625 replies to this topic

[lockmat]

Pumapayam, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 9:35 AM, said:

While I appreciate the info and effort, you have been the Debbie Downer of HAIF.

Nice reputation.

Maybe so, but if being a debbie downer means the truth, then I want the truth. Stinks this might not be going forward.

[lockmat]

lockmat, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 9:46 AM, said:

Maybe so, but if being a debbie downer means the truth, then I want the truth. Stinks this might not be going forward.

I just called the Chamber of Commerce and they said the developers were at the last board meeting and said they plan on breaking ground in 9 months. The website issue is curious though.

[Pumapayam]

lockmat, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 9:59 AM, said:

I just called the Chamber of Commerce and they said the developers were at the last board meeting and said they plan on breaking ground in 9 months. The website issue is curious though.

Thanks for checking in.

Hope they get their domain back up.

[Hugh Stone]

The Earthquest Institute website is still running and still accepting donations. There could be many reasons that the Earthquest Adventures website is TEMPORARILY unavailable.

http://www.earthquestinstitute.org/

Edited by Hugh Stone, Monday, June 20, 2011 at 10:40 AM.

[Simbha]

Pumapayam, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 10:35 AM, said:

Thanks for checking in.

Hope they get their domain back up.

Isn't this the same thing: http://www.earthquestinstitute.org? It looks nice...

[Pumapayam]

Simbha, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 10:39 AM, said:

Isn't this the same thing: http://www.earthquestinstitute.org? It looks nice...

Yes, they also have a facebook fan page too.

They are just slow to post updates.

[Soapboxmom]

http://www.yourhoust...html?mode=story

I think the Earthquest Institute is the only part of this fiasco that should go forward. Fake multi-billionaire Trey White and John Marlin should have been sent packing a long time ago. Where have the millions thrown at them gone???

Soapboxmom

[Soapboxmom]

Hugh Stone, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 10:38 AM, said:

The Earthquest Institute website is still running and still accepting donations. There could be many reasons that the Earthquest Adventures website is TEMPORARILY unavailable.

http://www.earthquestinstitute.org/

It is no mystery. The hosting fees were not paid, plain and simple. The service provider sent reminders, but the clowns at Marlin Atlantis / Global Earthquest Ventures didn't cough up the few dollars a month needed to keep the thing up. It is beyond ridiculous!!!

Soapboxmom

Edited by Soapboxmom, Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:26 AM.

[Soapboxmom]

lockmat, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 9:59 AM, said:

I just called the Chamber of Commerce and they said the developers were at the last board meeting and said they plan on breaking ground in 9 months. The website issue is curious though.

McCrady told me 9 months as well. The question is though will the land loans be renewed. I haven't seen an extension filed on the county site for any of the loans due on June 16th. The Whitestone property has a 19 million dollar loan due on September 1st. How are Marlin Atlantis and their numerous little LLCS and LPs going to keep funding all this with no progress on developing these tracts?

Soapboxmom

[Simbha]

Soapboxmom, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:16 AM, said:

It is no mystery. The hosting feew were not paid, plain and simple. The service provider sent reminders, but the clown at Marlin Atlantis / Global Earthquest Ventures didn't cough up the few dollars a month needed to keep the thing up.

I find it difficult to believe that a private hosting company would provide information regarding the billing status of a private account to a third party. I'm not saying you're lying but - if you're not - I certainly wouldn't want to use that hosting provider for myself.

Soapboxmom, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:16 AM, said:

It is beyond ridiculous!!!

Why exactly is this 'ridiculous'?

Edited by Simbha, Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:31 AM.

[Soapboxmom]

Simbha, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:30 AM, said:

I find it difficult to believe that a private hosting company would provide information regarding the billing status of a private account to a third party. I'm not saying you're lying but - if you're not - I certainly wouldn't want to use that hosting provider for myself.



Why exactly is this 'ridiculous'?

My link

I clicked on the link on the page that said temporarily unavailable and I called. I simply asked why the website was down. I asked if there was a technical issue and the very nice yong man said no, ma'am. The hosting fees were not paid. I then looked up the registration on www.domaintools.com and was not surprised to find out it was Global Earthquest Ventures / Marlin Atlantis.

John Marlin, Trey White, his zero water MLM scam that was sued by the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Board of regents and dozens of little phony LLCs and LPs are all at the same address in Dallas. I think folks should be asking why Trey White, who happily allowed himself to be introduced as a multi-billionaire to promote his water scam is not stepping up to the plate and contributing a lot more financially to this deal. Can't he and his buddies at least manage the few dollars a month to keep the website up? That is precisely what is so ridiculous about this.

I researched that bunch. that bunch

Soapboxmom

[Simbha]

Soapboxmom, on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:51 AM, said:

John Marlin, Trey White, his zero water MLM scam that was sued by the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Board of regents and dozens of little phony LLCs and LPs are all at the same address in Dallas. I think folks should be asking why Trey White, who happily allowed himself to be introduced as a multi-billionaire to promote his water scam is not stepping up to the plate and contributing a lot more financially to this deal. Can't he and his buddies at least manage the few dollars a month to keep the website up? That is precisely what is so ridiculous about this.

I researched that bunch. that bunch

Well, I can't really comment on the veracity of your interpretation. What I can say is that there may be other reasons for stopping payment on the service. For example, perhaps they chose to go with a different domain and saw no reason to maintain the hosting. Or, they might have felt that the hosting company was not providing adequate service. The hosting company wouldn't be privy to any of these thoughts (or, in the latter case, certainly wouldn't make that public knowledge) but it doesn't mean it's either ridiculous or due to financial difficulty.

[Soapboxmom]

My link

http://www.networkso...-comparison.jsp

http://www.networkso...ng/packages.jsp

That website was linked and supplying pictures on hundreds of blogs, posts, news articles, Facebook pages and more. Why would they do something that would break all those links? The project already had to be broken into phases as they can't secure adequate funding to go forward without doing it piecemeal. So, why do anything that would rock the boat when they are still desperately scrounging for investors? Hosting fees are nominal.

Soapboxmom

[Mister X]

Groundbreaking is set for early 2012

http://www.yourhoust...946d4baedd.html

[Trae]

Website back up. Looking a little more detailed: http://www.earthquestadventures.com/

[TheNiche]

Trae, on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 7:32 AM, said:

Website back up. Looking a little more detailed: http://www.earthquestadventures.com/

Uh oh, some of the images aren't loading properly in my browser. That's breaking an implicit social contract between Trey White and his investors and the public. It's clearly the end of the line for this misanthropic adventure.

He'd better watch his back, cuz mom's gonna wag her finger at him quite vigorously. He will be so very ashamed.

[Soapboxmom]

Extension of the loan

There is an extension of the loan of a whopping 3 months signed by Roscoe /Trey White himself. As to what happens by the magic date of Septmember 14,2011 is anyone's guess. This is the fifth extension and unlike the others it is not for a full year.

Guggenheim was thinking of committing between 200 - 300 millioin for the project and an unnamed group was talking about putting up 85 million. Supposedly the rephasing was going to make these investors happy earlier this year. So, why the 8 months more until ground breaking?

Soapboxmom

[Houston19514]

Soapboxmom, on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 12:43 PM, said:

Extension of the loan

There is an extension of the loan of a whopping 3 months signed by Roscoe /Trey White himself. As to what happens by the magic date of Septmember 14,2011 is anyone's guess. This is the fifth extension and unlike the others it is not for a full year.

Guggenheim was thinking of committing between 200 - 300 millioin for the project and an unnamed group was talking about putting up 85 million. Supposedly the rephasing was going to make these investors happy earlier this year. So, why the 8 months more until ground breaking?

Soapboxmom

Post the loan extension document here. Or are you only interested in driving traffic to your own website?

[Hugh Stone]

Soapboxmom, on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 12:43 PM, said:

Extension of the loan

There is an extension of the loan of a whopping 3 months signed by Roscoe /Trey White himself. As to what happens by the magic date of Septmember 14,2011 is anyone's guess. This is the fifth extension and unlike the others it is not for a full year.

Guggenheim was thinking of committing between 200 - 300 millioin for the project and an unnamed group was talking about putting up 85 million. Supposedly the rephasing was going to make these investors happy earlier this year. So, why the 8 months more until ground breaking?

Soapboxmom

The latest article suggest that they are looking to build the original $500 million version of the resort. They have only secured $385 million so far, they are holding off another 8 months in order to try to get the last $115 million needed to build the entire resort and not just parts of it or a cheaper version of it.

Here is a direct quote from the latest release press article...

"Estimated at a cost of $500 million, Earth Quest is to include a retail shopping experience, a water park, a hotel and a family entertainment center located on 1,600 acres along U.S. 59 between FM 1485 and Texas 242 on the west side, and FM 1485 and Roman Forest Boulevard on the east.

We’re not going to put another carnival on the ground,” McCrady said after the EMCID meeting. “Nothing significant has changed.” Announcing a date for groundbreaking is nothing new for the Earth Quest project. Construction was to start sometime in 2010, but a need for investors and the economy affected the timetable. At least one of the investors involved is an independent investment banking group based in Texas, Brown said. “It’s better to shop for money and generate better returns,” McCrady said. “They (the developers) have been waiting for the economy to come around. The Texas market has started to stabilize.”

Edited by Hugh Stone, Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 3:42 PM.

[Soapboxmom]

There you go guys. The pdf for the loan extension is attached. I am pleasantly sruprised the site will allow such a large attachment. That is in fact unusual.

I take it you found this:

http://www.community...st-project.html

I did not realize we were back to doing the entire project at once and had nixed the plan to build it in phases. We shall see.

Soapboxmom

Attached Files

•  Dino Park Loan Extension.pdf   442.89K   8 downloads

[TheNiche]

Soapboxmom, on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 12:43 PM, said:

Extension of the loan

There is an extension of the loan of a whopping 3 months signed by Roscoe /Trey White himself. As to what happens by the magic date of Septmember 14,2011 is anyone's guess. This is the fifth extension and unlike the others it is not for a full year.

Guggenheim was thinking of committing between 200 - 300 millioin for the project and an unnamed group was talking about putting up 85 million. Supposedly the rephasing was going to make these investors happy earlier this year. So, why the 8 months more until ground breaking?

Soapboxmom

Loan modifications are fairly common. They're not even a bad indicator. It usually means that the borrower keeps up on payments, has demonstrated the means to continue keeping up on payments, and is generally well-liked by the lender. Warning signs are things like cash management agreements. This doesn't have that or anything like it.

As for why the short duration of the modification...could be lots of things. They may anticipate refinancing the land or obtaining construction financing and/or fresh equity that will replace the land note. I don't know why you insist on jumping to negative conclusions.

[Hugh Stone]

Hey Soapbox, after you cause Marlin/Atlantis to go out of business and insure that Montgomery County never becomes a tourist destination and that thousands of jobs are never created for the region, who will you go after next?

Are there any other scams out there that warrant any of your attention? Are there any people being hurt by any other large corporations? Are there any power companies or chemical plants dumping toxins into the environment that will actually do harm to people? Pyramid Schemes? Email scams? Old people giving all their money away to the Home Shopping Network or the Trinity Broadcasting System? Rape Victims, Child Abuse, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, SPCA? PETA? PBS?

...Or do you solely exist to 'try' to stop parts of the EarthQuest resort that you don't like - such as the theme park component? I know you don't mind the EarthQuest Institute being built (you have stated this on other forums) -which is something I find odd since Marlin/Atlantis is developing both the Institute and the theme park.

There are a lot of ways to help your fellow man. Stopping jobs and helping Houston remain the only major city in America without a large theme park is NOT one of them.

Edited by Hugh Stone, Friday, July 8, 2011 at 12:01 PM.

[Trae]

You're giving Soapboxmom too much credit, IMO. Just another internet troll.

[Soapboxmom]

Hugh Stone,

You are going way too far. Knowing what I know about Trey White and Marlin Atlantis I do not believe the taxpayers should be throwing money at them. That does not mean I am against the project in any way. The question is should the taxpayers of Texas, which includes my family, be footing the bill for Marlin Atlantis to be developing this project with their track record.

Trey (Roscoe Frederick) White was on videos allowing himself to be introduced as a multi-billionaire to promote his silly MLM water that was sued by the world renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has never even made Forbes list of billionaires, let alone multi-billionaires. Trey is a fraud and a complete buffoon. And, obviously if he was the multi-billionaire that he has allowed himself to be portrayed as, he would just buy the land outright and fund the project himself????

How did the officials handling our tax money not find out about Marlin Atlantis' botched development and bankruptcy discussed in the papers and in court records on PACER?

My link

How can Marlin Atlantis claim to be a commercial developer when the only projects I can find are low dollar residential communities? A large scale commercial project is not quite the same thing. Disney World was said to have costs 400 million to build in 1971 in 1971 dollars. Hong Kong Disneyland came in at 3.5 billion dollars in 2004. Disneyland Paris costs 2.5 billion to build in 1992 and had massive costs overruns. How can these guys build any kind of park for the 500 million that has been quoted?

I think after all these years of waiting it is time to be asking the hard questions. Trey White has been bragging about this 500 million dollar Dino Park himself for years on his corporate bios and Evolv water promotions. When are we going to see some progress?

What the paper wrote about the 500 million project may simply be a mistake of putting the usual explanatory paragraph in. Nowhere else have we heard that the project has changed from being built in phases to being built all at once. What is the story on that?

Soapboxmom

[TheNiche]

Soapboxmom, on Friday, July 8, 2011 at 7:29 PM, said:

Hugh Stone,

You are going way too far. Knowing what I know about Trey White and Marlin Atlantis I do not believe the taxpayers should be throwing money at them. That does not mean I am against the project in any way. The question is should the taxpayers of Texas, which includes my family, be footing the bill for Marlin Atlantis to be developing this project with their track record.

Trey (Roscoe Frederick) White was on videos allowing himself to be introduced as a multi-billionaire to promote his silly MLM water that was sued by the world renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has never even made Forbes list of billionaires, let alone multi-billionaires. Trey is a fraud and a complete buffoon. And, obviously if he was the multi-billionaire that he has allowed himself to be portrayed as, he would just buy the land outright and fund the project himself????

How did the officials handling our tax money not find out about Marlin Atlantis' botched development and bankruptcy discussed in the papers and in court records on PACER?

My link

How can Marlin Atlantis claim to be a commercial developer when the only projects I can find are low dollar residential communities? A large scale commercial project is not quite the same thing. Disney World was said to have costs 400 million to build in 1971 in 1971 dollars. Hong Kong Disneyland came in at 3.5 billion dollars in 2004. Disneyland Paris costs 2.5 billion to build in 1992 and had massive costs overruns. How can these guys build any kind of park for the 500 million that has been quoted?

I think after all these years of waiting it is time to be asking the hard questions. Trey White has been bragging about this 500 million dollar Dino Park himself for years on his corporate bios and Evolv water promotions. When are we going to see some progress?

What the paper wrote about the 500 million project may simply be a mistake of putting the usual explanatory paragraph in. Nowhere else have we heard that the project has changed from being built in phases to being built all at once. What is the story on that?

Soapboxmom

Mom: you're only meeting with so much resistance because your attacks betray a naivety about commercial real estate finance and the development process.

With regard to a billionaire status, you cite Forbes. All they've got is data on publicly-held positions. They know nothing about privately-held companies. They overlook a huge number of individuals. And besides, look at Forbes' other rank-order lists. Forbes is garbage. I wouldn't trust them to tell me that the sky is blue. I'm not saying that Trey White is a saint, either, but I have yet to meet a saint in the real estate industry. If he were a saint, this deal would be DOA. And that's the truth.

You ask why a billionaire doesn't just finance the project with his own money. Well...it doesn't take a billionaire to know that if you can acquire something for $100, of which $80 is borrowed, and then sell it for $110, then you've just made a 50% return on investment rather than a 10% return without borrowing. If a so-called billionaire did this project without financing, THEN I'd be convinced that he wasn't a billionaire. Billionaires (and ten-thousandaires like myself) know that the opportunity cost of doing one huge low-yield project like you suggest would be many high-yield projects.

You point out that the guy isn't Disney Corp. So? If you decide to buy or build a $165,000 house, I'm not going to call you out because it isn't a $500,000 house. There's a market for each.

[lockmat]

For what it's worth, my dad ran into an old friend who has his own electrical company and he's "excited" b/c he's hoping to get some work out of it since they "got their financing."

[cactusneedle]

This sounds like it could be cool, as long as I'm not shelling out my hard earned money to have my family and myself beaten over the head with a bunch of eco-propaganda crap. I'm sick and tired of hearing about "green this and green that". If that's what it will be, count me out. I want to be able to just go somewhere and forget about everything for a while, not be constantly told that I'm "destroying the planet".

Edited by cactusneedle, Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 10:37 PM.

[Soapboxmom]

Earth Quest Adventures Houston

Quote

An update on the current state of the park from the official EarthQuest facebook page: "The Park is still moving forward now that the financial markets have begun to flow our investment banking team is seeing great interest on the financing for the project. The average theme park project takes between 8-14 years from concept to opening, so we are ahead of the curve." and "It makes no sense to throw out ground breaking dates until the phase one financing is definitively secured"

The funding for the first phase is not secured and we are still at ground zero. So, Frank McCrady's talk of groundbreaking in nine months, which would have put it in February 2012, was just idle chatter. I pointed him to all the facts about Trey White and Marlin Atlantis. I can see why investors don't want to get involved.

Soapboxmom

[Soapboxmom]

The loans on the EarthQuest Property were due and payable on September 14th. There have been no releases, extensions or modifications filed. What is going on and why are we not getting updates? The taxpayers have a right to know!!! Where is Frank McCrady????

Soapboxmom

[TheNiche]

Soapboxmom, on Sunday, October 9, 2011 at 4:10 PM, said:

The loans on the EarthQuest Property were due and payable on September 14th. There have been no releases, extensions or modifications filed. What is going on and why are we not getting updates? The taxpayers have a right to know!!! Where is Frank McCrady????

Soapboxmom

It's been less than a month since that date came and passed. Some lenders will let the loans float as long as payments continue to be made and as long as the borrower continues to demonstrate good faith.

Even still... You should do an open records request from the East Montgomery County Improvement District. Ask for copies of all written correspondence between them and Marlin Atlantis or any of its principals.