By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

Former workers at the Crowne Plaza Golf Resort and Casino at the Royal Oasis will get first pick at employment when the property reopens and government is expected to make an official announcement of the long-awaited sale this week.

The resort property is inclusive of a Towers, Country Club and Casino amounting to 965 rooms and 98 timeshare units which shut down in September 2004 after Hurricane Frances, forcing the lay offs of some 1,300 employees.

World Investments Holdings (WIH) signed a contract with Lehman Brothers, the financiers of the resort, on Monday for the purchase and a subsequent contract — the foundation of the sale — was concluded on Tuesday.

The Florida-based group is a combination of investors with a long history in other areas, who came together for the development of several investments around the world. The Oasis purchase is one of them.

An arrangement between the seller and the buyer on a couple of matters had to be reached before the public announcement, which was expected to have taken place on Wednesday.

A second bidder, Harcourt Developments, a property construction and management company based in Dublin, Ireland, was also vying for the property.

The Harcourt Group was at the table long before WIH arrived and was a serious competitor up to the end. The WIH group only came into the picture in early May of this year.

WIH attorney Jethro Miller says the Royal Oasis investment is a first for the group and all parties have worked through intense issues to get to the contract stage.

"It's been a long and arduous process getting to this point," Miller said yesterday.

The resort was reportedly on the market for $29 million, but a pending sale to the Harcourt Group fell through last year.

The gross price for the resort property is $40 million, The Freeport News has learned.

Prime Minister Perry Christie, in a recent interview with this daily, disclosed that one of the two bidders was prepared to pay the purchase price and go beyond that with knowledge of the challenges that surround the Royal Oasis.

In May 2005, government paid out an unprecedented $5 million of the $6.12 million to 900 displaced workers owed by the resort, the second largest in Grand Bahama.

The remaining $1.12 million was expected to have been paid "in short order," but is still outstanding. Government said it needs Parliament approval.

Lehman Brothers reportedly owes $2.7 million to the Grand Bahama Port Authority; $2.5 million to National Insurance; $4.1 million to the Workers Pension Fund; $13 million in casino taxes; and more than $55,000 to vendors in Grand Bahama.

The prime minister recently disclosed that the $5 million pay out government made in severance packages to Royal Oasis workers will be reimbursed in full and the balance of the money owed to the displaced employees.

It is expected that the towers and the casino will reopen first and, government wants that to happen as quickly as possible.

While in Grand Bahama three weeks ago, Prime Minister Christie revealed that how quickly the resort reopens after the sale will depend entirely on the new owners.

He noted that the reopening of the resort has great implications for Grand Bahama, particularly for the International Bazaar, its neighbour, where a majority of its shops were forced to shut down.

Prime Minister Christie, who was optimistic about an early resolution to the sale, said the new buyers will want to open as quickly as possible.

Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe told The Freeport News yesterday that government is doing its part to ensure everything goes smoothly.

"The government is making sure that every 'T' is crossed, every 'I' is dotted; that all is in place. All the players are ready to move and we're not just engaged in a speculative exercise, but actually something that is going to begin the wheels moving in Grand Bahama and, in particular, at the property there," he said.

The minister anticipates that an announcement of the sale will be made.

"We're hoping that something will move very shortly," he said.

The contract itself means there is going to be a lot of economic activity once the renovation work begins at the hotels, Wilchcombe pointed out.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars are going to be spent almost immediately," he said, "millions of dollars in fact."

All parties want to move toward a projected opening which will be another plus for the tourism industry in Grand Bahama he says as well as the plans for the displaced workers.

"I understand that the new operators have suggested that they will give the former employees first opportunity. That's excellent news," he said.