News Room
PA News Agency - Panama City, Central America - January 31,
2007
London and Regional Properties bid of $405M wins bid for the 40
year development rights to the Former USAF Howard Air Force Base,
Panama City.
A war of nerves was lived yesterday in the public meeting that
would decide which real estate developer would win the bid to buy
Howard.
Bids had to be delivered by 11.00, but up to 10 minutes before
the deadline no proposals had been submitted. Neither short-listed
bidder was interested in taking the initiative by submitting their
sealed bid.
After the third call for bids at 10:54, the director of London
& Regional Properties, Jason Mills, presented his proposal and
a minute later Easton Group did the same.
The public meeting waited in nervous silence whilst the
adjudicators checked the contents of each bid envelope. With the
passage of the minutes the tension in the room increased and a
number of people in the audience talked quietly into their cellular
phones.
The administrator of the Agency of the Economic Area Special
Panama (AAEEPP), Gilberto Ferrari, rose for the third time clearly
keen to know which party had won. After 20 minutes the sealed
financial offers in each bid envelope were opened. London &
Regional Properties offer of US$405 million was three million more
than the rival Easton Group bid of US$402M. The closeness of the
bids caused murmurs in the room.
Although London & Regional Properties is the virtual winner,
both proposals will be analyzed by a technical commission directed
by Nilda Quijano, general manager of the Free Zone of Colon. This
commission will have 10 calendar days to review the
documentation.
After the decision, and visibly moved by the news he had won,
Jason Mills the development director of London & Regional
Properties said that his company had ambitious plans to create an
entire city district at Howard. Mr Mills said the creation of jobs
were central to L&R’s plans. The company would seek to attract
major multi-national distribution companies to relocate their
operations to Panama to benefit from a proposed distribution park
linking the Panama Canal and 7,500ft runway at Howard.
London & Regional Properties is one of the biggest private
real estate companies in Europe with investment real estate assets
of some US$20B.
On the other hand, the representative of the North American
company Easton Group, the ex- presidential candidate, Jose Miguel
Alemán, emphasized the transparency of the bid process and
recognized the victory of L&R.
London & Regional Properties will have to invest at least
US$405 million in the first eight years of the Howard project. Of
this amount, $60 million would be spent by the second year of the
concession, $80 million by the fourth year and a similar number in
the sixth year. While, in the eighth year it will have to invest
$185 million.
In relation to this investment, the administrator of the AAEEPP
Gilberto Ferrari, indicated that the impact of $405 million of
investment into the local economy could generate total investment
value of at least US$1B.
Howard has the potential to generate about 22, 000 direct uses
and 55, 000 indirect ones according to the Financial Corporation of
the World Bank which oversaw the bid process.