The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporters

A private-public partnership (PPP) proposal to transform and take over management of Bimini’s airport has been revived and presented to residents last week for community feedback, Tribune Business can reveal.

Evak Arthur, Bimini’s island administrator, confirmed to this newspaper that members of the PPP consortium provided residents with renderings of what the upgraded facilities will look like at a Thursday night Town Hall Meeting that was called to discuss the proposed “expansion” of the airport as well as Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) plans for its Ocean cay private island destination.

“The presenters made their presentations along with pictures of what the international airport would look like. Of course this is just the initial phase where they want the community and residents of Bimini to be fully aware of what is going on,” the administrator replied via text to Tribune Business inquiries. “The residents had their concerns, which I’m sure will be addressed in the follow-up meeting. But no one outrightly said no.”

Dr Kenneth Romer, the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation’s deputy director-general, and acting director of aviation, confirmed to this newspaper that there have been “active discussions” over the Government partnering with private investors, infrastructure developers and airport operators for the management and operation of Bimini’s main aviation gateway.

Confirming that Bimini is not among the 14 Family Island airports in the $263m-strong package put out to bid via a public Request for Proposal (RFP), he added: “The development of airports is an ongoing process. As you know, there were airports targeted specifically, the 14 for PPPs.

“Bimini was not part of the 14 airport PPPs but, outside of that, there were some airports targeted for development. I do know there were active discussions in terms of development. Dr Romer said suggestions that Resorts World Bimini, operator of the island’s largest resort property, is involved in the PPP group are incorrect, adding that “they are not listed as an active developer in the airport process.

“Resorts World is not the proposed developer for that south Bimini airport. Resorts World is not targeted to be the developer of that airport,” Dr Romer added.

Tribune Business has separately seen a section from a presentation by a group called Bimini Airport Development Partners. Its members are said to include Phoenix Infrastructure, a US-based infrastructure advisory and investment firm with offices in Washington D.C and New York; Plenary Group, another US infrastructure group, and an airport and fixed-base FBO operator called Avports.

The slide describes Phoenix Infrastructure as a “black-owned infrastructure investor and developer with experience in airport development and economic impact within its projects”. Its website shows air transportation and airport operators (FBOs) are among its specialist areas of interest. It was founded in 2015 by two University of Chicago Business School colleagues, Jeremy Ebie and Chris Baeza.

Plenary was said to be a “best-in-class” long-term infrastructure investor and developer with projects across the US, Canada and the Caribbean”. Its website describes it as “one of the world’s leading investors, developers and asset managers of public infrastructure projects” or PPPs, numbering 59, and it is owned by an institutional investor, CDPQ, with more than $300bn in assets under management. It focuses heavily on hospitals, bridges and other public sector facilities.

Avports, meanwhile, was described as a “best-in-class airport operator with a focus on small to mid-sized airport facilities across the US, Latin America and the Caribbean”. Headquartered at Dulles Airport in Dallas, it is involved at multiple US airports in locations such as Los Angeles, Detroit, St Louis and Westchester.

However, Ms Arthur, Bimini’s administrator, while confirming Phoenix Infrastructure’s involvement, said it was instead partnering with Resorts World’s owners, the Malaysian conglomerate, Genting, and Gerardo Capo’s RAV (Bahamas). “This is a public-private partnership between the Government of The Bahamas and RAV Ltd, Genting Americas and Phoenix Infrastructure Group,” she said.

Phoenix Infrastructure provides the common link for, in 2021, it was named as the entity providing the financing for Genting and RAV to take over management and operations of Bimini’s airport. Algernon Cargill, the then-director of aviation, told this newspaper at that time: “We’re very excited about it. This will be a PPP with that group that is similar to other PPPs. The plans are already in the preliminary stage.

“They’re looking at lengthening the runway and building a brand new terminal. We’re being very deliberate in our discussions to ensure we have take a well-developed proposal before we submit it to Cabinet for approval. They’ll be the managing partner for the airport, Genting and RAV Bahamas. It’s something we’ve been planning for a couple of months. We’ve had several meetings, but contracts have not been executed.”

The plans in 2021 involved extending the runway from its present 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet, so that it can easily accommodate commercial passenger aircraft as well as private jets. The total investment being eyed was said to be $40m.