Sea Island In Financial Trouble

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 25th 2008 at 7:01PM

The Sea Island resort in Georgia is the latest luxury business to be hit by hard times. Back in August, Sea Island laid off around 500 workers, nearly a quarter of the staff. Now the resort is facing bigger financial trouble. The resort, which hosted the G8 Summit and has been visited by presidents, celebrities and dignitaries of all sorts, has been owned for six decades by the family of William "Bill" Jones III, its current chairman and CEO. The economic downturn has meant empty hotel rooms for the luxury enclave which has been struggling with debt since a massive redevelopment and expansion of the resort that cost more than $400 million. More of the expensive homes on the island are also up for sale than usual.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle the family is said to be exploring a possible sale of equity in the company to get their hands on some ready cash. They may also be considering selling other real estate but it's not a great time to be doing that either. The resort is doing everything it can to keep the Jones family in charge but the ambitious real estate development on the island was planned for a different time and the resulting jeavy debt could now mean some big changes are ahead.

Tags: georgia, sea island, SeaIsland