The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Hurricane Matthew has delivered “a gut punch” to Grand Bahama’s economy, the island’s Chamber of Commerce president said yesterday, delaying its planned turnaround “quite significantly”.

Kevin Seymour told Tribune Business that the Category Four storm would force the island to place economic revival initiatives on the backburner, as activities focused on private sector and community restoration.

Acknowledging that it was “a bit of a dismal picture” in the immediate term, Mr Seymour said the “consensus” among Grand Bahama’s business community was that Matthew had been more severe that the combination of Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004 - both of which also devastated the island.

Citing Freeport Jetwash and Jiffy Cleaners as two businesses that had been hit-hard by Matthew, Mr Seymour said remarks earlier this week by Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism, suggested Grand Bahama’s hotel sector had also been “paralysed”.

He emphasised, however, that it was “not all doom and gloom” for Grand Bahama and Freeport, given that the island-wide need for property repairs had already stimulated the construction industry into near full employment.

This would receive a further boost once multi-million dollar sums from insurance claims were injected into the island’s economy, with Mr Seymour praising the “fighting spirit” of Grand Bahamians and their willingness to rebuild.

Still, he conceded to Tribune Business: “Obviously, this is a setback for Grand Bahama. We were poised to do certain things which are probably now going to have to take a back seat to the restoration. It is definitely a gut punch for Grand Bahama.”

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreed between the Government and Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) earlier this year was designed to provide investors and businesses, both Bahamian and foreign, with greater clarity and certainty regarding Freeport’s investment regime.

Reforms to the city’s governance were also contained in the MoU, and the Government brought legislation to Parliament to enshrine Freeport’s investment regime in statute law.

This was intended to provide the springboard for Freeport’s, and Grand Bahama’s economic revitalisation, together with a proposed $300 million Phase V expansion at the Container Port and Carnival’s planned cruise port in eastern Grand Bahama.

It is unclear whether these two projects, and their timelines, will be impacted by the Matthew fall-out, but the widespread destruction caused by the storm will likely move Grand Bahama from revitalisation to restoration, pushing the former back by a year or two.

“I’ve been doing an informal survey of members and businesses, and the consensus was that this particular storm was more severe than both Frances and Jeanne,” Mr Seymour said.

The damage inflicted by those two storms in 2004, and subsequent closure of the Royal Oasis and loss of 1,200 jobs, propelled Grand Bahama’s economy into a moribund decade from which it has yet to fully escape.

Mr Seymour and the business communities are blaming the various tornados spawned by Hurricane Matthew’s 140 mile per hour winds for the extent of Grand Bahama’s property damage, particularly to roofs such as that on the Castaways hotel.

The Grand Bahama Chamber held an “emergency meeting” to assess the damage to the private sector on Wednesday, and Mr Seymour said: “I think it’s fair to say that most businesses have been affected by the storm in some form or fashion, the extent of the damage more severe for some than others.”

He cited Freeport Jetwash, the auto dealer and service/parts supplier, as one business that “sustained significant damage to their building”, particularly the roof and windows on the parts department.

“I suspect it will be a while before they get up and going,” Mr Seymour said, adding that Jiffy Cleaners had also suffered property damage during Matthew.

Hotels such as Memories and the Grand Lucayan have temporarily closed for repairs, while other properties such as Pelican Bay are still open, reducing the available accommodation for technicians flown in to assist Grand Bahama Power Company with restoration.

With electricity starting to be restored, Mr Seymour said: “There might be some glimmer of hope in getting hotel operations up and running, but in my view it’s not going to be something occurring overnight. It’s going to be a few weeks before the hotels are fully operational.”

He added that Port Lucaya Marketplace, the main shopping and restaurant destination for cruise and stopover tourists, was “expected to be out of commission for some time” as a result of Matthew.

“It is a bit of a dismal picture, but it is what it is,” Mr Seymour told Tribune Business. “It’s going to be a bit of a slog going forward.

“Grand Bahama residents have shown a level of resilience before, and I have no doubt we will come back from this as well, but it does change the timeline quite significantly for any turnaround.”

However, Mr Seymour said the arrival of insurance claim payouts would provide a major boost for the construction industry, with the repair and restoration effort helping to create jobs and compensate for lay-offs in other areas.

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” he told Tribune Business. “There are some openings in construction and other fields. With repairs and the replacement of infrastructure in Grand Bahama, and Freeport in particular, they will get a much-needed facelift similar to what happened in 2005.”

The Chamber chief said it was already “very hard to find skilled persons to work on roofs”, and contractors were having to place some homeowners on waiting lists.

“That’s the kind of thing we see ensuring that small businesses, entrepreneurs, get some work that up until now they’ve been challenged with,” Mr Seymour added.

“One of the intangibles here is the fighting spirit of Grand Bahama’s people. Because we’ve been through this before, a lot of people are circumspect about it, the fact they got away with their lives, and they know they can rebuild.

“Nobody has given up. Everyone I’ve spoken to is prepared to roll up their sleeves and do what is necessary to get the island back on its feet.”