, and will hopefully take the bank out of it in the next month or so," Mr Wells explained.

"We still have 20-odd lots left. We think that's a very good subdivision, and are not going to reduce the prices on that." Lots at Yuma Estates, he added, are priced from $90,000 up to $105,000.

As for the 181-lot South Seas, Mr Wells said some "30-odd" of those had already been sold, and he now had approval from both the Bahamas Environmental, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission and the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) to cut the channel for the planned marina, something that had already started.

At South Seas, lot prices range from $90,000 to $205,000, the latter being for the likes of commercial lots, fourplexes and triplexes.

As for his latest acquisition, the former Bacardi plant adjacent to the South Seas development, Mr Wells said he and his fellow investors were "still working on" their plans for the site and would be able to say more in a month's time.