The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A well-known Bahamian investor yesterday disclosed that the capital investment in his proposed Coral Harbour resort/entertainment centre is set to increase by $250 million due to the addition of a 300-unit timeshare complex.

Tennyson Wells told Tribune Business that the additional resort accommodation had been proposed by his potential casino operator, and expressed confidence that the required project financing will be raised.

Revealing that the project will be called ‘Aqualuxe’, the former Cabinet Minister said: “We have done the economic impact studies, all the costing and stuff, and we will be going to the financial community to raise the funds. We have serious interest.”

Explaining the rational behind the project’s expansion, Mr Wells told this newspaper: “The persons we were dealing with in the hotel sector and casino sector indicated we needed to add 300 units to it for timeshare.

“We have done that, and so that increased the capital investment by about $250 million.”

Tribune Business last year revealed Mr Wells’s plans to create “the entertainment centre of the western Atlantic” at Coral Harbour, via a $700 million investment that promised 3,000-4,000 full-time jobs.

The project - earmarked for a 200-plus acre site on the southern New Providence shore - will also feature a 1,000-room hotel, digital theme park and mega yacht marina.

The theme park will showcase Bahamian history and mythology, such as Bimini Road and the Chick Charnie, and Mr Wells said then that the “huge project” would ultimately be 50 per cent Bahamian-owned.

He added that it was also backed by “entertainers out of Hollywood”.

The ex-Attorney General yesterday told Tribune Business that the project’s backers had “completed the development” of the theme park concept and film, which is intended to provide an interactive, digital experience of Bahamian mythology and history for visitors.

And he expressed confidence that the development would raise the necessary financing, even though the timeshare addition - based on figures provided yesterday and previously - would likely take the investment over the $1 billion mark.

“I feel the money will be there to do it,” Mr Wells said. “I think it’s going to happen. We are having some critical meetings this month. There is nothing like it in the world.”

Obtaining New Providence’s third and final casino licence, though, is critical to the Coral Harbour project getting off the ground.

Mr Wells and his fellow investors, though, have received some encouragement in this regard, though, with the Government confirming to them that this licence is no longer exclusively locked into South Ocean.

Tribune Business exclusively revealed last year that New Providence’s third casino licence is not tied to that resort, with the Government willing to make it available to whichever investor provides the wherewithal - expertise and proof of financing - to make a casino-based project happen.

“We have received written communication from the Government to say if we put the funding in place, we’ll be treated like anybody else, and we are moving forward with it,” Mr Wells told this newspaper yesterday.

Explaining how the visitor experience would work, he had previously told this newspaper: “If you are sitting in a chair, and they take you into the ocean to chase a submarine or shark, or sit on the back of a whale, you will feel like you are doing that.

“You can go into Andros, go on the back of the Chick Charnie, go to Eleuthera or Exuma and see Lady Morley, the mythical Bahamian mermaid, go to Inagua and play with the flamingos, go into Inagua and play in the caves.

“You fly around the Bahamas; you’ll have a journey around the Bahamas.”

Describing his and the other developers’ vision for the project, Mr Wells told Tribune Business: “It will be the entertainment centre of the western Atlantic, from New York and Canada to the west of Argentina. It’s backed and supported by a lot of entertainers out of Hollywood.

“It will be an entertainment centre, and there’s nothing else like it. There’s only one other like that in the world; it;’s in South Korea.

“It’s a huge project. We’ll be looking at 3,000-4,000 jobs, and the construction will be between 2,000-2,500 jobs.

“In terms of the theme park, the hotel and the mega yacht marina, it’s in excess of $700 million. That sum has nothing to do with the rest of the land, the shopping areas and all of the other things that go along with that.”