Contracts to sell Indies Suites and an adjoining property to St. Matthew’s University School of Medicine were signed on 2 December, 2004, Indies Suites Ltd.’s provisional liquidator Chris Johnson said on Tuesday.
The contracted sale culminated with Transfer of Land documents dated 27 January.
Stamp duty on the two parcels was paid in early February, finalising the transfer.
Mr. Johnson said he had also learned that there was US$1.1 million dollars still owed on a US$2 million loan from Cayman National Bank on the parcel of land where the hotel was situated.
The adjoining parcel of land had a registered mortgage for US$1 million, but Mr. Johnson said he had not determined what the outstanding balance of that loan was.
The hotel parcel sold for US$1.3 million, while the adjoining parcel sold for US$1.5 million.
Indies Suites owner Ronnie Foster has said the proceeds of the sale went to pay off the mortgage.
St. Matthew’s University has begun reconstruction of the Indies Suites property and is using the old structure.
However, the parcel of land with the hotel actually sold for approximately US$1.45 less per square foot than the vacant lot.
Mr. Foster said in the past that the hotel property sold for land value only
A local quality surveyor said the US$16.21 per square foot price of the hotel property seemed low even for raw land.
In a statement that appeared in Cayman Net News on 13 June, Mr. Foster said he received the final insurance settlement on the property on 3 June, four days before Indies Suites Ltd. was put into provisional liquidation.
Mr. Foster indicated in May that the offer for the final insurance settlement was CI$500,000.
He did not say in his press statement what the amount of the final insurance settlement ended up being.
An interim insurance settlement payment of CI$200,000 was made in December, but Mr. Foster said it was used to make mortgage payments on the property and to pay CI$54,000 of severance payment to Indies Suites’ employees.
In the press statement Mr. Foster said alternatives were being explored to negotiate a suitable alternative arrangement for club members.
Mr. Foster said Indies Suites Club members as a whole represented about 20 per cent of the possible usage of the property.
Mr. Foster said a sum of money representing in excess of 20 per cent of the pre-Ivan value of Indies Suites had been set aside in escrow after receiving the final insurance settlement.
‘The sum remains in escrow and should an alternative property for use by club members not materialise, the sum which has been set aside will be paid over to club members,’ the statement said.
In his press statement, Mr. Foster did not quantify the sum set aside, nor did he quantify the pre-Ivan value of Indies Suites.
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