The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A LEADING homeowner at Exuma’s controversy-torn Oceania Heights project yesterday expressed disappointment that just 27 per cent of property owners had to-date paid their 2014 maintenance fees, telling Tribune Business he and several others were “busting our ass to turn this around”.

Chris Fleming said that with just $33,190 in Oceania Heights’ bank account “a week ago last Friday”, this indicated that the annual $1,000 maintenance charge had been paid for just 33 out of the development’s 125 lots.

With FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) having agreed to pay for the two homes and one lot it holds, Mr Fleming added that just 27 per cent of property investors had paid up.

Emphasising that he wanted to almost double maintenance fee income to at least $60,000 for 2014, Mr Fleming said “monetising assets” and generating revenue streams were vital to finance Oceania Heights’ upgrading.

He revealed, though, that the development’s Homeowners Association, which has taken over control at Oceania Heights, was eyeing potential multi-million dollar income - the greatest source being 17 unsold lots that are valued at a collective $3 million.

“We’ve got a sound plan, we just need to execute,” Mr Fleming told Tribune Business. “We’re in the execution stage. We’re going to try and make this thing right. We’ve got some things going and are moving forward. People are responding to the letter I wrote.

“I wrote the community a letter and told them how disappointed I was over the maintenance fees. A few of us are busting our ass, and we’re starting to turn this thing around.

“I have $34,000, and I’m really hoping to get up to $60,000 on maintenance fees. Since I wrote that note, people have been coming out of the woodwork. I said they’d have until the end of April, and if I didn’t hear from them, I’d assume they’ve withdrawn.”

Any homeowners who ‘withdraw’, and do not pay their maintenance fee, will be faced with the loss of their lot, as ownership would revert back to the Homeowners Association.

In his letter, obtained by Tribune Business, Mr Fleming wrote: “I am disappointed at this low rate of participation. I am even more disappointed at some of the requests I have received. For example, I have been asked to provide a business plan for the community with full financial projections as a condition for the payment of the requested annual maintenance fees.

“First, let me respectfully remind everyone, I do not get paid for any of the work my wife and I are performing, and have performed over the past four-plus years, at Oceania for the benefit of the community as a whole.

“Second, a very small group of people have worked exceedingly hard to represent all of the home and lot owners at Oceania Heights, and it is the result of all of our hard work and the more than $300,000 of our own money that we have spent on legal, and other, fees that we have reached a point where Oceania is now finally taking its very first steps to becoming the kind of resort that we were all sold. Let me be clear, where we are today is a far, far better place than when we began our work more than four years ago.”

Mr Fleming said this appeared to have woken up many homeowners, although he acknowledged that several had chose to abandon their investments due to Oceania Heights’s problems over the years.

The Homeowners Association took control as part of a government-mediated solution, led by Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis, to a dispute that was tearing the development apart. It led to the exit of Oceania Heights’ initial developers, Canadian citizen Howard Obront and Bahamian attorney Anthony Thompson.

Mr Fleming, meanwhile, said the Association had managed to “clean up the front of the resort” and landscape it, and was now looking to execute a contract for painting the walls, office and security hut.

And the community had gained some notable new residents, including Exuma’s head of police, Superintendent Daniels, who is renting a property at Oceania Heights for two years.

“We were having break-ins and that’s all stopped,” Mr Fleming told Tribune Business, revealing plans to install a development-wide security system, including cameras.

Oceania Heights’ most lucrative source of income to finance its build-out and completion of the remaining infrastructure are the 23 unsold lots now in the Association’s possession.

Pedro Rolle, the Exuma Chamber of Commerce and Oceania Heights’ president, is now moving to try and sell these in his ‘day job’ as a realtor.

“Pedro has scheduled 20 people coming in from the US, real estate agents and buyers very interested in buying in the Bahamas,” Mr Fleming told Tribune Business. “We’re trying to liquidate some of those lots, and what we make goes back into the resort.”

With each lot valued at around $200,000, Mr Fleming wrote in his letter to the other homeowners: “The Homeowners Association now owns approximately 17 properties. These are estimated to have a current value in excess of $3 million.

“I want to point out that our whole premise for operating is to invest the funds we raise into the community in order to increase the value of each property in the community..... We also have longer term plans, which include our top priority of securing access from the community to the beach.”

On that front, Mr Fleming said he was negotiating with the Bahamian owners of 11 lots that the Privy Council ruled belong to Oceania Heights, not to them, in a bid to create “a win-win situation for everybody”.

With Oceania Heights required to pay them for those lots, Mr Fleming said he was proposing a ‘land swap’ - exchanging lots in the development for the property owned by those 11 Bahamians, which would give residents - via an easement right - access to the beach.

“It’s a pretty good trade,” Mr Fleming told Tribune Business.

And, identifying other sources, he added that two out of six Oceania Heights purchasers who had not fully paid for their lots had agreed a settlement where they paid-off 50 per cent of the remaining balance via monthly instalments over four years.

“I’m not sure I’m going to capture all of them, but I’m going to capture two,” Mr Fleming said.

And a further fortuitous source of recovery are two autos, and a boat, previously used by Mr Obront that were registered in the name of Oceania Heights Ltd - the company now taken over by the Homeowners Association.

Mr Fleming said he anticipated a net $50,000 profit from selling the three, with a White 2006 Cadillac SRX potentially sold for $15,000. A deal was also in the offing for a Silver Dodge Grand Caravan at $7,500, with a boat captain interested in the boat for around $30,000.

“I think we’re making tremendous progress,” he told Tribune Business.