Birubi resort “like a bomb site in Beirut”

That’s how the mayor of Port Stephens, New South Wales describes the site of Birubi Beach Resort, a $50m tourist development started in 2011 and stalled not much later over a dispute between the developer and its Chinese financer, the rather ominously named CSST (China Security and Surveillance Technology). The resort was supposed to be built with Chinese prefabricated units by the now-liquidated Quick Home Australia. Its Hong Kong parent is suing CSST. As its name suggests, CSST comes from a rather different sector, but has gone into real estate both in China and abroad, with mixed results (witness the Henderson, NV stadium debacle, or the health village in Iceland). (Mostly from the Port Stephens Examiner.)

no CSST money for health village

Posted on Tumblr on Sep 27.

Negotiations to get CSST (China Security and Surveillance Technology) to finance a ‘health village’ (Heilsuþorp á Flúðum) one hour from Reykjavik have fallen through over what the director of the Icelandic company behind the project calls the Chinese lender’s “unacceptable” conditions, RÚV reports. What the specific conditions were is unclear, but earlier comments suggest CSST might have required a sizeable part of the materials to be procured from China. An understandable demand, as CSST themselves would likely be have been able to supply some of those materials.