The $600 million mega project, Los Faros was announced back in 2006 with much fanfare and held up as additional proof that Panama was the choice of major project developers from around the world. With over 2000 apartments and a 200 room hotel, it was scheduled to be completed in 2009.
The name Los Faros, which in English ironically means "lighthouse", has apparently led investors into the dangerous reefs of the many partially completed or never started Panama projects. The Spanish company behind the project, Grupo Mall, was touted as a major player and a sure bet. I was in Spain at the residential tourism Expo in 2006 where I witnessed the hype first hand as the glitzy marketing of the project was being touted mostly to European investors. Grupo Mall's booth was one of the biggest and most extravagant in this huge exposition with thousands of developments from all over the world. A model of the project showed the entire city with this mega structure dominating it.
I made a post with photos about the project in April 2006 while at the expo and if you read the comments below the post, you will see how many promoters with "special connections and deals" responded to an inquiry to buy expressed by a reader. This will give you some idea of the hype associated with this project.
That was then and this is now. Almost four years later a hole in the ground sits where once grandiose dreams of lifestyle were to be made. Nothing more to show but scale models, computer renderings and unfulfilled contracts. Many people in good faith made down payments on apartments and now more than likely will not see a return of any kind as Grupo Mall apparently has no property in their name in Panama. They now tell investors that they were only the "marketing agent" and were hit by the word financial crisis. One needs only look at the dates promoted by the company (Start in 2006 finish in 2009) to see that if that were the case, the project should have been more than half completed when the crisis hit. Panama is littered with such projects and I would bet there are hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits that will never be returned making Panama one of the biggest real estate debacles in the western hemisphere, and it ain't over yet!
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