The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

SOME $3-$4 million is expected to be invested in the initial phase of Guy Harvey Outpost's renovation of Rum Cay's Sumner Point Marina and Villas, with $10 million set to be pumped into the final two phases of the project.

Sumner Point's owner and operator, Bobby Little,, who is partnering with Guy Harvey in the development, told Tribune Business that Rum Cay was now "what Bimini used to be" decades ago -a reference to his partner's recent branding involvement with the Bimini Big Game Club.

"Rum Cay has a lot of development potential," Mr Little said. "This is really a true outpost. Bimini, when it was Hemmingway, was amazing. The fishing was great; it was the only thing in town, it was the spot. Bimini is very developed now, and Outpost - when they were in Bimini - didn't have beaches. They had a lot of competition with new resorts.

"Bimini was successful but I just don't think it was a big enough facility for what Outpost really wants. In Rum Cay we offer surfing, spectacular scuba diving and spectacular fishing. We are what Bimini used to be back in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s."

Mr Little told Tribune Business that "things were starting to move forward" with the Rum Cay development project.

He added: "The Guy Harvey team will be out here on May 15. Things are starting to move forward. We were hoping to have a big grand opening for May, but I think the plan is that the Guy Harvey people are going to come in and put a plan together.

" We are hoping that somewhere like August and September we are going to go into the rebuild of the facility. The facility is 20 years-old. We have to reconfigure the whole place. We are kind of on a go-slow here right now, and we have busy season coming up in June, July and August for fishing."

And Mr Little said: "In the early stages they [Guy Harvey] are going to be putting in $3-$4 million, and in the late and heavier stages about $10 million. It will be done over about three phases. If you put in anything too big at the beginning, it's going to expand to fast.

"I think Rum Cay can go back to what we had. We had a very big development boom from 1998 to 2004, and then the economy struggled in 2008 and 2009 and caused it to fall off. We have 14 homes here in our development.

" We are the only developer here on Rum Cay. There are a lot of properties here, but there are not a lot of developers stepping forward. In the first stage I think what we are really looking at is increasing the hotel rates. We only have four cottages, one house and several homes in the community.

"I think we are looking to get a higher rental to where we can get 20 to 40 people here, so it could increase labour on the island for maid services, landscaping and so forth. They are probably going to put all new docks in, rebuild the club house and probably put a swimming pool in."

The previously announced plan was to transform the Sumner Point Marina & Villas into the Guy Harvey Outpost Club & Marina, Rum Cay.

Sumner Point Marina is situated on the southeast tip of Rum Cay, and the marina and adjoining club facilities have been owned and operated by the Little family since 1960.

Guy Harvey Outpost and Resorts, and the owners of Bimini Big Game, announced last week they had mutually agreed to end their licensing agreement. Guy Harvey's president, Mark Ellert, said that the brand had turned its interests to other locations, namely Rum Cay.