The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Staff at a major Freeport hotel have been told it will not re-open until May 17, the FNM’s deputy leader said yesterday, as he urged Grand Bahama’s top investor to “provide hope there will be an end to the suffering”.

K P Turnquest told Tribune Business he had been informed by Memories staff that their employer had sent letters confirming the proposed re-opening date, meaning the property will miss the whole winter 2017 season.

Suggesting that it was “a pretty bleak beginning” to 2017 for Grand Bahama’s economy, and especially hundreds of hotel/tourism workers and their families, Mr Turnquest urged Hutchison Whampoa to fulfill its responsibilities as the island’s major investor.

The Hong Kong-based conglomerate, as landlord for Memories and owner of the Grand Lucayan, has the pivotal role in effecting repairs to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Matthew in early 2016. Yet Tribune Business sources confirmed yesterday that there are still no signs of construction activity at either property.

Between Memories and the Grand Lucayan, more than 1,500 rooms have been taken out of Grand Bahama’s hotel inventory and, with both properties increasingly likely to miss the peak winter 2017 tourism season, Mr Turnquest urged Hutchison Whampoa to “provide some hope” by making a public statement on its future plans.

“Nothing’s happening,” the east Grand Bahama MP told Tribune Business of the island’s key hotel plant. “They’ve [Memories] written to their staff to say they won’t re-open until May 17.

“I know some people who work there, and they have communicated that. That’s what I understand.”

Tribune Business was unable to confirm the May 17 date, and Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism, could not be reached for comment.

However, it matches the one currently being carried on the website of Sunwing, the airline affiliate of Memories, which has May 13 as the first available date for the travel packages it is advertising.

Mr Turnquest, meanwhile, said the May 17 re-opening date meant nothing but potential hardship for hundreds of Bahamians and their families, who not only face being without work for several months but will also miss out on their peak income-earning season.

“The reality is that if they’ve missed the winter season, they may not open until the next winter season,” he warned. “It does not make sense to open in the slow season.

“It means Bahamians are out of work for five to six months, which is going to cause tremendous dislocation and suffering. The Celebration is not back yet, and the Container Port is limping with limited capacity and people have been laid off there, so the prospects for the immediate future seem quite dim.

“Truth is, the economy is in a bit of a shambles, and the tourism plant is limping along at best.”

Mr Turnquest’s view was backed by Tribune Business sources in Grand Bahama’s tourism industry, speaking on condition of anonymity, who said “complete silence” surrounded Hutchison Whampoa’s intentions for the Grand Lucayan and Memories properties.

“There’s no sign of any activity or any gearing up of significant work,” one source said. “There’s nothing on the proposed work on the Grand Lucayan, and nothing on the proposed work on Memories.

“It’s a strange beginning to the year, having such a big chunk of the tourism plant completely silent.”

The source reiterated that the impact from the continued Grand Lucayan and Memories closures was still producing negative ‘ripple impacts’ for other parts of the Grand Bahama tourism product.

They pointed, in particular, to the nearby Port Lucaya Marketplace, where the owner had again given retail and restaurant tenants a 50 per cent discount on their January rents, following a similar deal in December.

The source added that there was “all sorts of conjecture about how this is going to play out”, with many questioning Hutchison Whampoa’s intentions and whether it was using the situation for additional leverage over the Government and/or Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).

Mr Wilchcombe, in a previous interview with Tribune Business, said the Christie administration had been trying to get Hutchison Whampoa to take “renewed interest” in Grand Bahama and its assets there.

After meeting with it in Hong Kong late last year, the Minister said the conglomerate had appointed a project manager to oversee the hurricane reconstruction, but was waiting to obtain the proceeds of an insurance claim before proceeding with repairs.

Mr Turnquest, though, described Hutchison Whampoa’s silence as “disappointing”, and called on it to reassure Grand Bahama residents of its intentions.

“There’s been not a word, which is kind of disappointing because they are a major economic driver on the island,” he told Tribune Business, “so it’s incumbent on them to make some statement on the future and provide some hope there is a recovery plan in train.

“Together with their partner, the GBPA, they ought to make a statement that there is a plan and some hope at the end of the suffering.”

Mr Turnquest then hit out at the Government’s amendments to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement via the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Act 2016, which he argued had only burdened those companies actively investing in Freeport with more bureaucracy and ‘red tape’.

While requires GBPA licensees have to apply to the Investments Board for the continuation of their tax incentives, and subject themselves to a ‘performance review’ every five years, the GBPA itself and Hutchison Whampoa - which have done little to no investing in recent years - are exempt from these requirements.

Several observers believe that the Government let both the GBPA and Hutchison Whampoa ‘off the hook’ by renewing their incentives (tax breaks) for a further 20 years, and that it now has no leverage to force them to develop their landholdings.

Mr Turnquest echoed these concerns yesterday, adding: “What we do know is that the amendments they have made to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement have not been helpful at all, as they have put an extra burden on those enterprises that have been making investments in the economy, while they have let off the GBPA and Hutchison through DevCo.

“They’ve [the Government] actually hurt us more than they’ve helped us. They talk about what they’re doing for Grand Bahama, but they’ve demonstrated by their actions they’re not interested in the development of Grand Bahama.”

Another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, backed Mr Turnquest, arguing that the Government had “given the shop away” without obtaining “any assurances from Hutchison that they would keep the hotel going”.

The Grand Lucayan was put up for sale last summer via a ‘sealed bid’ auction, but there has been no word as to the outcome or whether a ‘preferred bidder’ has even been selected.