By VERNON CLEMENT JONES, Guardian Business Editor, vernon@nasguard.com

WEST END, GRAND BAHAMA — Developer Bobby Ginn is offering the country — and indeed buyers of vacation properties attached to his $4b Grand Bahama project — reassurances that phase of the resort now under threat of foreclosure will

in fact be completed.

His assessment comes despite recent moves by that same group of creditors to repossess similar projects started but not finished in this recessionary period.

The difference between his and those other large-scale resort developments — about nine in total, wagers Ginn — is the $160 million his company placed in escrow last year to meet the infrastructure building obligations attached to hundreds of lots now under threat of repossession.

It was a move that neither the government nor the Credit Suisse-led group of lenders demanded or even asked of him, he told Guardian Business Wednesday. He jetted into Grand Bahama yesterday to quell growing speculation about the project's fate and to draw a distinction between the southern, beach-facing property that is part of the loan and the overwhelming majority of the 2,000-acre site both equity financed and owned by Ginn and associated investors.

"There is no question in my mind that we will succeed," he told the local press, also touting the hurricane reinforcements actively being included in construction.

The developer has been largely silent since June 30 when Credit Suisse and other lenders agreed to delay foreclosure for 30 days to allow his team time to negotiate restructuring of the $675 million loan. The group has yet to offer a final decision.

Ginn Co. has also engaged its financiers in a protracted and seemingly earnest attempt to reach resolution.

The company's founder is suggesting at least two other defaulters had simply opted to hand over their properties to the group, rather than partake in that kind of dialogue.

Under the terms of Ginn's loan, if it ultimately decides it is unable or unwilling to make outstanding payments, its creditors can seize the property put up as collateral. That is essentially the only option open to them as part of a "non-recourse" loan.

On Wednesday, Ginn suggested that an amount equivalent to more than a third of that loan has already been poured into the massive mixed-use resort for West End. At least 400 construction workers remain on the job, said Ginn. He also told Guardian Business that about a $106 million of that escrow money, protected from not only the Credit Suisse group but any creditor, remains in the kitty to cover utility infrastructure work and the completion of one of two golf courses planned for the site.

That Arnold Palmer designed 18-holer may come on stream as early as next year. It's an outcome that Ginn asserts is in no way dependent on his team coming to terms with the lender. If the latter moves to take back the lots, none of which have yet been built on, Ginn will still be obligated to offer those buyers the same services and amenities attached to their membership in the exclusive enclave he is creating.

The 800-plus lots are really only the tip of a rather massive development iceberg, set to surface over the next 10 to 20 years. All toll, there will be just under 2,000 lots in addition to hotel-condo and other vacation home properties left for Ginn to shift. That's assuming his creditor in fact makes good on that threat to foreclose.

It's a move that U.S. real estate analysts — and perhaps Ginn himself — are betting against. Taking that step, at least in theory, would challenge those creditors to attempt the same winning sales job Ginn and so many others are increasingly hard-pressed to pull off.

The realities of the American housing market and the apparent glut of other properties Ginn's creditors now hold may argue against any move in that direction.

Still, acting on the kind of threat may be the only real recourse for creditors of large-scale resort projects with developers all too willing to call their bluff.

Ginn, one of the most successful and respected developers in the U.S. southeast, may have the best poker face around, although continuation of the current saga could compromise that reputation as well as the sales he has still to make.

"I don't think it's going to impact us a bit," he told Guardian Business. "If Credit Suisse was going to lose money that would be something else but we firmly believe the value of the lots more than meets the outstanding loan amount."