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PHC to debate financial options at crunch meeting

PHC members are meeting tonight to debate financial options for the club. One suggestion is to sell the club’s two-storey building (pictured)on Reid Street.

The fate of PHC’s former clubhouse in Hamilton could be decided at a meeting tonight.During PHC’s semi-annual meeting last month, members were given various options to improve the club’s financial position that included selling the two-storey building located at 81 Reid Street.The first option would see PHC borrow $2 million from the bank to pay off $1.2 million ($1.7 million with interest) the club borrowed from the Bermuda Industrial Union, and renovate the bar at its Reid Street building.The bank loan would be paid back in monthly payments of $11,991.01 over a 30-year period through revenue from the sale of drinks at the Hamilton bar.The first option also includes bringing the club’s field at Stadium Lane, Warwick online to host sporting events to recoup some of the monies paid out through the sale of food and drinks.The second option presented to PHC’s membership would see the club borrow money from the bank to open a bar in Hamilton and renegotiate the BIU loan to remove interest-only and callable features.The third option would see PHC sell its Hamilton building and consolidate resources to its Warwick property.PHC’s building on Reid Street is estimated to be worth $3.2 to $3.6 million, according to an assessment conducted two years ago.The option to sell PHC’s old clubhouse in Hamilton has been strongly rejected by a number of influential club members, including football legends Cal (Bummy) Symonds and Earl (Townsey) Russell who are expected to be in attendance at tonight’s meeting at BIU.“It ain’t no way that club down town is going to be sold because Dr King, James Brown, Irving DeGrilla, Ruby Pearman and all those fellows will come out of their graves,” Mr Symonds declared. “They have to have a full meeting to sell that club and Townsey and myself are going to be there because we are life members of PHC and that club is not going to be sold.”Mr Russell added: “We definitely should not sell the town building because that’s what saves us because it’s a money-making machine.”It is alleged PHC used the deeds to their Hamilton building as collateral for the BIU loan.But when asked to shed more light on the BIU loan PHC president Chris Furbert, who is also president of the BIU, replied: “It’s none of the public’s business what’s going on between PHC and the BIU. It’s between the PHC membership and the BIU and ain’t got nothing to do with the public.“Tell me, how does a private club’s affairs have something to do with the public?”PHC are reeling from the $164,250 they were forced to write off after the tenants of their Reid Street building, Total Home Ltd, went into liquidation and their contract with cellular provider M3Wireless terminated.Fears have also been raised that the BIU are on the verge of calling in its loan to PHC. However, Mr Furbert has rubbished this claim.Meanwhile, other potential options PHC is exploring to generate regular cash flow to pay off debt include possible sale of an unused portion of property in Warwick and field rental.Earlier this month The Royal Gazette revealed that in 2008 Government entered into an $8 million, 20-year lease agreement with PHC.The agreement, which does not come into effect until PHC’s multidimensional complex in Warwick has been completed, would see the Ministry of Education pay PHC usage fees for preschool, primary and middle school students within the TN Tatem cluster of schools (Warwick and Paget Preschools, Purvis Primary, Heron Bay Primary, Gilbert Primary, Paget Primary Schools and TN Tatem Middle School) to use the club’s facility that will feature a 2,500 seat multipurpose room, health club and youth club.The agreement called for PHC to provide the facility and the programmes for $442 per student per year, with the proviso that this sum would not be less than $391,000 per year.The September 2008 agreement between the Ministry of Education and PHC was never made public until this newspaper broke the story on May 17.Government’s non-disclosure of the controversial agreement has been condemned by the Opposition.In 2001 PHC borrowed $1.2 million from the BIU to resurface the playing surface and install new lights at Stadium Lane, Warwick.The loan was to be paid back over a 17-year period through rental income from PHC’s Reid Street building.More than a decade later PHC has yet to pay principal on the loan.After the BIU loaned money to PHC, the club successfully negotiated a 20-year lease agreement for $1 million with Esso for 20,000 sq ft of land at their Warwick ground.Esso subsequently leased an additional 2,000 sq ft of land for $125,000 to bring the total amount of the lease to $1,125,000.Monies for leasing the gas station property have been fully paid to PHC.To date PHC has been unable to secure funding for the development of the multipurpose facility.According to a Government source, PHC rejected requests to downsize the project and accept the money HSBC was offering during negotiations to secure a loan to finance the project.Club documents reveal that PHC were seeking to borrow between $10 million and $11 million from HSBC who were only willing to lend $8.5 million.