Marketer for prime Fiji real estate named

June 26, 2009 11:22:39 AM

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Global real estate specialists Cushman and Wakefield will be marketing the partially completed Momi Resort overseas ahead of a planned auction date of July 22, a statement issued yesterday revealed.   

The statement was issued by New Zealand real estate Agent Bayleys Real Estate, stating that it has been appointed by the project’s first-ranking mortgagee Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) to handle the sale of the first stage of the Momi development “which encompasses more than 350 residential sites, a partially completed nine-hole golf course, golf clubhouse, and hotel complex.”

It said the property would be marketed globally with the assistance of Bayleys’ international affiliate Cushman & Wakefield, “one of the world’s largest commercial real estate companies”.

“They have a particularly strong presence in the resort and hotel sector and they will be helping us flush out any big international players that might be interested in picking up the project,” said Bayleys’ special projects manager Russell Adams. 

The Momi project is being abandoned by FNPF after the collapse of project partner and New Zealand based Bridgecorp eroded the deal.

Adams said the project was well advanced with much of the external structural work for the originally planned hotel complex completed.

“There is still a significant amount of finishing off and fitting out, along with some remedial work, still to be done. However, we would estimate that an experienced developer could complete the project within 12 to 18 months,” he said, although declining to put a figure on what the selling price could be.

“At this stage we do not know what it might sell for because a sale of a project of this type and scale has not been attempted before in Fiji. But we will get a gauge of what interest there is and where the market is sitting over the next month or so,” Adams said.

Interested buyers are potentially looking at:
•    considerable structural construction work completed on the resort’s distinctive Fijian canoe-style bures, as well as on what were to be Fiji’s over-water bungalows, located on a large lagoon.
•    Three of the six guest room blocks had been roofed, and work was also well advanced on the remaining guest accommodation and facilities.
•    The first nine holes of the 18-hole championship golf course designed by Thomson Perrett to USPGA-standards, had been bedded down and the club house was also taking shape.
•    The residential sections are positioned on layered natural corridors from the forested highlands behind the resort, through the golf course and down to the white sand beaches, with building platforms selected for their views.

The first stage of the development encompasses 43 hectares of crown foreshore lease plus a mix of freehold and native lease titles.

“The outstanding location remains and the bones of a potentially world-class development are there,” said John Bayley, executive chairman of Bayleys Real Estate.

“The necessary consents are still in place and the Fiji Government would like to see the project finished.”

The auction is scheduled to be held at the Intercontinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa, Natadola Beach, Natadola, Fiji at 1.30pm on Wednesday July 22nd 2009.