Klan, A. Tabberer-Endorsed Project Bleeding Funds, The Australian, August 08, 2008, p. 24.
A struggling retirement village project endorsed by fashion icon Maggie Tabberer is bleeding approximately $40,000 a week in bank interest while its 600-plus ordinary investors receive nothing, it was revealed last week. The Mount Gilead project has extended a $25 million loan from ING Direct originally due to be repaid in June and the developers are now paying tens of thousands of dollars a week in interest payments. The loan has raised concerns among Gilead investors, with some calling for the scheme to be wound up amid fears any money they could receive from the project should it collapse was being rapidly eroded. The proposed 1000-unit Campbelltown development is now more than three years behind schedule and investors have not received interest payments since March. In a statement, Viceroy the developer behind the project said a consortium of new investors had provided funding to allow construction to commence. The group, however, would not comment on who those new investors were. Ms. Tabberer, who is paid an estimated $250,000 a year to endorse the project, has repeatedly declined to comment about Mount Gilead.
