The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Freeport hotel where the government’s COVID-19 health team are staying was yesterday forced to seek urgent clarification it can remain open after not being included among “essential” businesses.

Magnus Alnebeck, the Pelican Bay resort’s general manager, told Tribune Business he had to contact the Ministry of Grand Bahama’s permanent secretary for confirmation after the prime minister left “hotels with guests” out of the sectors and companies permitted to remain open during Grand Bahama’s two-week lockdown.

Disclosing that he now expected the resort’s occupancy levels to drop from last weekend’s 30 percent to just three to four percent, with around ten rooms occupied by guests, Mr Alnebeck said: “Since we have the Ministry of Health’s team dealing with all of this staying with us, we raised the question with the permanent secretary whether or not we were exempt because, if not, we would have to shut down.

“His understanding was that hotels with guests are still exempt, and he promised to clarify that as soon as possible. If we’re not going to be open then it’s going to be hard because we need to have accommodation for persons that the Government has approved to come in.

“I don’t know if they were thinking about this. There’s always a bit of after-thought going into it. We have got confirmation verbally, and he [the permanent secretary] promised that if there was any change he would let us know by the end of the day,” he continued.

“As I understand it, we can remain open. They need to have our hotel. You cannot shut the whole island down. We need to accommodate the people that need to be here, and are now scrambling trying to get ready. The little tourists that are here are some boaters, and they are heading out of here as quickly as they can. The weather is not at its best, but they are.”

Dr Hubert Minnis, in deciding to bring the start of Grand Bahama’s two-week lockdown forward to Thursday, effectively reimposed the restrictions last seen during COVID-19’s first wave peak with grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and other essential businesses allowed to open for limited hours.

Other enterprises to be treated as essential are Freeport’s industrial firms, including the likes of Polymers International; Grand Bahama Power Company; Grand Bahama Utility Company; Bradford Grand Bahama; PharmaChem Technologies and sub-contractors; Freeport Container Port; Bahama Rock - Martin Marietta; Buckeye Bahamas Hub Ltd and sub-contractors; Grand Bahama Shipyard; Bahamas Industrial Technologies; Bahamian Brewery; and the shipping companies.

The Government is also permitting construction activities related to post-Dorian restoration and preparation for the current hurricane season, but residents and businesses have only been given 48 hours to obtain the necessary materials otherwise they will have to apply to the “Competent Authority” (Prime Minister’s Office) which will only grant permission to obtain them in an emergency.

Mr Alnebeck, meanwhile, voiced concern about the ability of cash-strapped families, residents and businesses to endure another two-week lockdown given the four months of hardship already endured as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic - which struck less than seven months after the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Dorian.

“I am concerned about people’s ability to actually have money,” he told Tribune Business. “How should I put it in a nice way?... It’s not part of the Bahamian culture to have a lot of extra cash in the bank account.

“That’s what we see after a hurricane. People use the little savings they have to get ready, and then when it’s over most people don’t have any money left. It’s a similar scenario now. We’ve gone through for months of hardship and people being laid-off, and there’s extremely limited funds that people have access to.”

The Pelican Bay chief said he had been informed persons had been queuing at grocery stores for up to two hours this morning as they rushed to stock up ahead of the lockdown. He suggested restocking inventories could prove problematic, especially since the loss of the Solomon’s store on Queen’s Highway due to Dorian.

Warning that there was “going to be a hard road ahead” for Grand Bahama once it emerges from lockdown, Mr Alnebeck also warned that many smaller resorts throughout The Bahamas may lack the financing to reopen their properties once commercial travel resumes from the US. He added that the sector was now set to lose what little of the summer it had been due to enjoy.

“I think Grand Bahama is in desperate need of the Grand Lucayan deal actually happening,” Mr Alnebeck told Tribune Business. “Let’s hope it happens. We’ll be operating with a skeleton crew at Pelican Bay if we’re allowed to open because if we have guests in the hotel we have to have amenities available for them and some form of room service.”