The Tribune

By NATARIO MCKENZIE

Tribune Business Editor

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) chairman yesterday suggested that if the $225 million World Mart project had been initiated with more “more modest” aspirations and size, it “would probably have been off the ground by now.”

While reaffirming the GBPA’s support of the proposed trade market, Ian Fair, speaking with Tribune Business at the annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook, said: “With World Mart, we have always said that we would support it. I think if it had started with more modest aspirations and size it would probably have been off the ground by now.

“My encouragement for anyone who wants to come in that area is to do something more the size of a VTrade. Come in, start a modest type of operation and grow it, prove its success.

“If you look generally in the Bahamas, there are very few exceptions of things that have come in with a $400 -$500 million price tag and succeeded. Most businesses started small - even the Shipyard started with one dry dock, then moved to a second and a third. Grow you business incrementally in the Bahamas; start it small then grow it. We have got many examples in the Bahamas of that.”

The World Mart project is being spearheaded by Bahamian principals, Ken Hutton and Joe Thompson. Mr Hutton previously told Tribune Business that World Mart had been estimated as having a $400 million annual economic impact, and creating between 6,000-8,000 total jobs in Grand Bahama.

He disclosed that there would be two full-time Bahamian employees for each of World Mart’s planned 1,600 stalls, which manufacturers from Asia would use to showcase their products to potential buyers and partners in the Western Hemisphere.

Mr Hutton told Tribune Business that the one million square foot facility would create between 3,000-4,000 direct jobs. The project’s build-out was projected to create 600-800 construction jobs