Developer fails to shell out for $1.25bln resort

July 06, 2015 | 13:19

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The Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee last week decided to revoke the investment certificate of the controversial $1.25 billion Phoenix Beach resort in the central city of Nha Trang.

An artist's impression of the Phoenix Beach project.<br /><span>phoenixbeachvietnam.com</span>

According to Nguyen Chien Thang, Chairman of the Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee, the proposal to withdraw the investment certificate of Indian-backed Dewan International Vietnam (Dewan) – the project developer, was approved after the developer could not submit the first part of the legal capital commitment of $20 million by the deadline – June 30, 2015.

The Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) had previously submitted the revocation proposal to the people’s committee, claiming that the developer was not able to implement the project on schedule, and thus failed to give suitable explanations as to why there was a delay.

Prior to the deadline, DPI appealed to Dewan to attend a meeting on their legal capital contribution, however its representatives were unable to attend as they were out of the country.

The controversial beach resort was given its investment certificate initially in August 2014 where the legal capital requirement was set out as $100 million. According to the investment certificate, Dewan were supposed to submit VND420 billion ($20 million) before November 20, 2014, while the remaining VND1,680 billion ($80 million) was to be submitted 36 months after receiving the investment certificate. However, it has failed to submit so much as a penny to the local authorities since.

Dewan was not available for comment on this issue.

Covering a 74-hectare site by the sea, the developer planned to build a 40-65 storey Phoenix Garden, as well as a 40-45-storey hotel and service complex.

By By Ngoc Anh

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