The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A “game changing” beach and water park is set to create 75-100 permanent jobs in Freeport once constructed, the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) chairman yesterday saying the project would be “pretty mega”.

Ian Fair, addressing the Bahamas Business Outlook conference, said construction work on the water-based theme park would start during the 2013 first quarter.

He later told Tribune Business that the construction phase was expected to create around 50 jobs, along with some 75-100 permanent posts when building work was completed.

While declining to name the investors/company behind the beach and water park project, Mr Fair said the investment required would “certainly be a few million”.

“This is going to be pretty mega,” Mr Fair told this newspaper. “This is a company that is highly experienced in this area. They’ve been encouraged by the cruise lines to do it. They operate elsewhere and do a very good job in that area.”

He added that the water-based theme park would form the project’s first phase, with construction set to be completed in three months. A second phase was set to include a ‘zip line’ and dolphin encounters-type attraction.

Mr Fair said the water park would be located in eastern Freeport, and told Tribune Business: “One of the reasons I’m encouraged by this is that we’re trying to get more activity into that area.

“It adds another dimension to the offering we have in Freeport. It could attract some people to take a cruise to Freeport.”

Mr Fair also told this newspaper that a Bahamian joint venture partner was involved with the beach and water park, and added: “It’s got big Bahamian support.”

He had earlier told the Business Outlook conference: “We have received, as of yesterday, a proposal for a game changing beach and water park experience to cater to, in particular, cruise ship visitors but also the local public.”

Mr Fair said construction work was expected to begin during the 2013 first quarter, and he expressed hope that it would encourage more cruise passengers to disembark their ships while in port. Cruise arrivals to Freeport were up 29 per cent.

Elsewhere, the GBPA chairman said occupancy certificates for new building construction were up 6 per cent, with the construction value of new occupancies in Freeport having increased by 20 per cent.

Mr Fair said the Freeport Container Port was “steadily approaching its pre-2008 numbers”, with the volume of twenty-foot equipment units (TEUs) put through it up 10 per cent year-over-year in 2012.

This, he added, had resulted in the creation of more than 50 new jobs at the Container Port.

Noting that Freeport, and facilities such as the Container Port and Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO), were ideally placed to benefit from the ongoing Panama Canal expansion, Mr Fair said the latter’s owner was expecting a 20-30 per cent increase in vessel traffic come 2014 as a result.

New York-listed Buckeye Partners had invested more than $2 billion in expanding and improving BORCO, Mr Fair said, while Grand Bahama Power Company’s $85 million investment in its 52 Mega Watt (MW) West Sunrise Plant had given the island “the best electrical infrastructure in the country”.

The plant could be converted from oil-based fuel to natural gas, which the GBPA chairman said “bodes well for the cost effective supply” of electricity to Grand Bahama Power’s almost-20,000 consumers.

Arguing that Grand Bahama’s electricity rates were lower than those for both New Providence and Abaco, Mr Fair added that the island’s sole electricity provider required no support or subsidies from the Government.

In a not-so-subtle reference to the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) and its financial woes, Mr Fair said: “Perhaps this is a model for other parts of our country” - something that could be interpreted as meaning BEC would be better off privatised.

Mr Fair also unveiled “a complete overhaul of our [the Port Authority’s] messaging with a new brand identity”, in a bid to attract more of “the ‘right’ kinds of investment”.