Brief by Allen Best
Economy – February 2009 – Colorado Central Magazine
Things have gone down the toilet for the Ginn Co. at several of its real-estate projects in the Southeast. Does that mean that its plans for a high-end, 1,700-unit project on former mining properties in the Minturn area are headed for the same place?
No, says Ryan Julison, the company spokesman. “Every project is its own legal entity,” he tells the Vail Daily.
The newspaper also talked with a Florida real estate observer, Don “Toby” Tobin, who seems to think that the “Ginn brand has been tarnished.”
Again, Ginn Co. spokesman Julison disagrees. “If this (financial trouble) was just us, it would be a big deal,” he said. “But we’re in the midst of an economic slowdown that’s unprecedented.”
Ginn’s project for about 5,000 acres last year was annexed by Minturn, but development planning has been put on hold. Minturn officials have received $600,000 in cash from the developer as per the annexation agreement, but another $11.6 million is in an escrow account for a recreation center and other improvements. The money, however, can’t be touched until the company gets its final development approvals.
The Vail Daily says that the Ginn Co. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy for two of its resorts in Florida in early January and announced a sale and restructuring of two others, which are located in North Carolina and the Grand Bahamas. The sales were necessary to repay $675 million in loans issued by Credit Suisse.
