NHA handed over money and land for nothing in return

The NHA has found itself in a bind with the Roystonia housing settlement, Housing Min-ister Dr Keith Rowley stated yesterday. The NHA conveyed the land — 450 acres — for the housing settlement to the contractor. The Authority also handed over money for infrastructure. But the State, after giving up land and money, is getting nothing. In fact, it has not received one cent of what it was entitled to under this joint-venture arrangement which it entered into with Hanover Construction, Rowley said. Noting that the property owners at Roystonia were saying they paid money to the NHA, Rowley stated that whatever money NHA collected from purchasers of the property went straight to the contractor. NHA served merely as a collector of funds.

The NHA and the contractor agreed at the start of construction that the NHA would get something for its contribution — specifically $10,000 on each house or 50 percent of the profits made by the contractor, whichever was lower. The NHA, under the UNC, modified this agreement to allow the contractor to roll over the profit from one phase to another, rather than pay the money go to the NHA at the end of each phase. (There were six phases of construction.) The contractor has reached phase six and has not paid any money yet to the NHA, the Minister said. But he is asking for more development money for this last phase —  $16 million for a sewer system. NHA at first refused.

When the contractor took the Authority to court, NHA’s attorneys advised that the Authority was  “duty-bound” to hand over this money because of the agreement. NHA is still uncertain how much money it is going to get out of this arrangement. Rowley said the arrangement gives the contractor no stipulated time to give the Authority the promised profit percentage. Furthermore, Rowley noted, the contractor had declared small profits on the construction of the property on previous phases — ranging from 58 cents a house to a few thousands a house. The average profit was a “few hundred dollars” on each house.