bailout

Barbados Bails Out Four Seasons Project

Last month I wrote about the stalled Four Seasons Barbados project now it seems the project is getting help from the government of the island nation. The Wall Street Journal reports that in order to keep the project going and save jobs, the government of Barbados has agreed to guarantee a $60 million loan from a Caribbean bank to restart construction. In return the government will get a 20 percent equity stake in the project. But like all bailouts, it's risky, should the developer go belly up the Barbadian taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. While $60 million may be a drop in the bucket compared to the U.S. bailouts of car makers and banks, it's a lot for the small island nation which has a population of just about 270,000 people.

The project has attracted celebrity buyers including Simon Cowell and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Construction of the project stopped a year ago and debts began to mount on the property. The project calls for 36 luxury villas and a Four Seasons hotel. All the villas also offer services of butlers and other staff from the Four Seasons hotel whenever the villa owners are in residence. The villas will be outfitted with the finest finishes and antiques sourced form around the world. About half of the villas have been sold at prices from $11 million to $18 million apiece. The Four Seasons website proclaims that Paradise Beach Limited will recommence construction on site before the end of first quarter of 2010 and that the overall development master plan and the original hotel layout will both be revised to provide optimum use of the land but keeping all of the original facilities. The developers are still charged with finding another 19 buyers ready to pay high prices for the villas in order to complete the project and at least for Barbados' sake we hope they find them.

Tags: bailout, barbados, development, four seasons, FourSeasons

Fresno To Bail Out Its Museum

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

One California city has stepped in to save its museum. City officials in Fresno will pay off a $15 million debt owed by the Fresno Metropolitan Museum. In return the town will receive the deeds to the museum building and its other real estate around the museum which the city can develop or sell. The city will then lease the building back to the museum. The museum is expected to pay over $2 million back to the city over the course of the next decade in staggered payments that take the current economic picture into account. The museum officials have also agreed to watch their budget more closely, fund raise more and have more family-friendly exhibits. The museum's board of trustees has approved the agreement which is now pending approval by the Fresno City Council.

Source

Tags: art, bailout, california, fresno, museum

Italy Plans Fashion Bailout

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

The economy has hit just about every industry including fashion. Here in the States we've had bailouts of investment firms, banks and automakers but no handouts for the fashion industry. They do things a little different in Italy. The Italian minister of economic development Claudio Scajola is planning to allocate money to help Italy's fashion industry which has seen revenues tumble as consumer spending falls.

Italy has already approved a stimulus package of several billion dollars to help carmakers and the makers of domestic appliances. Italy sees fashion as part of its heritage and as the head of Italy's Chamber of Fashion Mario Boselli told WWD: "wouldn't fashion deserve the same, if not more, consideration than the furniture industry?" Michele Tronconi, president of Italy's Textile and Fashion Federation was also quoted by Bloomberg as saying there was an "urgent and dire need" for government aid.

The recent economic troubles of IT Holding SpA, owner of the Gianfranco Ferre and Just Cavalli labels has worried the industry, which employs around 800,000 people and includes around 30,000 distribution companies. The "Made in Italy" branding is big business around the world, half of the industry's revenue comes from exports.

Tags: bailout, fashion, italy