The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister has suggested that the Government needs to be “more forceful” with South Ocean’s owner if it wishes to see renewed economic activity at the long-closed resort.

Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, acknowledged to Tribune Business it was “somewhat disappointing” that nothing had occurred at the southwestern New Providence location since the Christie administration took office in May 2012.

He added that South Ocean’s owner, the Canadian Commercial Workers Pension Plan (CCWIPP), had received several purchase offers for the 383-acre property, but all seemed to have “fallen through”.

“It is one that we have worked extremely hard on, but South Ocean has been somewhat of a difficult process,” Mr Rolle told Tribune Business, adding that he was unaware of South Ocean’s current status or CCWIPP’s intentions.

“There have been quite a number of proposed deals with the pension fund, and many of them have fallen through. I can’t say specifically why.”

The Minister added: “Everything is in its time. That’s the way I look at it. Yes, it is somewhat disappointing that nothing has happened there.

“The Government, in my mind, has to be a bit more forceful in driving that with the pension fund, but that’s something that has to be left to the discretion of the Prime Minister as to how forceful we want to be to drive some sort of activity there.”

Reviving South Ocean was among the Christie administration’s top investment priorities when it came to office, as the property has long been earmarked as the last mixed-use, integrated resort and real estate development in New Providence.

It was supposed to be the third such site, after Paradise Island (Atlantis) and Cable Beach (Baha Mar), not least because South Ocean has a casino licence that activates once the property reaches a certain size in terms of room inventory.

However, all efforts to revitalise South Ocean to-date have failed to produce positive results, largely due to a combination of CCWIPP’s uncertain objectives and the Government being distracted by Baha Mar’s travails for the past two years.

CCWIPP, the pension provider for Canadian supermarket workers, hired the company owned by professional Australian golfer, Greg Norman, to masterplan South Ocean in 2012 after its previous partnership with Roger Stein’s RHS Ventures and Plainfield Asset Management ultimately came to nothing.

It then initiated a sales process for South Ocean via the Miami office of CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), but the buyer search ultimately came to nothing after CCWIPP rejected two institutional investors in favour of an individual with Bahamas ties.

The pension fund went with Austrian financier Dr Mirko Kovats, who has a home in Lyford Cay and owns other real estate in the South Ocean area, rather than rival bids that included a joint venture between the Albany developers and Och-Ziff, the hedge fund and asset manager with over $40 billion in worldwide assets.

Och-Ziff would have provided the financing, while Albany’s developers (including Lyford Cay-based billionaire Joe Lewis’s Tavistock Group) would have provided management, operational and development expertise.

South Ocean, meanwhile, has been closed for more than a decade, after CCWIPP decided to stem the bleeding caused by consecutive years of heavy losses and shut the doors in 2004.

The resort property’s value and assets are likely to be deteriorating by the day, and CCWIPP’s intentions and future plans remain unknown.

Mr Rolle, meanwhile, said there was positive news for the Bahamas elsewhere on the investments front that was not dependent on Baha Mar’s impending opening.

The proposed project for Children’s Bay Cay and Williams Cay, off northern Exuma, is set to come out of the ‘investment pipeline’ after going through the planning and environmental process, with a Town Meeting scheduled on the island for early February.

“We haven’t slowed down. Time is of the essence,” Mr Rolle told Tribune Business. “Children’s Bay is one of those properties that has significant economic implications for Exuma.”

Mr Rolle said Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) private cruise island on Ocean Cay, near Bimini, was set to ‘break ground’ today, while a proposed $65 million condominium hotel near Goodman’s Bay was also set to move forward.

“The Wynn development, opposite my office, the condo hotel; there are some very good strategic partnerships that are going to come into being with Paul Wynn,” Mr Rolle told Tribune Business. “Some high-end brands are interested.”

Tribune Business first reported on the Canadian-based Wynn Group’s proposal in May 2015, which proposed to create 200 construction jobs and a further 150 permanent jobs.

The development, which was intended to complement Baha Mar, called for the development of four-storey condo hotel on a 4.65 acre development site acquired in early 2013.

The development site, Gold Blossom, is currently occupied by an ageing single family residence on West Bay Street, just east of the Goodman’s Bay public park.

“The first proposal is for a four-storey condo hotel, 118 units, 34 hotel suites, 22 junior suites, 36 condo hotels, 23 residences, three penthouses, a fitness centre and spa beach front pool; bar and grill; tennis club; roof-top pool and restaurant,” said Peter Galanos, the Wynn Group’s Bahamian adviser, at the time.