The Tribune

A leading Freeport attorney yesterday demanded that the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) and Hutchison Whampoa be required to finance a Professional Marketing Organisation (PMO) to internationally promote what he described as “the forgotten island”.

Terry Gape, the Dupuch & Turnquest partner, told a Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the GBPA and its main business partner had failed to live up to their 1993 obligations to create such an organisation, with its absence ensuring few investors found Freeport.

The PMO was supposed to be established in return for the Government agreeing then to renew Freeport’s tax exemptions, and Mr Gape said the Christie administration should use the 2015 negotiations to mandate - and enforce - its creation.

He argued that the Government, and the committee it has appointed to determine Freeport’s future and the investment incentives expiring this August, should focus on this as a key element of its strategy to revive the city’s economy.

“I believe and pray that the Government realises that Freeport and Grand Bahama represent the one island in the Bahamas where the next 10,000 jobs can be created,” Mr Gape said, “and for this reason, and many others, I believe that the committee and the Government should have as their goal, rather than the short-term payment of taxes into the Treasury by the residents of this stagnant economy, the revitalisation of the Freeport economy by the establishment of this PMO fully-funded by the Port Authority and DevCo.”

Mr Gape said the PMO’s Board should include representatives from the GBPA, its 3,500 licensees and the Grand Bahama Development Company (DevCO), which is management-controlled by Hutchison.

“We already have the product but it needs an organised professional group of two or three professionals continuously on the road at seminars, private meetings and professional marketing events in Florida - and across the globe - and constantly bringing international groups to our island,” the attorney added.

Mr Gape said Freeport could not afford to miss economic ‘boom’ periods ever again, adding that the 2002-2007 period had completely bypassed the city and its economy.

“In the Florida market alone, there are 20 multi-billion dollar development groups presently building over 100,000 luxury condominium units, most of which will be completed at the end of 2015. These groups are going to be looking for places to go,” Mr Gape said.

“The Bahamas is hot, and Freeport need not miss this second boom period. We missed the boom of 2002- 2008 completely for the lack of this PMO, and we are now missing the current boom, which started in 2011, for this same reason.”

Mr Gape warned that there was zero activity in Freeport when it came to the construction of commercial properties, hotels/condo complexes and buildings greater than 3,000 square feet.

Yet he suggested a major turnaround could occur if the city were to concentrate on the resort, condo hotel and second home market over the next two years.

“How did we get to this impasse, where even the Prime Minister noted a few weeks ago that Nassau/Paradise Island is experiencing a boom in the upscale, high-end construction of second homes and luxury condominium construction, followed closely by Abaco and Exuma, but that Freeport’s economy was stagnant?” Mr Gape asked.

He revealed a personal ‘u-turn’ on whether Freeport’s expiring real property tax exemptions should be renewed come August 2015, having previously argued it should be allowed to ‘sunset’.

Mr Gape had previously suggested that the absence of real estate ‘carrying costs’ in Freeport had encouraged the likes of DevCO and the GBPA’s Port Group Ltd affiliate to hold, and not develop, land. This, in turn, discouraged new investors.

But, in a change of heart, he said yesterday: “I now believe that the exemption should be extended, say for a further 10 years, subject to the establishment of the PMO as I described before, and perhaps a proviso that any and all undeveloped land should pay real property tax if it remains undeveloped after the next five years, in any event.

“I know there are any number of proposals that are being made and discussed on this subject, but I believe the bottom line should be that we take this opportunity to reactivate the Freeport economy and make it a major, prosperous factor in the Bahamian economy, creating and attracting those next 10,000 jobs that the country needs.”

Mr Gape backed an ownership change at the GBPA “soon”, agreeing with fellow attorney, Fred Smith QC, that “it was not meant to be a fiefdom to be handed down to new generations”.

He added: “For years I have been saying that the only investors that we get in Freeport are either those that are shipwrecked or those that get off by plane by accident.

“But it is remarkable to note that those few who do by happenstance arrive very often fall in love with what Freeport has to offer.”