The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net BETWEEN $10-$12 million has been invested in the 281-lot South Seas subdivision to date, its developer said yesterday, telling Tribune Business that the project "didn't move as we anticipated, but it's moving". Former Cabinet minister and ex-MP, Tennyson Wells, said that after not marketing the subdivision - located off Bacardi Road in southern New Providence - for nearly a year, it was being put back on the market to generate sales. "We are putting it back on the market to see if we can generate some sales. We really weren't marketing it for almost a year now. We had a run in with the Bahamas National Trust, and then when that was resolved the bottom dropped out of the economy," he explained. Mr Wells said that leading up this Saturday's open house, 20-30 lots have been sold at a discounted price of around $70,000. He added: "We have a open-house this coming Saturday. We are discounting the price of the land to generate sales. "We are trying to generate sufficient sales to eliminate a small balance we have with the bank. If someone buys a lot with utilities, we are discounting those lots up to 20 per cent. We are probably going to do that with about 20 to 30 lots, so those lots would probably being going for around $70,000." "We will pay the bank back, around a couple hundred thousand. It's basically almost debt free. From there we will develop it on a steady pace going forward. We have invested some $10-12 million thus far." Mr Wells said the development had been temporarily halted due to environmental concerns. "We started in 2005 and we worked on it for about a year. We started to cut the channel in 2008 and we had to stop," he recalled. "We got that sorted out in late 2009/early 2010. We already cut out the marina, all the base roads are in, the electricity, water and sewerage lines completed in phase I, and a portion of the electricity lines are in for phases II and III. There are two occupied homes in phase I and six under construction. It didn't move as we anticipated but it is moving." Mr Wells added: "By June we will be building model homes to sell, so that it will have the style and class we intended it to have, and we will then move towards getting the marina and yacht club started."