The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The former $4.9 billion Ginn sur Mer project is being “very aggressively marketed” to targeted potential purchasers, Tribune Business was told yesterday, with a $75-$80 million outlay likely to acquire the entire property.

Highly-placed sources familiar with developments in Grand Bahama’s West End said the existing two ownership groups had realised they needed to work together to sell the development as a single entity.

Several groups have visited the Ginn sur mer site in recent weeks, some with Bahamian ties and/or connections to existing Bahamas-based developers, which is understood to have made the vendors optimistic they can close a sale in 2015.

Prime Minister Perry Christie sought to interest Chinese state-owned interests in acquiring the former Ginn development during his recent trip to the Far East.

But Tribune Business was told that while Chinese groups had made initial inquiries, and Obie Wilchcombe, the minister of tourism, had brought one down to West End to see the property, no formal offers or information requests had been made from that source.

However, this newspaper was told that the West End vendors had engaged the services of a US realtor to market the former Ginn sur mer property to targeted buyers with the expertise, financing and track record to fulfill the original vision.

“Because of the aggressive approach by the sellers, there’s renewed interest in this property,” one well-placed contact told Tribune Business. “Lubert Adler is very aggressively marketing this property, and $75-$80 million could be a number that will work.”

The property has two owners, following the Ginn Development Company’s default on its project financing obligations.

What would have been the core project is owned by Lubert-Adler, the Philadelphia-based investment bank that was Ginn’s financing partner.

It holds 280 acres that were earmarked as the site for the hotels and casino, and its landholdings also include key amenities such as the airport, marina and utilities.

Lubert-Adler also controls the Old Bahama Bay Resort, the golf course, the existing marina, commercial facilities such as the restaurants and retail, and associated operational facilities.

But a Credit Suisse-led lending syndicate took possession of the remaining 1,476 acres at the former Ginn sur mer project after Ginn Development Company defaulted on its $276 million loan.

It effectively inherited the real estate component of the Ginn project, and is looking to develop that in partnership with its own master planner, Replay Resorts.

The two different owners have been eyeing each other warily for the past four years, but sources yesterday said they were “coming together” after realising they could maximise their exit price - and potential recovery - by selling the former Ginn sur mer as one.

“It’s very difficult to sell that property when it’s bifurcated that way,” one source said. “Whoever buys it has to acquire both assets.”

The potential purchaser will also obtain “a lot of equity for nothing”, given that it will pick up $300 million worth of infrastructure that is already in the ground at West End, following a $500 million capital spend by the initial developer.

The seeming uptick in the world economy, plus increased demand in the Florida real estate market and shortage of condos there, are all seen as favourable signs that developer/buyer interest in the former Ginn sur mer property is set to increase.

“There have been inquiries from the Chinese,” one source said, “but there’s not been any legitimate venture by them to acquire that property.”

The purchase, and further development, of West End by a buyer that has the financing and know-how to fulfill the original plans would represent a massive employment and investment boost for the Grand Bahama and wider Bahamian economy when it needs it most.

As a result, any bona fide purchaser will likely attract the Government’s support.