The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The auction sale of a Paradise Island resort has been put back by one week to September 13, Tribune Business was told yesterday, with interest in the property - priced at a base $6 million - said to be “significantly high”.

Valentine Grimes, the Bahamian attorney for Paradise Island Harbour Resort owners, Gemwood Paradise Ltd (Driftwood Hospitality) and Lehman Brothers, confirmed to this newspaper that the resort’s sale had not been cancelled - only postponed by one week.

“The date has, for the better part of a week, been rescheduled from the sixth (tomorrow) to the 13th,” Mr Grimes said, after Tribune Business sources suggested incorrectly that the sale had been postponed due to lack of buyer interest, and the owners were now revising their strategy.

Dismissing that suggestion, Mr Grimes added: “The interest has been significant - significantly high.”

The CBRE Auction Services website promoting the property’s sale, which is being directed by a Lehman Brothers Holdings subsidiary, confirms that September 13 is the new auction date with “real-time online bidding” starting at 12pm.

The 246-room all-inclusive resort is marketed as “ideally positioned as the affordable, all-inclusive alternative to the adjacent high-rated, world-renowned Atlantis resort.

“The resort’s location offers the ambiance of a private escape, yet is only a short stroll through colourful Harborside Village to the casino, dining, shopping, attractions and the excitement at Atlantis.

“The resort presents investors with the opportunity to acquire a full-service resort unencumbered by management or franchise agreements, allowing an investor to renovate, reposition, and brand the asset to generate significant profit.”

Minimum bids start at $6 million.

Tribune Business reported earlier this year how a previous offer to purchase the Paradise Island Harbour Resort (the former Holiday Inn Sunspree) had fallen through after the potential buyers failed to come up with the necessary financings. Several attempts are understood to have been made previously to sell the property, but with no success.