Westmoreland landowner Norman Forester said Tuesday that while he remains willing to sell his property, he is yet to finalise a deal, countering claims by an American company that it had acquired more than 500 acres of Cave Village for a mixed use development.

ProConcept Marketing Group, based in Buford Georgia, in three releases issued through Business Wire, announced that it was selling five-acre lots of Cave Village, placing a combined value of US$27.7 million (J$1.9 billion) on the 534 acres it said it acquired on a property of 1,078 acres to be developed in six phases.

But Forester, whom ProConcept CEO Joel Stohlman advised the Financial Gleaner was his minority partner in the Cave Village Development, said he had initial discussions with an American but that they had not reached an agreement.

Forester became aware of ProConcept's claims only after it was reported.

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"I saw it in The Gleaner," said Forester, whose holdings include farmlands and real estate in the Whitehouse area of Westmoreland.

"Me and them come to no agreement," said Forester, adding that he remained the sole owner of the property.

The landowner said he has had discussions with a Mr Stone but that it was many months ago, apparently referring to the E. Jason Stone, who was named in the ProConcept releases as the company's director of Caribbean marketing.

Stone is quoted in a June 27 press release - the latest of three on Cave Village - saying ProConcept had "begun to design the first custom villas from the sale of lots in phase three" of Cave Village.

But said Forester: "One Mr Stone, a gentleman by the name of Mr Stone, was talking to me 'bout that many months ago, (but) I never see him again; him gone to America," he added.

Stohlman has not responded to requests for comment on what Forester said, though he had again claimed in correspondence Monday that the two were partners, while seeking to correct information on the reported price for the land.

Still interested

The farmer says the matter is in the hands of his lawyers, but he also told the Financial Gleaner he was still interested in cobbling a deal with the American company.

"If they have it in mind, I am here waiting to sell," he said.

"I am ready to sell if they are ready to buy."

ProConcept has claimed in its releases that at least 334 acres of the property was already under development, with another 200 acres to be subdivided this year.

But on Tuesday, Peter Carborne, who said in a previous interview that he was hired by the publicly traded Buford company under a US$1.5 million contract to run the Cave Village project, told the Financial Gleaner that the property was undisturbed, corroborating information from other sources.

Carborne said that his work in the area now entails the opening up of old parish council or parochial roads which also run through the property.

He is also constructing homes on plots of the land that were already subdivided and sold some years prior to ProConcept's interest in the property.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com