Former head of real estate business at FirstRock Group, Denroy Pusey’s position was made redundant last month amid growing concerns around several real estate projects, including the premier Hambani Estates development.

Sources close to FirstRock Group revealed that eight persons left the company in the last four months, with two departing in December. Sable-Joy McLaren, former senior manager for group marketing, left in October, though her departure had nothing to do with any dispute with the company. Other departures have also been noted, with some individuals updating their LinkedIn profiles.

Additionally, an advertisement for the position of group legal and compliance manager was posted on LinkedIn on November 28, despite Courtnie Brady currently occupying the role.

FirstRock Group manages the FirstRock Real Estate Investments Limited, the publicly listed real estate company. The company’s website firstrock.comhas not been working for a couple of weeks.

It was also recently revealed that Pusey’s role — head of real estate business at FirstRock Group — was made redundant last month. That came as a surprise to many, especially after the departure of Christopher Yeung, the co-founder and former managing director of Premier Private Equity (FirstRock Private Equity).

When the Jamaica Observer reached out to Pusey, he said, “We were unable to finish Hambani by a particular time. I would have exhausted all my options or all possible solutions that I could come up with to fix this project. It was a decision point for me and I realised I can’t help them anymore.”

In the meantime, Pusey will be looking to Tri-Qual Construction Group and Kairos Properties as the next avenue in his career.

Hambani Estates is FirstRock Real Estate’s first development project at 1-3 Bamboo Avenue in St Andrew, Jamaica. The company broke ground in late 2021 and received a financing line of around US$10 million from Sagicor Bank to complete the luxury 12-townhouse project. It was originally scheduled to be completed sometime between April and June of 2023.

But since construction started in 2022, First Rock Real Estate has only sold one unit in the development with the new timeline for completion set for early 2025. FirstRock Real Estate had to seek a one-year repayment extension from Sagicor Bank for its loan, which matured in mid-May.

The delay in completing the project is presenting substantial risks to First Rock Real Estate since this development currently represents one-third of FirstRock Real Estate’s entire balance sheet. Also, apart from the mortgage on the Bamboo Avenue property, Sagicor Bank has an unlimited corporate guarantee from the listed entity to satisfy the legal obligation of the loan. FirstRock Real Estate also suffered another blow last month when the National Environmental & Planning Agency (NEPA) rejected its commercial development application at 5 Seaview Avenue. The company knocked the building down on the property over two years ago, before its application was decided.

Ryan Reid, executive chairman of FirstRock Group, told the BusinessWeek two months ago that the company would be seeking to repay some of its debts and refinance others. This has been realised by the listed company redirecting maturing investments and receipt of related company funding to pay down US$3.15 million in debt up to September 30.

Apart from selling five apartment units at the Torres de Heredia in San Jose, Costa Rica in February, First Rock Real Estate has also moved to sell some of its other properties to supplement its plans to redeploy capital. It sold the 2 Retreat Avenue property in the Golden Triangle area of St Andrew to KingAlarm Services for US$4 million last month. However, the company acquired that property in 2022 by way of a vendor mortgage for US$4.5 million. Thus, it incurred a net loss on this transaction. The company also sold its 21 Balmoral Avenue property for $490 million and 12-14 Oxford Terrace property for US$3.5 million, in 2023.

First Rock Real Estate also has 8a Brompton Road, 30 Millsborough Avenue, and several other properties in St Andrew under joint-venture agreements on its books. Some of these properties act as collateral for its US$18.43 million in debt.

However, it has since made new strides in other jurisdictions, such as the 20-year lease for 2 KFC locations in Costa Rica and acquisition of a majority interest in the Crown Square Commercial complex in Cayman Islands for $1.7 billion.

It’s yet to be seen how the market will receive this pivot into the rest of the Latin America and Caribbean. FirstRock Real Estate listed at US$0.12/$16.17 in January 2020 and has since dipped to US$0.024/$9.92, a 39-80 per cent dip in the initial investment of many long-term holders like NMIA Airports Limited and Airport Authority of Jamaica.

The company’s results up to September showed a 58 per cent cut in net operating income to US$1.64 million with the company swinging from a net profit of US$957,695 to a net loss of US$1.45 million. The company’s balance sheet also contracted nine per cent to US$57.25 million on a comparative basis.

It is also yet to be seen how FirstRock Group’s court case against its former Head of Real Estate Pierre Shirley will be resolved. Shirley owes $32.62 million under the staff loan policy and employee agreement dated July 2019. That case was heard a few weeks ago before the courts went on Christmas break.