NZ company misses Tahitian Village deadline

5:41 am on 25 March 2019
Vice president Teva Rohfritsch and Tukoroirangi Morgan of Kaitiaki Tagaloa at the signing ceremony.

Vice president Teva Rohfritsch and Tukoroirangi Morgan of Kaitiaki Tagaloa at last year's signing ceremony Photo: Supplied / Présidence de la Polynésie française

The New Zealand company vying to build the South Pacific's largest tourism project has failed to meet the deadline to finalise the $US700 million deal.

The consortium Kaitiaki Tagaloa had been chosen last year to build the Tahitian Village project in French Polynesia and was given 200 days to conclude preparing all the contracts by last Friday.

The French Polynesian vice-president Teva Rohfritsch also spent three days in Auckland this month to meet the head of the consortium Tukoroirangi Morgan.

A statement by the government in Tahiti says certain contractual conditions have not been met and therefore Kaitiaki Tagaloa has been given another 45 days to do so.

The Tahitian Village project includes three-to five-star hotels and apartment complexes, totalling more than 1500 units.

About 2,500 people are expected to be employed for the construction phase.

The consortium includes Kaitiaki Property, Iwi International and Samoa's Grey Group, which already owns and runs five high-end hotels in Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.

The Tahitian Village is a downscaled successor project to the $US3 billion Mahana Beach project which was abandoned after facing funding problems.

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