Response - Maxim / Sun Village

GeeDee

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The below email was forwarded to me by a family member who was suckered into the fast talking time share crew at sun village. Now they are trying to get them to pay another $1500 to transfer it somewhere else in cabarete


"If you had a reservation it has been cancelled

The resort is closed! There are no numbers to call!

The resort has closed. The Bank of Leon foreclosed and forced the sale of the property. It was purchased by Oasis a group of hotels from Spain. The purchaser has filed papers saying that they are not responsible for debts, employee claims for liqudation, or any contractual obligations of Sun Village or the Bungalows

Neither the Bungalows nor the Hotel Sun Village are operating at the moment. We have had meetings with the new owners for both and they have no interest in honoring those agreements that they had with employees, vedors, and vacation club members.

There is however a solution to protect your investment.

We have met with and have set it up with ABC hotel and XYZ (the same developer owns both) to accept all of the members from the vacation club at Sun Village.

Why would they do that?

The DEF is not open yet; but it will open in June and that is why they are willing to do this. the first part of this project was called the GHI (an II resort but small). Now this is a 5 star 1and 2 bedroom resort Hotel set up to be sold as fractions or whole ownership. It has 200 meteres of beach front right in the middle of Cabarette beach. Link Removed As an owner there you have the right to use either GHI 1 or GHI 2 both at the point on Kite Beach all 2 bedroom apts absolutely gorgeous. look up GHI Cabarette or Link Removed or Link Removed

Is there a catch? Not really. (this will include affiliation with II )
1)I will re-write your agreement so that it has the same benefits.
2) There will be a one-time transfer fee of $1,500. Due Dec 15th,2009 This will upgrade you to a 1bedroom.
3) Your annual maintenance fee will be due Jan 1,2010.
4) You can make as many reservations as you want simply pay the $795 or if 1bedroom $595.

You will have a superior beach and a superior product."


The above email was forwarded to me by a family member who was suckered into the fast talking time share crew at sun village. Now they are trying to get them to pay another $1500 to transfer it somewhere else in cabarete
 
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Matilda

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Sep 13, 2006
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Not sure if this is in the right place, but the Sun Village in Juan Dolio is up for sale by Banc Reserva

matilda
 

GeeDee

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I think it is just outrageous that these people are now touting a resort in Cabarete that does not even exist. They say will be open in June 2010. They are offering the "fractional ownership" of this resort as well with dividends to be paid as well. I understand that it may be against DR1 policy to post the name of this new "resort" slated to open in June 2010 but hopefully readers will put two and two together and stay away....

Anyone who wants an unedited version of this email feel free to pm me.
 

wachiman

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Dec 6, 2009
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Well, if they want to see the Bungalows open again then they - Lifestyles and Globalia - will have to pay the former SV employees or get used to see them sitting right outside the hotel entrance.

A meeting was held today with Sun Village employees and a ridiculous "offer" was made for them to take cents on the peso and go home like nothing ever happened. I was told Hacienda and Oasis better be prepared to whats coming their way, these people will not let go their money and rights just like that; I was also told that quite a few among the staff are looking for a high executive who made happy promises to them in what now seems like an effort to pave the way for globalia and then vanished.
 

luzcace

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They should accept whatever they got offered, before loosing everything, and this way some of them might be able to get their job back, but by making trouble none of them will be rehired.
 

wachiman

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I agree with you, but one of them told me that some have already been banned from oasis so the group seems to be quite skeptical about anything that comes from the new owners. Now add all the unions involved, politicians, lawyers and so on and try to get a consensus.
 

Conchman

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Globalia/Lifestyle are not legally obligated to pay the liquidation on behalf of Sun Village, however, I wonder how the Port Authority is trying to get around it, especially it being a government entity.
 

STEVE G.

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A meeting was held today with Sun Village employees and a ridiculous "offer" was made for them to take cents on the peso and go home like nothing ever happened. I was told Hacienda and Oasis better be prepared to whats coming their way, these people will not let go their money and rights just like that; I was also told that quite a few among the staff are looking for a high executive who made happy promises to them in what now seems like an effort to pave the way for globalia and then vanished.

According the newspaper it was offered 60% of liquidation so it's not that a ridiculous "offer" . Legally Globalia is not responsible at all for paying anything , after purchasing the property as a real estate and not a company from the bank on a public auction . And Hacienda has even less to do with the ex SV employees. Anyway Globalia is not going to open the resort until next winter (1 year from now) . By that time lawyers/unions will calm down and will negotiate what ever is giving. Probably government officials will be involved somehow . For now they (lawyers/unions) are furious for their 30% from the liquidation money (as usual). Unfortunately for all the poor employees. Honestly , advise to forget the lawyers/unions and rest of the crowd , take the offered money and try to apply later on for a job there or somewhere else and going on with their lives .
 

wachiman

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According the newspaper it was offered 60% of liquidation so it's not that a ridiculous "offer" . Legally Globalia is not responsible at all for paying anything , after purchasing the property as a real estate and not a company from the bank on a public auction . And Hacienda has even less to do with the ex SV employees. Anyway Globalia is not going to open the resort until next winter (1 year from now) . By that time lawyers/unions will calm down and will negotiate what ever is giving. Probably government officials will be involved somehow . For now they (lawyers/unions) are furious for their 30% from the liquidation money (as usual). Unfortunately for all the poor employees. Honestly , advise to forget the lawyers/unions and rest of the crowd , take the offered money and try to apply later on for a job there or somewhere else and going on with their lives .

I don't know the details on the purchase of Sun Village, but employees insist that Globalia initially offered to pay their due salaries and severance or at least thats what they were told and they feel deceived. By the way the Bungalows section is intended to open Dec 15th under Lifestyles management who rented it out from Globalia but Bungalows was not part of the foreclose and auction so there is more in this deal that the parts involved are disclosing.
And I agree with you, they should take the offer but reportedly that 70% was only for pregnant women, others were offered 40% on the peso.
 

Lambada

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Globalia might not be legally obligated to pay the staff liquidation but there is a moral issue and perhaps more importantly for the new company, a PR issue. Sun Village was bought, we are led to believe from newspaper reports, for the 'price of a dead cow' US$4.3 million for a property variously assessed at being worth around US$50 million (again according to newspaper reports, I personally have no idea what is was worth). The price was low because it was a foreclosure bid and the bank was only interested in recouping its mortgage. There are, what, around 450 ex-employees. Some might have been high earners but the majority would be averaging what? Possibly RD$7000 a month. Liquidation is roughly a month's salary for every year worked. If they had all been in post 5 years that would be RS$7000 x 5 x 450 or just over 3 million pesos or around US$84,000. That doesn't sound a huge amount for a high profile company to generously hand over, even though they are not legally obligated to. It actually sounds like a good bit of PR which would give future customers a warm and fuzzy feeling about the company and book their holidays with them. But if this turns into a long protracted wheeler-dealer scenario, it would not be good PR. And how someone could face an ex-employee earning less than US$200 a month and bargain them down.............:rolleyes:

Maybe my sums are not correct - I'd be grateful if someone would check.

And for the employees expecting liquidation of around RD$35,000 (maybe with debts built up over the last few months because of not receiving any salary and before that only being paid around half their normal salary) to be offered RD$14,000 must be very disappointing.
 

Lambada

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Correction

Maybe my sums are not correct - I'd be grateful if someone would check.

I checked & now I have a calculator working, my sums were not correct. 7000 x 5 x 450 = RD$15,750,000 = US$437,500. Considerably more than my guess above. But...........would this be a huge sum to a leading travel and leisure conglomerate with an airline, travel agencies, tour operators, cruise lines, hotels and a multimedia contact help centre? 'It offers ground services in airports managing; car hire services; and real estate services, as well as produces books, magazines, brochures, and printed matter. In addition, the company has a training center specializing in the tourism sector, aerial transport, and leisure, as well as a back up unit for the IT and telecommunications division'.
Globalia Corporacin Empresarial, S.A.: Private Company Information - BusinessWeek
 

wachiman

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I checked & now I have a calculator working, my sums were not correct. 7000 x 5 x 450 = RD$15,750,000 = US$437,500. Considerably more than my guess above. But...........would this be a huge sum to a leading travel and leisure conglomerate with an airline, travel agencies, tour operators, cruise lines, hotels and a multimedia contact help centre? 'It offers ground services in airports managing; car hire services; and real estate services, as well as produces books, magazines, brochures, and printed matter. In addition, the company has a training center specializing in the tourism sector, aerial transport, and leisure, as well as a back up unit for the IT and telecommunications division'.
Globalia Corporacin Empresarial, S.A.: Private Company Information - BusinessWeek

Wonder why if Globalia understands they have no responsibility continue to deal with Sun Village employees and make offers? Why spend three days in Santo Domingo with representatives of the Labor Department right after acquiring the property? And if they just purchased the property why are they utilizing vehicles and furniture that belonged to Sun Village?
 

PrincessaDR

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As I understood it they purchased the land, building etc and everything else NOT attached to any other legal filing!
 

wachiman

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As I understood it they purchased the land, building etc and everything else NOT attached to any other legal filing!

We were all lead to believe so, but I know of a few contractors and suppliers that have due invoices for materials or products currently inside of Sun Village and specially the Bungalows, Globalia keeps telling them the same story "we just bought the building and have no legal obligation", and still they are using such items. Just ask around to the companies that sold to Sun Village furniture, mattresses, windows and so on.
 

wachiman

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We were all lead to believe so, but I know of a few contractors and suppliers that have due invoices for materials or products currently inside of Sun Village and specially the Bungalows, Globalia keeps telling them the same story "we just bought the building and have no legal obligation", and still they are using such items. Just ask around to the companies that sold to Sun Village furniture, mattresses, windows and so on.

AC chiller units, power plants, golf carts, all in place now.
 

PrincessaDR

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Wow it is a MESS. I guess one would have to read the terms of the sale to really KNOW what the hell went on!