PW's Health....A slight worry......?

Without wishing to cause undue alarm, I am slightly worried about feedback I have recieved today from PW customer services.   Along with many, my property suffered some storm damge in last September's storms.  After much pestering of PW to understand when rectification work would commence, PW started the correction work just prior (& during the Christmas break).  The cause of the leaks was identified & the external repairs were completed.  I was at my property during this time & am happy with the eventual progress to date.    Remaining works oustanding are the external wall painting of  the repaired areas & internal repairs to walls & re-decorating.  I have been chasing PW CS this week to understand when this will be completed.  Today I recieved the following response:

Since recieving this mail, I have been trying to contact PW CS to get an update on what is happening.  It could be as simple as a certain contarctor has walked off-site, not been paid etc etc.  Don't really want to speculate, but knowing the current financial difficulty (I thought it had been resolved!) I can't help thinking that there as some bad news on it's way.   From a personal point of view, the oustanding works are not masisve - I could soon do the job myself or get a decorator in to finish off, but I am sure there  be others with Major works still oustanding, which may not be so easy to fix ??

I have spoken to my keyholder, who thought that were still working earlier today on-site, but I have asked her to re-check that. Can anyone throw any light on the subject??

Cheers

Nick

Nothing has been resolved, Polaris have until 22nd March to renegotiate their debts or they are declaired bankrupt. Many of their companies had been trading insolvant, so they had no choice but to take this course of action.

There are snippets of positive information circulating, but when you dig deeper, you see that these tend to originate from Spanish estate agents, who have a vested interest in reassuring perspective buyers that Polairs will pull through.

I would imagine there will be little news for a while and Polaris will take full advantage of the 3 months afforded to them by Spanish law.

The workers may have been laid off, or simply dont want to risk working for fear they wont get paid?

Yesterday i went to balsicas and met PW Customer Services and was told all work has been stopped they no longer have a team to repair problems

We were told that they will not have for the immediate future.

We must

Either wait until things pick up when they will resume the work

Fix it ourselves

Claim on the Insurance

Customer Services have also scaled down and phones are to be disconnected, they will only deal with e-mails and only then when they have chance.

Flying out tomorrow night and staging a sit in at the head office on Friday until I can get some answers !!!  will report back what I find out next week..............

Somebody put the below on the Terrazas forum although how true it is I don't know I think it should say Condado!!

I spoke to pW yesterday and was informed that Credit Suiss and 5 smaller banks have cleared all the debt outstanding with PW  to the value of 100, million Euros

And that now Polaris world are Dept free to continue building.

I understand the deal was agreed for the banks to own condolo

Start of moan..............

I really do feel like grabbing someone by the throat at Polaris when I hear this sort of thing. When it comes to selling you something they are really helpful. They respond to e-mails within a day, return calls, etc. etc............Once you have completed you become a nuisance to them and they ignore you. I, like many owners am trying to get a few problems resolved and they either ignore my e-mails for weeks or say they have referred it to another department. Polaris take the expression "manana" to a whole new level.

I do hope that when this financial crisis they are in gets sorted and if they come through it OK, that they take a deep breath and start treating us all as valued customers and help those with genuine issues out when it is required. That way they will soon have us on their side. Yes, there are occasions when PW have done OK but these are very much the exception rather than the rule.

End of moan............looking forward to being out in March.

Phil

The Title to this thread should have been "Major" worry" not "slight" I think.

Today’s confirmed action is clearly a reflection of PW's current financial health.  It has been confirmed that the contractors are no longer on-site & will not return until it decided what will happen with the resort - At least 6 months is what has been said, so if anybody has outstanding repairs or warranty claims, I suggest you either fix them yourself or contact your insurance if it is major.

I personally now think we have seen the back of PW & tend to agree with much of what Darren has been saying.

I am normally extremely half-full & have only just returned from a great few days on CdA, but Ptan, it is difficult to see any short term positives about what's happening right now or have any confidence in PW's long term future.  

Skell

Nick,

That is a tad worrying mate!

I know from reading all the various threads that there are things happening behind the scenes with the banks and the mayor of alhama making positive remarks but surely someone with some authority  at PW should come out and make a statement to us the the punters. Even if it's all bluster. We all have shown so much faith in them the least they could do is make a public statement to all of us.

I still think the whole PW dream will not be allowed to fail as its as much a regional development stratergy as a PW world venture. Me and the better half were on the isle of dogs living in a 2 bed apartment in 1990 and the wheels had right come off in that deep and nasty turn down. Developers were going pop left right and centre and  like now they could not give those flats away and yet within 3-4 years those flats gained value and now look, it's amongst some of the most expensive waterside poperty in Europe. Just wished we'd bleetin stayed there GRRRRRH!!!

I for one think the banks are in too deep and the regional government have already put too much into the infrastructure to allow a complete collapse of PW. The strange thing is by  not doing better on the PR front they are damaging the brand potentially and that will do nobody any good.

Remainig Positive All the best

Jay

Jay

You have hit the nail on the head about PW making a statement with either good or bad news. At least they would be communicating. This has let them down so much in the past. On a positive note at least the whole concept hasn't ground to a halt leaving half our resort with half empty shells to look out onto and pools half built, etc.

I suppose we have to feel lucky that institutions are involved with the project financially and also the impact on the region would also suffer if everyone just walked away. I just hope this doesn't happen and that everyone from the buyer right up to the banks and the council see the potential in the resort.

Phil

I think that most people on this forum are hoping that Polaris World pull through their current situation, although I personally dont believe this wil NOTl be the best outcome for Condado.

If (big if) Polaris survive, they wont be the Polaris we all bought from, the same polaris that had started marketing 6 other developments before it had even finished its first one! The polaris that promissed the world and (fair play) attempted to deliver! Instead they will be a brused and battered Polaris, as shadow of their former self!

As Jay mentioned, brand image will be damaged. This will be a major problem when Polaris are asking for 40% upfront payments on a property that wont be delivered for months/years. Also the banks will be very cautions about lending after having their fingers burnt once!

If they continue trading they need to be sleaker and smarter, they would need to concentrate on much smaller development and be more dependant on quicker sales! This will really slow up the pace of development!

They will NOT continue to provide loss making services such as Hotels, Further Golf Courses, Gyms, Sports Facilities, Bars etc.

The second golf course will not happen untill all the front line land around the existing course is developed! A slimmed down Polairs would not go to the expense of developing and maitaining a new course, till every part of land on the existing course is used.

I dont play golf (Checked pants dont suit me!) I bought at Condado because of the Oasis. This will probably never happen, the problem lies with Condado's isolation. The large cities of Murcia, Cartagena and Lorca are too far away, most people wont travel that far for a meal or a drink in a bar. Within a 15 mile radius you only have a limited amount of smaller towns such as Mazaron, Torre Pacheco and Alhama, these towns would not provide enough custom to maintain a fully let Foro, yet alone a retail complex the size of the proposed Oasis.

On the other hand I think things would improve dramatically with Polaris out of the picture. The banks would take posession of the land, which they would in turn sell on to recover their losses (remember the banks all wrote down the values of their land banks last year, so they can sell this land for less than it owes them). The development is way too big for a single developer to tackle in this current climate. Instead, I would expect, the banks to split the land up into smaller parcels and sell onto many different developers.

If multipul developers move in this would offer customers a greater choice of properties and there would be increased competition which would drive down prices. These factors will significantly increase sales at Condado!

Then you have increased interest, increased activily, increased sales, increased Population! Suddenly the foro looks like an attractive place to start a business. Restaurants, Bars and Shops will start to open and the whole place could come alive.

I am not sure I will ever convince the Polaris lovers or Half full brigade to chance their aligance, but believe me this development is way too big for a single developer! If you want to see the development grow we need multipul builders!

Thats why I personaly believe the end of Polaris may be the best outcome for Condado.

The End!

Hi

The other concern with multi companies having a chunk of CDA is that someone would need to set a minimum standard. Otherwise we would run the risk of having a resort with some parts givng the wow factor with clean pools, plants, etc and the other a mini Magaluf..sorry if Magaluf floats your boat !

Phil

Guys

I have no idea if PW will pull through, although I personally hope they do, what  I would like to add is there are so many rumours going on and that we must be patient and wait, if PW have struck a deal with their creditors and the councils, it will take a lenghty process of drawing up legal documents that each side will scrutinies with their Law teams and this may result in further ammendments to the legal documents before final approval. So i believe it will be a while before we have a public statement from PW.

Im a tad confussed as to why people complain about PW continuing to develop the other resorts whilst starting the build on CDA, developers throughout the world have developments on many sites at anyone time. Anyhow if this is or was an issue why buy with PW. If you buy off plan or on a development that isnt finished you take a risk.

Martin

Hi Gents,

Afternoon troops

Just putting something out there, if the rumours are true and banks have taken a split equity of Condado, PW would obviously lose their voting power at the AGM (80% I believe)

Would this mean the residents could hold the majority now if the voting power was split between certain banks? would the each bank own certain parts of the site or would it be as one entity?

Another concern is who is paying for the builders water supply in Los Naranjos and who would now arrange individual connections?

Dan

Whey hey Dan

Power to the people !!!!

The main debt is to bank of Valencia (62 million Euros), they would more than likely be the new owners of Condado and I would imagine they may be the new owners of Condado, however banks are not in the business of owning  and maintaining land/properties/resorts.

They will be looking for a purchaser straight away, in order to recover some of their losses. I cant see the banks or future owners relinquishing thier voting rights, because this forms past of the lands value.

Each bank would own certain parts, they rarely work as a consortium. i.e Bank of Valencia may get the Golf Course, Caja Mediterráneo (next largest debetor) may get the Foro etc.

i agree with Darren Wilkes, hoorah for the end of Polaris, and their 'over promise, under deliver' mentality. with multiple developers of course their will be better competition and more importantly more freedom. was anyone aware that only Polaris were permitted to open bars and restaurants, i know of a local spanish businessman who was offered a commercial site at CdA as long as he didnt open a bar, restaurant or sell any goods that competed with a Polaris outlet !!!!! he considered a church for a moment but decided not to take up the option.

my point is that i for one will be glad to see the back of Polaris. location is key with this site, when renting out, i have to advise clients that a rental car is essential. for all intense purposes we are in the middle of nowhere. i admit offplan is risky, however, i do not think that 1 bar, 1 shop, and 1 restaurant (still to open on my last visit nov 09) is anywhere near acceptable relating back to the Polaris sales pitch, and this, more than a year after they had my balance payment.

to blame this on the global economy is nonsense, 1 issue with offplan is this, they have your money before they even break ground. if they got there sums wrong thats their problem, not the fault of an economic downturn.

with Polaris (RIP) out of the way, perhaps we can look forward to local, friendly, diverse outlets thriving within the community.