APR 24

The ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is on the hunt for another investor to try and complete the multi-million dollar Golf course and hotel project for Levera on the northern side of the island.

Informed sources told GRENADA TODAY that the project is now at a standstill and the original developers from the united States have apparently left the island before completing the work.

Government had guaranteed 29.7 million dollars to a company formed by the foreign investors known as the Grenada Development Committee (GDC). The source declined to say whether the investors had managed to draw down on all of the money before 'abandoning' the project and leaving the island.

He also refused to comment on whether the government had compensated property owners in the area for confiscating their
lands for the developers to use to build the golf course.

One of the property owners who came back home from England and had threatened to take legal action against government for taking his lands has since died. The source could not shed any new light on what progress the Mitchell government had made in trying to secure another foreign investor to complete the project.

However, he said that talks are being held with two groups of potential investors from the United States to try and attract them to the Golf course. Former opposition leader Michael Baptiste had been critical of the Mitchell government in parliament for the manner in which it had entered into the multi-million dollar loan guarantee with the GDC group for the project.

He said the government had failed to pick up signals at an early stage that the so-called developers did not have money to finance a project of that magnitude. "I remember telling the government in parliament that the man (Andrew Oliver) who came down here on behalf of the developers was staying with some people in Happy Hill and not in a hotel.

"If the man had any money he would have been staying in a hotel. This was reason enough for the Prime Minister to see through the man.
"It is a shame to see the amount of people who come down here with empty briefcases and get this government to give them guarantees. Meanwhile, the Mitchell government is said to be holding talks with Texan billionaire, Allan Stanford to invest in the Ritz Carlton hotel planned for Mt. Hartman in the south of the island.

Stanford is known to have met with members of the Grenada Cabinet to outline his conditions for getting involved in investment in Grenada. Speculation is rife that the businessman is looking for commitments from the Mitchell government to provide for casino gambling in order to get him to invest in the planned Ritz Carlton.

Former Foreign Minister and one-time Parliamentary Representative for the South St. George constituency, Mark Isaac has been talking in recent weeks of the need for the island to move in the direction of casino gambling in order to boost the tourism sector.