Submitted by Due Diligence
You will probably think I am flogging a dead horse; but since PURE Beach Resort has all the signs of being a dead horse, here goes anyway. I happened on a new PURE Beach YouTube video posted recently. It is simply a new and expanded version of previous 3D renderings. There is also an October 2013 investor presentation. Clearly the promoters are still active flogging PURE Beach to unsophisticated “investors”.
I was going to post a comment to one of the BU Harlequin blogs but thought it might not get much attention because the original post was too long for BU readers to take the time to read and digest. In your opening comment to the original blog you said the local press has since highlighted this matter. There having been no further reporting in the local media, I think it timely to resurrect the matter. I believe that you referred to the September 4 story in Barbados Today $500M snag: Luxury St. Philip tourism/residential project delayed by financial problems.
I recently also came across the original message from the management of Pure Beach Resort & Spa assuring their “founding members” the venture remains “attractive and viable” and that new joint venture partners were coming on board and additional sources of funding being secured”; which had apparently been leaked to Barbados Today and was the basis of its story. An April 24, 2013, letter to Dear Founding Members is posted on the website of M. Montgomery Insurance, of Bradford, Ontario.
At http://mmins.com you will see Pure Beach listed as an “Alternative Investment”; so it would follow that Montgomery is selling the Pure Beach project to its clients. The letter to the Founding Members was likely received by Montgomery as a Founding Member (whatever that means), and it posted it (in the NEWS tab) to allay the concerns of those who made an investment through them. As you can see in the letter, Management says “Each of these firms (The institutional lenders/investors) has been afforded full and transparent information on the current status of PURE project”.
Questions for the Attorney General, Minister of Finance and the Minister to whom Town and Country Planning reports. Has PURE afforded full and transparent information on the current status of PURE project to GO?. If so, will they afford the Barbados public with full and transparent information on the current status of PURE project? If they have not been afforded full and transparent information on the current status of PURE project, will they demand it?
The letter also says “Barbados has weathered that recession and is beginning to recover: visitor arrivals have increased through the past number of years and are up this Winter, over last year”. That is simply not true.
Ecoterra/PURE Beach has been promoting this project as far back as 2008 (three years before conditional approval was granted by T&CDP). There is no way of knowing how many unsophisticated “investors” have made deposits for units in PURE Beach; but 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
It now being over seven months since being advised of the financing problems and no apparent resolution to those problems, the “trust” of the investors in PURE (the Founding Members), will be growing thin; and litigation would seem inevitable.
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. It is time for Government to take whatever action required to stop the madness at Foul Bay, 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.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.