GlobeSt.com, however, has learned from hospitality industry sources the asset being sought is the 400-unit, 10-year-old Blue Tree Resort near Walt Disney World, owned by Tokyo-based Aoki Corp. The global construction company is currently restructuring and shedding all hospitality assets, as GlobeSt.com reported Jan. 2.

REH "recently submitted a $10 million bid to a Japanese bankruptcy trustee to purchase a troubled, mixed-use resort and timeshare project in Orlando," REH chairman/CEO Frank Nardozza says in a prepared statement.

REH declined to identify the property it is seeking. "We are under a non-disclosure (agreement) and so cannot answer your question," Niki Borrelli, manager, public relations and administration, REH Capital Partners, tells GlobeSt.com.

If REH could buy the 16-acre Blue Tree property at 12007 Cypress Run Drive for $10 million, it would getting the asset for $25,000 per unit, or about 25% off the estimated replacement cost of $100,000 per unit ($40 million), construction industry estimators familiar with comparable projects tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Aoki, one of the top 10 general contractors in Japan and a prominent commercial and hotel builder in Orlando, filed for protection from creditors in November 2001. The Asahi Bank Ltd., headed by Tatsuro Itoh, and the Industrial Bank of Japan, two of Aoki's biggest lenders, are helping Aoki restructure.

Aoki was among 17,936 Japanese companies filing for bankruptcy from January 2001 through November 2001, according to Teikoku Data Bank Ltd., a Tokyo credit research firm.

(Please see related story on Miami page).