Canadian company exploring purchase of Treasure Cay Resort and Marina

Thu, Mar 20th 2014, 12:06 PM

A Vancouver-based resort company which took over the management of the Ginn Sur Mer property in Grand Bahama is looking into the possible purchase of 550 acres of property in Treasure Cay, Abaco, with a view to a possible further development of the area, Guardian Business has learned.
Replay Resorts is looking at the land, currently owned by the Meister family, owner/operators of Treasure Cay Ltd. and Dolphin Encounters on Salt Cay, which includes the Treasure Cay resort and Marina and some additional vacant property.
German-born Ludwig Meister bought 1,500 acres of Treasure Cay in 1981. Today the area includes an array of rental properties, privately owned homes, a 150-slip marina, restaurant and golf course. The development is situated on what is considered one of the world's top beaches, Treasure Cay beach.
A source with knowledge of the matter said: "(Representatives of Replay Resorts) are in Treasure Cay all the time these days. They are looking at the Meister property, but it's very, very secretive."
The Meister property had been close to a sale around three years ago, but the deal was dropped after the government reportedly placed conditions on any future development of the site that the buyer considered too prohibitive.
"The developer walked away," said the source of that deal.
Replay Resorts describes itself as "in the business of planning, designing, building and orchestrating experience-driven destinations".
"To do so, we reassess, restructure and re-energize great places and, once we have, we then re-engage the marketplace," it states on its website.
In relation to Grand Bahama, Replay Resorts was brought into the picture in 2012 by a Credit Suisse-led syndicate after a loan default by developers Bobby Ginn and Lubert Adler saw the $4.9 billion West Grand Bahama Ginn Sur Mer project placed into foreclosure in 2010.
Under a settlement, Credit Suisse controlled approximately 1,600 acres of the West End, Grand Bahama site.
According to its website, Replay Resorts manages a "master planned destination resort... for a consortium of financial partners (in Grand Bahama) and is proceeding with the first stages of planning for the development of this magnificent property".
"The site was originally intended to be an Atlantis-size resort and casino known as Ginn Sur Mer. Our plan calls for a style of resort development more in scale with tropical settings and with the
plantation-era, colonial period of The Bahamas," it adds.
On its website, Replay Resorts states that it "inherited" around $200 million-worth of infrastructural development when it took over the Ginn project. It is not clear what the status of that development is today. In 2012, Replay Resorts' Chief Executive Officer Bill Green had highlighted challenges in identifying development partners.
The company also has management control of the Turtle Bay Resort, the only destination resort located on Oahu, Hawaii's North Shore, on behalf of a consortium of owner-investors. Its responsibilities there include repositioning and rebranding the resort, reinventing the hotel, including its food-and-beverage operations, and improving its financial outlook.
In Puerto Los Cabos, Mexico, Replay has partnered with the master developer of a resort, Mexico-based Grupo Questro, to lead the design and development of a mixed-use marina village. Other projects are underway in California and the Dominican Republic.
Messages left for Ludwig Meister's son Robert, and Replay Resorts, seeking comment were not returned up to press time.

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