Neither party disclosed the value of the consulting contract but area brokers familiar with comparable scenarios tell GlobeSt.com Insignia's compensation will likely be a flat fee plus a percentage of each sale.

The prepared statement from Sunterra and Insignia didn't identify the properties headed for the sale block. Two properties were sold late last year.

Once the highest time share flyer in Central Florida with 7,800 employees, Sunterra voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2000, showing $1 billion of assets. In its last U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the period ending March 31, 2000, Sunterra reported a loss of $15.6 million versus a profit of $10 million in the comparable 1999 period.

Judge Arthur B. Briskman in April approved a Sunterra request to do a $210 million financing deal with Greenwich Capital Financial Products of Greenwich, CT. Greenwich Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The money would be used to shave some of Sunterra's debt and restart its sales engine. Sunterra hopes to be out of Chapter 11 by year end.

"Although we will dispose of selected, non-core assets, we will, however, maintain our presence in these assets in many ways," Greg Rayburn, Sunterra's CEO, says in the joint statement with ESG.

The strategy calls for Sunterra to "maintain Club Sunterra inventory for our members; to continue using unsold inventory for expansion of the club through marketing agreements with the partners to whom we will sell the resorts; and through our continued management contracts of the resorts."

Insignia/ESG Hotel Partners is confident it can sell the properties quickly for Sunterra. "We fully believe in the Sunterra team, the quality of the resorts and our ability to help execute the sales process in a timely fashion through a successful marketing campaign,"Tom McConnell, senior managing director of the Insignia/ESG hotel division, says in the same statement.