The Tribune

• Bulk of $250m project waits on Ministry of Works

• Workforce sent back to China after garage finish

• Bay St project will ‘remobilise’ after approvals given

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Pointe’s Chinese workforce has been sent home until the downtown Nassau development obtains the necessary permits to begin construction of its 200-room condo hotel and associated amenities.

Leslie Pindling, spokesperson for the project’s developer, confirmed to Tribune Business that with the 1,000-space parking garage’s superstructure now complete, the Chinese construction workforce had been redeployed back home.

And he revealed that further heavy construction work depended on Neworld One Bay Street, the China Construction America (CCA) subsidiary, obtaining the necessary building permits from the Ministry of Works.

Mr Pindling was speaking after Tribune employees, while passing The Pointe construction site, saw only a few Bahamian - but no Chinese - construction workers present.

“The ones you have not seen have gone back to China because they have built the superstructure they were supposed to do,” Mr Pindling said in reference to the parking garage.

“The superstructure has been constructed, and they’ve all been returned to China as such. We sent everybody back to China who had completed and finished the job.”

Tribune Business sources have suggested that The Pointe’s Chinese construction workforce has been sent to Panama, which is where CCA’s regional headquarters is located, rather than China while the developer waits to obtain the required permits. This means it will incur extra costs to remobilise and ship the workers back when the approvals come through.

Mr Pindling, meanwhile, implied it was ironic to now receive inquiries about a lack of Chinese workers, when CCA, as developer, had previously been criticised for not employing enough Bahamian construction workers and contractors at The Pointe.

He added, though, that CCA and its Neworld One Bay Street subsidiary were now waiting on Ministry of Works approvals before they could begin construction on the project’s main amenities.

Apart from the main 200-room condo hotel, which is supposed to be branded by Hard Rock, the construction ‘to do’ list also includes The Pointe’s 134 luxury residences, 56-slip marina and attractions that include restaurants, retail, a cinema, spa, bowling alley and performing arts centre.

“We are just attempting to get a building permit from the Ministry of Works,” Mr Pindling told Tribune Business. “Once we get that, we will start construction again.

“All the files are in, all the plans are in, and all the bills are paid. We’re just waiting for confirmation.”

When asked when Neworld One Bay Street anticipated receiving the necessary permits, Mr Pindling replied: “I have no control over the Ministry of Works. It should be imminently. We will get all the permits, and then do mobilisation for the job.”

He added that The Pointe did not wish to again be the subject of adverse publicity, which arose when the Ministry of Works issued a previous ‘stop work’ order because the necessary permits had not been issued.

Of the Bahamian contractors on-site, Mr Pindling said: “They’re doing the final product. That’s the parking garage, laying all the cement, doing all the roads, the landscaping and so forth.”

He added that CCA and Neworld One Bay Street were expecting to hold an official opening ceremony for the parking garage “quite soon”.

The Pointe, which has been billed as a $250 million investment on the five-six acre site adjacent to the British Colonial Hilton, is set to dominate the entrance to downtown Nassau and views from its harbour when completed.