The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Arawak Port Development Company (APD) expects to pin down financial and planning details for a proposed new road link to its facility within 45 days, believing it could open up further investment on the Cay.

Michael Maura, APD’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that the port owner/operator has hired KPMG to prepare a plan for a new causeway that would connect Arawak Cay’s western end to West Bay Street.

He explained that the proposal stemmed from the Government and APD’s shared desire to alleviate the impact that heavy vehicular traffic was having on the nearby Arawak Cay Fish Fry.

Current access to APD’s Nassau Container Port, and the whole of Arawak Cay, is via just a single causeway at its eastern end that runs directly past the Fish Fry.

Apart from being relatively narrow for two-way traffic, many believe the heavy cargo vehicles that use it are incompatible with the Fish Fry’s image as a dining/eatery destination for both locals and tourists.

Mr Maura told Tribune Business that the proposed causeway, which would intersect with West Bay Street east of Saunders Beach, would ease traffic volumes at Arawak Cay’s eastern end and diversify access points.

And he suggested it might also pave the way for future investment projects at Arawak Cay’s western end, as the reduced traffic congestion would boost the area’s attraction for potential developers.

“We’re in the process of putting together a conceptual financial plan at a high level, so that we can sit with government to discuss how it will be funded, the cost of the causeway, and whether it will be one lane or two,” Mr Maura told Tribune Business.

“Within 45 days we should be in a position to give much more detail on that. We’re actively working with KPMG to help produce a little plan.”

Mr Maura said the causeway proposal stemmed from a meeting executives at BISX-listed APD had with Prime Minister Perry Christie and his team several months ago.

“He [the Prime Minister] expressed concern over commerccial traffic coming through the Fish Fry,” he added. “We share that same concern over people enjoying their meal, and people passing across and crossing a main thoroughfare.

“What we’ve suggested is that we work with the Government to construct a new causeway to run from the south-west side of Arawak Cay to West Bay Street, east of Saunders Beach.”

Mr Maura said the causeway, if it proceeds to development and construction, would be “another major project” for APD.

He conceded that the proposal, which would be a multi-million dollar undertaking, was not included in APD’s budget and plans for its current 2015 financial year.

And, given the Government’s dire fiscal position, it is highly likely that private capital - a combination of APD and outside investors - would be required to contribute the majority (if not 100 per cent) of the causeway’s financing.

Still, Mr Maura is adamant that upgraded road infrastructure at Arawak Cay is vital. “I think it has to happen, and definitely it should happen,” he told Tribune Business.

And he suggested that the causeway plan would benefit more persons than just APD and its Nassau Container Port, plus existing businesses on Arawak Cay.

“So many people have asked the question: What are the plans for the western end of Arawak Cay?” Mr Maura said.

“It’s difficult to speculate what those plans are. As big as all that commercial vehicular traffic is, it has to all come across the causeway out east. If you have several million dollars to invest, and that is the only causeway, you might not find that to be really acceptable in support of your project.

“The idea of a causeway in the south-west, intersecting with West Bay Street, potentially opens up investment opportunities for the western end of Arawak Cay.”

Many observers believe Arawak Cay’s current use as a port facility, and for industrial-related operations, renders it incompatible for other uses such as tourism.

Yet the former Ingraham administration, in the shape of ex-tourism minister, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, argued that Arawak Cay could serve both interests.

And there have been several tourism-related projects that eyed the Arawak Cay area, most notably the historical/cultural village proposal advanced several years ago by former Family Guardian president, Gerald Strachan, and a group of Bahamian investors.

Mr Maura, meanwhile, revealed to Tribune Business that APD plans to exploit its intellectual property by offering its terminal operations and administration IT (information technology) services to foreign ports.

“We’ve been very successful on IT, in terminal operations and administration,” he told Tribune Business. “We are contemplating branching out on that as well, and offering those services to ports outside the Bahamas. There’s a lot of potential for APD.”

And Mr Maura reiterated APD’s willingness to partner with the Government on developing/managing ports on other Bahamian islands, especially when it came to reducing revenue leakage at these facilities.

“We continue to speak to the Government about the potential for partnerning with APD on port development,” he said. “We attended the North Abaco groundbreaking.

“We hope at some point that the Government realises the benefit of help to run port facilities that have controls in place to support government tax collection activities in the Family Islands. These are the things we want to push on.”

Mr Maura said APD continued to question why all auto imports continued to be offloaded at Prince George’s Wharf, the Bahamas’ leading entry point for cruise passengers, rather than at the Nassau Container Port.

Emphasising that the Government would earn more if these imports came ashore at Arawak Cay, Mr Maura told Tribune Business: “That is something that we continue to ask about.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me why bulk auto carriers continue to dock at Prince George’s Wharf, a cruise port which has 2.5 million passengers exiting on the same promenade that cars have to drive down, when you have a purpose built cruise port to accommodate that activity.

“We continue to be concerned for APD, and continue to ask why ships berth there. The Government makes more money here, when cars come across our dock.”