MONTERREY, Mexico, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Mexico's biggest construction firm, Empresas ICA (NYSE:ICA), and partners
lost a $700 million tourism project in the Caribbean beach resort of Cancun when they missed a payment deadline,
one of the partners in the project said late on Thursday.
``The time period that (the National Tourism Development Fund) Fonatur gave us to close the deal expired on us
as a group,'' said Orlando Arroyo, president of Promotora Cancun Sunset.
The firms Empresas ICA and Operadora Sunset formed a joint venture called Operadora Cancun which in March won a
government bidding process to develop a tourism complex called Puerto Cancun, including hotels, golf course, shopping
centers and housing units.
Since September, the partners have owed some $27 million as a 50 percent down payment on the land where the project
would be built.
Arroyo said the payment was not missed because of a lack of money but because of difficulties between ICA and a
latecomer partner in the project, Mexico's Montserrat construction group.
Earlier this week, a Fonatur source in Cancun said the project had fallen behind schedule because of multiple changes,
which elevated the estimated investment over the next five years from $500 million to $700 million.