THE developers behind the multi- million resort development on Chub Cay yesterday said the project was progressing well, although several Bahamian contractors allegede that they have not been paid for several months for work done. Maura Brassil, Chub Cay's international vice-president of sales and marketing, told Tribune Business: "Sales are going very well. In fact, we have sold three homes and three villas in the past 14 days." She added that this was a major improvement for the resort's real estate component, as there had been a definite slowdown in that area over the past 50 days. "But they are back up to where they should be," Ms Brassil said of sales.

She said that to date, work on the 110-slip marina has been completed, eight homes are completely finished and 17 more still under construction, the 20,000 square foot club house is progressing and the 250,000 gallon pool has been completed. While Ms Brassil admitted that in some areas work may have gone slower than the developers had hoped, she said that given the scope of the project things are,progressing well. "It is a huge building and it is being done correctly," she pointed out.

Ms Brassil added that in the initial building process, work was done at a rapid pace. "We had more than 400 employees working. We were serving 1500 meals a day and they were working very fast. So now that that pace has slowed, it looks like we have stopped work, but that is really not the case."

Ms Brassil said she was not in a position to comment on the reports that the resort was experiencing financial difficulties, such as owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in duties to government and in fees to subcontractors.
However, contractor spoken to by The Tribune on condition of anonymity, due to fear of reprisals, confirmed they had not been paid for several months for work done on Chub Cay.

Ms Brassil said that she could also not comment on reports of a possible sale of the resort to Island Global Yachting (IGY).She said that the best person to answer questions in that regard would be Walt McCory, one of the three investors in the project, who this week is on vacation.

Source: The Tribune