Lottery homes in St David’s will not be occupied by Christmas, but will be ready in the first quarter of 2011, according to Government Senate leader David Burch.

Addressing the Senate yesterday, Senator Burch said: “We fully recognise and share the disappointment felt by the lottery winners, but equally look forward to the day, very soon, when we can welcome them to their new homes at Harbour View Village.”

Lottery winners were first awarded the homes in June 2005, but the project encountered repeated challenges, including Bermuda Homes for People, which originally spearheaded the project, becoming insolvent and objections from commercial tenants on the original site forcing the entire project to move.

The scale of the project was then cut back when the Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC) refused to sell the entire plot of land, leaving the Government with only four acres.

Ground eventually broke on the site on May 31, 2007, with Sen Burch saying he expected the first phase of construction to be completed in nine months.

However the project suffered even greater delays, attributed to the discovery of a 540,000-gallon underground storage tank and severe winter weather last year.

While 99 families originally won the chance to purchase units on the site, 15 have opted out of the project in the five years since the original drawing.

Sen Burch said: “There have been numerous occasions when this project could have completely failed through lack of funding, various site challenges and rising costs.

“But we were not deterred and sought every means to bring it to fruition.

“The cost of this project far exceeds the $199,000 purchase price each family is paying but is subject to significant subsidising by Government through the Bermuda Housing Corporation.”

He said that the first four buildings, containing 58 units, are scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2011, with the funds gained from their sale going towards the construction of the remaining two buildings.

Sen Burch said that he met with 50 of the 84 families who will eventually own one of the homes on Thursday, and promised to give them weekly updates moving forward.

“The meeting was extremely positive with some of the families expressing their understandably extreme disappointment at the current delay, but with all expressing their appreciation for the commitment to delivering this product,” Sen Burch said.

“I must confess that we have not been as diligent in providing regular updates to the owners as we should and as such I have dictated that they will now receive weekly email blasts of progress.”

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