The following was submitted on May 15, 2013 by Due Diligence, we apologize to the author for the late update. The local press has since highlighted this matter.
The Harlequin – Merricks scheme appears to be winding down with the investors accepting the inevitable. However before one can shout – Prime Minister Stuart with responsibility for Town Planning and Attorney General featured speaker at the ground breaking – we observe another investment heading South, it is called the Ecoterra – PURE Beach scheme.
Harlequin started selling its Caribbean properties in 2006. Ecoterra /PURE Beach has been promoting as far back as 2008 (three years before conditional approval was granted by T&CDP). Apparently Harlequin has taken deposits for 5/6,000 units sold to investors. There is no way of knowing how many unsophisticated “investors” have made deposits for units in PURE Beach. Based on what I have researched it is reasonable to guess that hundreds if not thousands of “investors” in Canada, Korea and elsewhere have purchased or made deposits on PURE Beach units.
Now that investors in PURE are being alerted that their “investment” may be at risk; it may prompt the developers to come forward with some clarity and transparency as to their finances. I have taken an interest in the articles about Ecoterra and PURE Beach Resort over the past year or so. As most of the comments have expressed scepticism (or cynicism); and on seeing the 3D animated video brought to our attention back in September, I decided to do a bit of research and analysis of the project and the parties.
Let me start by saying I have no vendetta or axe to grind with anyone involved with PURE Beach. Due Diligence is not anti-development, and indeed recognizes the economic value to develop the island’s resources for the benefit of Barbados, as well as for the parties to development projects. In the hands of the right developer, the 18 acres and beach front at Foul Bay could benefit all Barbadians.
However, considering how much the of the island’s coastline has been blighted by unfinished projects. and the beauty of the unspoiled Foul Bay beach, I believe that it is timely to have a close look at the “developer” to whom approval was apparently granted to “develop” (in the words of a PURE Beach promo) “the site considered one of the last beachfront development opportunities on the island available to accommodate a development of its size.”.
Blogger St. George’s Dragon asked – “Do you think it is a good idea to invest in the Foul Bat development? Would you recommend it to your friends?” I had the same questions, so I went digging.
It was the original intention to submit a short piece for publication; but as I Google-searched and made other enquiries, I ended up in places I never expected to go with stuff I did not expect to find. As I gathered information, the piece morphed out of control. It turns out that St. George’s Dragon and others, have but scratched the surface of the spider-web that is PURE Beach, and there was much more to be found by digging deeper. When I think I have found everything, something new pops up. When I revisit some of the sites visited early on, stuff has disappeared
Rather than submitting a normal submission for publication; I prepared a separate document in which the information gathered was recorded to send as an attachment. After several months of editing and adding to the document, it, too, grew to be too cumbersome, so I prepared several separate supporting documents. I have developed “search fatigue” and have to stop somewhere.
The document which is attached to this email, is arranged as if doing an analysis of PURE Beach Resort and Spa as an investment. I acknowledge that some of what is in the document was copy and pasted from earlier posts; but most have been copied and pasted from material from the web over the past few months, and direct contact with some of those selling PURE Beach. Despite the amount of information included in the document, there are many questions left unanswered.
On another blog skipperv said “GET THE HELL OUT RICH DEVELOPERS OF ENGLAND AND CANADA OR THEY WILL RUIN OUR LIFESTYLE! PURE CRAP!” Apart from projections (the reasonableness of which cannot be determined) in one of its promotional materials, the information found includes no financial data on the PURE project or the developers/sponsors/promoters; suggesting that the principals behind PURE Beach are NOT “RICH DEVELOPERS”.
The attached document was largely finished when I came upon two websites with some interesting material. The website www.issuu.com has been used for about two years to post promotional material items, usually 3 or 4 items which changed from time to time. Rather than edit or rewrite the original document now attached to capture the most recent material available, I have prepared a document focused on the PURE Beach promo material at www.issuu.com and recent media reports; which will follow. When I visited http://issuu.com/pure_beach_resort_and_spa/docs on April 30 there are 28 promotional material documents, many of which I had seen before, and most were re-posted over the last month or so. Most interesting is the January 2013 Newsletter, a Dave Ames-like letter of reassurance that there is steady progress and and they will be breaking ground in May 2013, and they have commitment for a substantial equity participation from Trizac Capital (Hong Kong).
The following is cut and pasted from http://hkdatabase.net.hk01.webems.cn/company.jsp?key=1749294 in a Google Search of Trizac Capital Hong Kong TRIZAC CAPITAL SOLUTIONS LIMITED established in Hong Kong on 23 May 2012. So far the only operations of the company: 317 day, not less than one year Company in Hong Kong registration number 1749294, belonging to Local companies (Private companies).
Further reading：TRIZAC CAPITAL SOLUTIONS LIMITED
Sounds strange to me that a promoter from Canada with no (apparent) equity and no apparent history, is getting “substantial equity participation” from an investor in Hong Kong in existence for less than a year, to build a major project in Barbados. A bit of a stretch. At http://www.ahaidea.com/event/read.asp?page=1&idx=707&sc=83 there were numerous promotional pieces providing a glimpse of the efforts to market the PURE Beach project by a promoter calling himself Doctor Money, to the Korean Canadian Community in the period from 2008 to 2011. The information has disappeared from www.ahaida.com. Two other websites used to promote PURE Beach are – http://purebeachresortandspa.tumblr.com, and http://free.yudu.com which contains four separate documents posted December 5, 2012
A visit to the Foul Bay site in March 2013 reveals that with the exception of the “ground breaking”, no work has been done to the Foul Bay site. I am not suggesting the promoters of PURE Beach have anything but the best and honourable intentions; nor that they have issued any misleading, untrue or insufficient documents and promotional materials to to the Government of Barbados in order to secure planning approval to develop the Foul Bay site, or to potential buyers or investors.
It may be embarrassing to the Prime Minister who has responsibility for Town and Country Development Planning, the Attorney General who was the featured speaker at the ground breaking, and the Minister of Tourism whose glowing letter of thanks is featured in the PURE Beach promotional materials. However, if the developer did make misrepresentations to Government in order to secure approval for the development, surely there will be be legal grounds to rescind the conditional approval posted to the www.issuu.com site.
With the embarrassment of Four Seasons, Harlequin/Merricks and other similar “investment opportunities”; Barbados can ill-afford another tarnish on its reputation as a place to invest and own a vacation home. Perhaps, if presented with these findings, Government will take whatever action required to stop the madness, prevent any further investment by unsuspecting and unsophisticated “investors”, and spare Barbados the further embarrassment of another major financial scandal should (when) the PURE house of cards comes tumbling down.
Due Diligence hopes the Central Bank Governor’s projection of private capital inflows of $600 million in 2013 is not counting on PURE Beach to make a contribution to that figure.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.