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Posted By: IslandinParadise Fountain Blue - 01/24/02 07:54 PM
I'm trying to find a place to stay for the month of July. I've admired Fountain Blue before and I thought I would try them out. But when I e-mailed them, I got a response saying that their business was closed due to unforseen reasons. Anybody know whats up? Thanks-Melissa
Posted By: KimBehindDoorNbr3 Re: Fountain Blue - 01/25/02 07:03 PM
Ooooowwww, Melissa!

I was just gonna ask Lan about that in private--so now I don't feel so bad.

Here's my story...

Last week was guaranteed a room for a 5-day stay in Nov. at an AMAZING off-list price. Responses to all inquiries were prompt and complete. Great, great, great !!!

(The suites are beautiful and incredibly well-appointed. We toured them last holiday season.)

Got an email yesterday saying that "due to circumstances beyond our control" we must canx your stay. Placed a gentle inquiry back and recieved a very nice note explaining that they are "out of business...expect to reopen...are just uncertain of when", etc.

If they reopen in time for you to go, please drop me a line and I'll tell you about my rate. Hate to publish it directly, 'cuz now that I know there may have been $$ problems, it may not due the general board any good and may due Fountain Blue some harm when they re-open.

Have a wonderful time!!!

K.
[email protected]
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 01/25/02 08:39 PM
I don't know for sure what the problem is but hope to find out. What I do know is that there were some problems that had occurred here and there due to poor construction. The pool had to be fixed and to do so, was likely going to entail tearing up the beautiful courtyard. Some of the air-conditioning was not properly installed and it caused major water damage in the ceilings of a couple of units. There was a hot water problem. In any event, this is a beautiful property and I'm hopeful that whatever is going on can quickly be resolved. If it is indeed these things I've set out here, I'm very surprised that they would cancel a reservation for next November, so that is very curious.
Posted By: KimBehindDoorNbr3 Re: Fountain Blue - 01/25/02 08:52 PM
Ugh...well, I *guess* if that's it (like that isn't nearly enough), it's somewhat better news than I had feared. (They've been SO easy to work with!) Thanks, Seashell!

Melissa-had a "thirty-something moment". My e-ddress, should you need it, is:

[email protected]

Thanks all!

K.
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 01/25/02 09:58 PM
Yes, they would have been easy to work with. Selena is one of the best property managers on the Caye, IMO.
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 01/26/02 06:06 PM
Hasn't anyone been able to find out what has actually happened?
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 01/31/02 11:21 AM
Doesn't anyone know? This a major condotel on the island shut down. Someone must know something?

Marty, Lan?
Posted By: bywarren Re: Fountain Blue - 01/31/02 03:00 PM
The hotel is in recievership. The bank has forclosed and plans to auction it off.
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 01/31/02 04:24 PM
Oh no! That is a shame! Though I'm equally sure that there are others that don't agree with that sentiment.

Here in Canada when a property like this goes into receivership, the receiver will keep the business running thereby ensuring the value stays up as high as possible for the sale. Does that not happen down there?
Posted By: ScubaLdy Re: Fountain Blue - 02/01/02 03:54 AM
I loved their web page so much I had the picure of the place, lighted up at night, as a wall paper on my computer here at work. Everyone ohed and ahed over it.
When I was down in November I visited Selina. The place looked nice but was very pricey and rooms small. They were not running it as a hotel or resort; wanted to sell condos. Too bad.
Harriette
Posted By: Lan Sluder/Belize First Re: Fountain Blue - 02/01/02 04:06 AM
I agree about the prices. Fountain Blue's in-season rates were way high, though off-season they were more in line with the market.

It's amazing, really, that a place like this could open in July and close in January. Even the worst business usually takes far longer to fail, and just getting the paperwork in place to foreclose on it takes time.

The seeds of the problem clearly were sowed earlier.

--Lan Sluder
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 02/01/02 12:57 PM
I don't understand why everyone keeps saying that the suites were small?

The one that I stayed in and the others that I veiwed were a decent size. They were laid out a bit differently is all and personally, I thought that a good thing. The reason I found that to be a good thing was because I envisioned a family of four or two couples or two singles staying in these one bedroom places.

I felt that there was more privacy afforded due to the layout of the suites than that found in virtually all of the other one bedroom suites I've seen. (most certainly more private than Mayan Princess).

That this place is suffering business reversals is a shame. However, part of it they may have brought on themselves. There is a lot to be said for promoting new businesses and when they first became operational, they offered no deals or promotions (AFAIK) to the point of letting the hotel sit empty. Even as tourism dropped off through the autumn for most significant and various reasons, still there were no discounts afforded. By the time FB started to accommodate such discounts, apparently, it was too late.

I still find it very sad, all in all. Still a beautiful property.
Posted By: bywarren Re: Fountain Blue - 02/01/02 03:14 PM
Pay attention to Lan's words "the seeds of the problem clearly were sowed ealier". In those words lay the explanation to the situation. The only way to be a little more specific would have been to subsitute the word plot for problem.
Posted By: seashell Re: Fountain Blue - 02/01/02 04:08 PM
bywarren, you wouldn't be suggesting a conspiracy theory would you?
Posted By: bywarren Re: Fountain Blue - 02/01/02 04:54 PM
NO!!!! Absolutly not. But, let me tell you about another Central American country I lived in before coming to Belize. It was called Bereave. They had a saying "You better bereave me". Very profetic since the country as I knew it has died. While there I was able to obtain a loan from the goverment to build a hotel. They loaned me almost twice the amount I needed to build the hotel and did not require any of my personal assets to be at risk. Being so grateful for the loan I sent the people in goverment in charge of making the loans a few hundred thousand each thinking they would use the money to go to night school and learn that it is not good business sense to make a loan that would require the hotel to have 100% occupancy at a rate twice the going rate in order to service the debt. They chose not to go to school but rather continuing to make the loans. Their reasoning being that the hotel will be purchased by someone at a price that will be feasable and will then be up and running providing jobs for the locals. Therefor, the moneies lost out of social security ,which backed the loan, will be repaid by all the new jobs created and everone lives happily ever after. Oh, how I miss that country.
Posted By: truebelize Re: Fountain Blue - 02/02/02 05:25 AM
Bywarren is right. Fountain Blue was a project designed from Day 1 to rip off the Belizean people. A businessmen (who happened to be the Belize Ambassador to Lebanon and is orignally Lebanese) got together with the Government of Belize in a cozy little pact.

He bought the land where Fountain Blue is located for $330,000US (later him and his buddies claimed that it cost 2.5 this amount)

The hotel cost about US1.5 million to build.....perhaps less. Even at this price the cost per square foot for such awful construction is too high.

The amount "borrowed" from DFC/Belize Social Security (ie. the Belizean people) was 4.5 million US! In other words, almost 3 million US was unaccounted for.

For the Grand Opening the PM, minister of finance and a bunch of other government high rankers were invited. The opening speech by the "owner" included remarks that the whole project cost US5.5 million/11 million Belize. This would have made the price per square foot of building about $600.00US!! Typical cost for first rate construction on Ambergris Caye is about $65-90US per square foot, and this place was built CHEAP.

The government even granted the owner(s) a Duty Free Concession. It is STRONGLY rumoured that the missing US3 million was used to import hardware stock for the owner's hardware stores...of course, all duty free.This was then sold to the people of San Pedro at the usual inflated prices we pay for this kind of stuff. But, no matter what happened to the missing US3 million, it is certain that it was not used on the hotel construction.

The original owner (Simon of San Pedro Hardware) handed over the paperwork of the hotel to his cousin/brother (Mike of San Pedro Supermarket) a little while ago.

As soon as THAT transaction was legal the bombshell was dropped......Mike (ie. all involved) couldn't make the payments.

So, DFC/Social Security/Goverment of Belize was in debt 3 million Belize dollars. But, of course, it was designed this way from the start. Fountain Blue was never meant to be anything but a moneymaking scam for the owners and involved individuals in the Government and Social Security of Belize.

It's not over yet. Rumour has it that a favoured government of Belize minister will likely obtain Fountain Blue at a knockdown price at auction....it'll be fixed that way. I've heard Fonseca or someone in a similar position will be the "lucky" bargain hunter.
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