In a snippy press release issued today by Sterling Communications on behalf of Bible Park USA, developer Robert Wyatt laid the blame for their most recent failure on Lebanon politicians.

“I would be surprised if investors or lenders are likely to go forward in this location, given the current political environment where city officials change their mind in mid-course without notice to the development team or others supporting the project. Certainly, our pool of potential investors view this as a source of great concern. Our utter lack of opportunity to address new issues has led to speculation that local political in-fighting has taken over the ordinary process toward approval of a significant economic development project for Wilson County. Regardless of the explanation, our ability to attract business investment to Lebanon has been undermined.”

Armon and Amnon Bartur, financial backers of the Bible Theme Park through SafeHarbor Holdings, failed to get the support of Rutherford County officials and land owners the year before. They then brought the idea to Lebanon officials late last year.

The $400 million Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, SC developed by SafeHarbor filed bankruptcy in 2008 barely months after opening. It recently sold for only $25 million.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Business, Economy, Entertainment, Faith, Ideas, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.