Investors in Failed Resort Ask for Help : Real estate: A group of Americans who bought into a condo development in Cancun ask Mexican officials for help with the unfinished project.
Dolores Mobasher and her husband thought that they had bought a slice of paradise when they shelled out $40,000 in 1986 for an ocean-view condominium in a fancy new complex rising in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
But now, the Dunas condominium and hotel complex sits unfinished and damaged by a hurricane, the developer has left the country and the project has been boarded up by Mexican officials. “We are in Tower 2, which hasn’t been built, so we have nothing,” said Mobasher, a Los Angeles computer company employee.
On Monday, Dolores Mobasher, who belongs to an organization formed by Dunas investors, sought relief from government officials at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles after holding a quiet demonstration with a half-dozen other investors who warned passers-by of investing in Mexican condos and time-share projects.
Mobasher’s group, Condominos Costa Caribena, claims to represent 300 of the 400 mostly American investors who it says paid more than $15 million to own part of the 1,062-unit Dunas project, which was begun by a Spanish national who later left Mexico. The investors bought into the project while vacationing in Cancun, on the Caribbean coast.
The investors want Fonatur--the Mexican government agency charged with developing tourist resorts, including Cancun--to transfer ownership of the Dunas complex to investors and settle claims by contractors, utilities and others who are owed money. Investors also want Fonatur to provide temporary financing while investors find a new developer to complete Dunas.
Deputy Consul General Fernando Viveros agreed to arrange a meeting between Dunas investors and the chief of Fonatur. “While the Mexican government is not a direct part of this conflict,” Viveros said, “we offered . . . to solve their problems.”
“We have done this several times before,” Mobasher said of the proposed meeting with Fonatur officials. “But (Viveros) said they are willing to do something.”
Los Angeles lawyer David G. Ellsworth, who represents Fonatur, recommended that potential buyers of property in Mexico have a lawyer review the sales agreement and that they contact the Mexican bank that will hold title to the property as trustee. A few Mexican projects are registered with the California Department of Real Estate, which reviews real estate offers to state residents.
