By BARRY WILLIAMS, Guardian Staff Reporter

barry@nasguard.com

There is reportedly a $5 million difference between the asking and bid prices for the sale of the Royal Oasis in Freeport which a source close to the project indicated is holding up the negotiations.

A source indicated to the Freeport News that the prospective buyer, which the government is still tight-lipped on, has made an offer of $24 million, but Driftwood Freeport Ltd, the owners of the resort, have pegged the price at $29 million.

Dublin-based Harcourt Developments, a property construction and management company, is largely believed to be the buyer of the Oasis resort. A previous attempt a year ago to strike a deal with this same company for the purchase of the resort was unfruitful as several weeks into negotiations the deal fell through.

However, the Freeport News source has indicated that this company is indeed back at the bargaining table. Big names in the timeshare and casino industry are reported to be a part of the deal as well. It was reported that Florida-based Westgate Resorts, which is "the largest privately held corporation in Central Florida" will manage the Oasis property. Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino was named as the prospective manager of the resort's casino.

The Crowne Plaza Golf Resort and Casino at Royal Oasis had been at the centre of much controversy since its closure in September 2004 after Hurricane Frances. Over 1,200 employees of the resort lost their jobs, and the government undertook to meet the shortfall when the owners Driftwood failed to meet its compensation obligations to the workers. In May 2005 nearly 900 workers received a total of $5 million, which was still only a percentage of the total pay out that the resort owed its employees.

The Freeport News reported that $1.12 million outstanding to the workers has yet to be paid. The government said around the time of the disbursements last year that the remainder of the funds had to be approved by Parliament.

Further, timeshare owners at the resort have been in a quandary over the future of the resort, and said recently that the government and others responsible for the resort have left them in the dark. Some of the timeshare owners have banned together threatening to file a lawsuit against the resort.

One of the specific issues of the disgruntled timeshare owners has surrounded the points that are due to them. The Freeport News source said however that Westgate would include the outstanding points of all the timeshare owners in its portfolio.

Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said recently that he would prefer not to disclose the name of the prospective buyer until he was certain the deal could be seen all the way through. But he did assure that the buyers were of sound international reputation.

Mr Wilchcombe told the Freeport News recently that what Freeport needed was an investor in the resort that would have "stickability" and one that could develop the resort in Freeport and provide opportunities for its employees similar to the way in which the hotel giant Atlantis has been able to achieve in Nassau.

Despite this, the timeshare owners of the Oasis resort indicated just several weeks ago that their patience is wearing thin, and one anonymous spokesperson on behalf of the group said they deserved to know something soon or some action would have to be taken to protect their investments.