Cocobay investor wants to restart the project

This information was announced by Thanh Do Investment, Development and Construction Joint Stock Company - the investor of The Empire luxury resort and housing project (trade name Cocobay) in a recent notice requesting contract termination with customers.

The Cocobay resort and entertainment complex in Ngu Hanh Son (Da Nang) was launched in 2014 with an estimated investment of about 5 billion USD. At that time, the project of about 51 hectares promised to deploy about 10,000 3-5 star standard rooms, most of which were condotels.

However, in 2019, the investor only put about 3,000 rooms into operation. When the project was launched, the investor committed to a profit of about 12% per year to customers - considered very high at that time. Since the beginning of 2020, due to cash flow difficulties, Thanh Do has been unable to pay the profits as committed to more than 1,700 customers who bought codotels and shophouses. Since then, this project has also been stalled.

Previously, Thanh Do also proposed 3 solutions to resolve the issue with customers, including a proposal for both parties to liquidate the condotels that had signed contracts, and the investor to refund the money according to the original price in the signed contract.

In the most recent announcement in mid-March, this investor proposed that in case they want to receive the house, Thanh Do will hand over to customers apartments in the Co Co 4 commercial and luxury apartment building, expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025. The amount that customers have paid in the past will be transferred to pay for the new apartment, and the difference in value will be negotiated by both parties when agreeing on a solution.

If the above plan is not accepted or the customer does not respond, Thanh Do will unilaterally terminate the sales contract. "The amount you have paid to buy the real estate will only be refunded after the investor has arranged the finances," the investor stated.

At a press conference on March 20, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Construction Le Van Tuan said that so far he had not received any notice that Thanh Do wanted to unilaterally terminate the contract with the customer. However, according to him, this is a civil dispute between the investor and the customer. The Department will get involved in cases where there are issues related to the role of state management.

Cocobay project has 2 subdivisions that have been approved by Da Nang City for detailed planning 1/500. Of which, the first subdivision is about 30 hectares on the west side of Truong Sa Street. The remaining subdivision is about 21 hectares on the east side of Truong Sa Street.

According to the latest decision of Da Nang on this project in 2019, the detailed planning on the west side of Truong Sa Street has been adjusted, blocks HH1, HH2, HH3, HH5 have 50% of apartments, 50% of hotel apartments (condotel), blocks HH4, HH6, HH7 are 3 apartment blocks. By 2022, Thanh Do proposed to allow the conversion of block HH2 into apartments, block HH3 into hotel apartments.

According to Mr. Tuan, the Department of Construction later issued documents guiding investors on the adjustment contents. However, up to now, Thanh Do has not responded.