Sold for $10.3M, But What Did P.U.C. Receive?
So what was included in the package that the P.U.C. purchased? According to the businessman, the Mirab building, including the property it sits on, and an open lot adjacent to the Belize Insurance Center, was bought for ten point three million dollars. He further explains how he acquired the piece of land owned by the P.U.C. when they could not produce the money required for the down payment.
Michael Bou-Nahra, Part Owner, Mirab & Company
“The contract that I did with P.U.C. was for ten point three million dollars. What people didn’t mention is that that consists of the old Mirab building and also another property next to the Belize Insurance Center. So the old Mirab building is about twenty-one thousand square feet. The property sits on two lots with about twenty thousand square feet of land, and then I have also a land next to the Belize Insurance Center that was part of the deal. So in reality ten point three, and it wasn’t eleven point three, it’s ten point three. The ten point three is for the three properties together.”
Michael Bou-Nahra
Isani Cayetano
“Can you explain to us how the payments were done and how you arrived at the payment plan in terms of either the installments or the initial one million dollars that was put down and of course the trade of the other property that P.U.C. held?”
Michael Bou-Nahra
“So the contract deal was, the purchase price was ten point three million. The agreement was for a deposit of one point eight million Belize dollars. P.U.C. had a property on the George Price Highway that they were trying to sell. They mentioned to me that they were selling it for one point five million and that would be part of the down payment. I said no problem and back and forth negotiation, they keep telling me that it’s coming, it’s coming and it didn’t come through. I offered to buy the property at a million dollars and they kept trying to sell it for like two months and they couldn’t get a buyer. Finally, they agreed to sell it to me as a deposit, as part of the deposit payment for a million.”
Reporter
“Sir, the clear issue here, I think, or one of them is, did the government overpay for an asset that is not worth as much as the agreement that was signed for it?”
Michael Bou-Nahra
“Definitely not because if we calculate, and it’s general terms, the building is twenty-one thousand square feet. A building with that quality is, construction at the moment, at this time is anywhere between two-fifty and five hundred [dollars] a square foot and it’s public knowledge for something with that quality. Let’s take an average of three hundred and fifty dollars per square foot, that puts it at seven million, three hundred and fifty thousand for the building, just to construct at today’s market. What happened to the property that it sits on? That’s one of the best properties in that area, luxuriously. It sits on two properties at twenty thousand square feet, at two million dollars for the property, that’s nine point three, and the other property is worth a million dollars. So that’s ten point three and that’s where the figure came from.”
In respect of the payments that were made just before the elections, Bou-Nahra says that the P.U.C. was late in its initial monthly payments which are installments of twelve thousand dollars. When they paid the sum owed, it was for a three-month period. He rationalizes the advance by saying that the arrangement works both ways.
