A New Zealand-Samoan consortium is poised to build a $US700 million hotel and accommodation complex in French Polynesia.
The planned construction site of a tourism complex named "Mahana Beach",15 km south of Papeete, in French Polynesia, on July 19, 2014. Photo: AFP
The French Polynesian government has chosen its bid for the construction of part of the Tahitian Village resort complex which is a scaled backed version of the original Mahana Beach project.
The consortium Kaitiaki Tagaloa includes Kaitiaki Property, Iwi International and Samoa's Grey Group, which already owns and runs several high-end hotels in Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.
The announcement comes a week before the election of a new territorial assembly, and the president Edouard Fritch said contracts would be signed by the government after the polls.
The project includes three-to five-star hotels and apartment complexes, totalling more than 1,500 units.
About 2,500 people are expected to be employed for the construction phase.
In 2014, a Hawaiian company Group 70 International had been selected for the project but it was derailed after problems securing the $US3 billion needed for it to go ahead.
At the beginning of the year, there was a claim by a former president Gaston Flosse that a United Arab Emirates company was prepared to lend huge sums to fund the project.