The Tribune

The Government’s planned Grand Lucayan intervention has come too late for one Port Lucaya Marketplace tenant, who will close his store on Saturday and move to the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Troy Cartwright, who operates Nikki’s Trinkets, told Tribune Business that the Minnis administration could not be faulted for doing “whatever it needs to do” to get the resort open given the depths of Freeport’s economic crisis.

However, he warned that it also needed to consider how it would sustain Port Lucaya Marketplace tenants between now and the planned winter season opening, given that many were experiencing the same plight as himself.

Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for Grand Bahama, promised that the Government would help the Port Lucaya Marketplace, although he gave no details.

Mr Cartwright, though, said the Government’s intervention had come too late to save his business.

“I’ve decided to move,” he told Tribune Business. “My fiancee and I have decided to leave the country and go to Turks & Caicos. I’ve lost a lot here, and have hit a brick wall.

“Store owners can’t pay their rent. I couldn’t pay my rent this month; I didn’t make enough sales.”

Mr Cartwright said his fiancee was leaving Grand Bahama within the week to look for a store site in Turks & Caicos, while he plans to follow in three-four weeks time after winding up his affairs on Grand Bahama.

Confirming that he had handed in his notice and planned to close on Saturday, Mr Cartwright said of his business: “We’ve started packing up and moving product out. It’s a lovely store, and would have done well if we’d had a market.

“Yesterday we stayed there until noon and didn’t see one person pass the store, let alone come in.”

Port Lucaya Marketplace’s retailers relied heavily on Grand Lucayan guests to sustain their business. However, the hotel’s closure following Hurricane Matthew (apart from 200 rooms), and subsequent departure of Memories, saw their entire market disappear virtually overnight along with 59 per cent of Grand Bahama’s hotel room inventory.

Mr Cartwright said the economic “crisis” this had triggered justified the Government’s decision to become an equity investor as a ‘last resort’ option to re-open the Grand Lucayan, even though this is the opposite of campaign promises to ‘get out of business’.

“Whatever way they need to do it, they need to do it,” he added of the Government’s involvement. “I see people complaining about it, but Freeport’s starving, so whatever they’re doing they need to do it in a hurry.

“I have no problem with what they’re doing now. Somebody’s got to help the people survive. It’s that bad. I’m really glad something is being done, but it’s still a situation where people need help. A lot of people are unemployed. I’ve been looking for a job, and there’s nothing here on the island. What we’ve been through in this last 10 months is traumatic.”

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, in his Wednesday evening address, confirmed Tribune Business revelations that the Government was planning to partner with unnamed “investors” and take an equity stake in the Grand Lucayan’s re-opening.

Few details were provided, but Dr Minnis said the Government viewed this action as similar to the auto and banking industry bail-outs undertaken by the Obama administration and UK government during the 2008-2009 recession.

He said his administration’s strategy was similar, too: Re-open the Grand Lucayan, turn it around, and then the Government would sell its equity stake to its partner investors or someone else.

Dr Minnis did not specify the investment the Government is considering making, nor the size of the equity stake that will be taken. It is possible these details have yet to be worked out, and it is unclear if its ‘partner investors’ include the likes of the Wynn Group, the Canadian real estate developer that has been at the table for months, seeking to buy the Grand Lucayan.

Confirmation of the Government’s ‘rescue plan’, should it become necessary, has attracted criticism from some who see it as a return to the Hotel Corporation that will potentially expose taxpayers to recurring multi-million dollar losses.

The Grand Lucayan has been losing $10-$11 million annually, and an equity stake will leave the Government on the hook to subsidise its share of those annual losses. Any move to acquire an equity stake would also involve the Government in a hotel business that is extremely volatile, and which it elected to exit in 1992.

Mr Cartwright, though, argued that Freeport and Grand Bahama’s desperate economic straits called for desperate measures to be taken - especially if there was no other prospect for re-opening and/or selling the Grand Lucayan in time for the winter 2017-2018 season.

“We’ve been begging them to do something since they came to office,” he said of the Minnis administration. “Unfortunately, they inherited a crisis, and you can’t apply normal standards in a crisis.

“If the Government has to be involved and part-nationalise the hotel, as long as they get it open and people are making money, and the jobs are protected, we need it to happen.

“I realise there will be some knocks along the way, but the most important thing is getting it open, get business going again and jobs going again. It’s easy to survive when you have money, but when you don’t it’s a whole different story.”

Mr Cartwright said the Government’s proposed intervention showed how bad Freeport’s economic crisis had become, and he argued that the Grand Lucayan’s re-opening was only the first step towards securing the city’s revival.

“I realise people have problems with this,” he told Tribune Business of the Government’s plan, “but we’re in dire straits and it’s time to take drastic measures.

“I want Bahamians to understand how bad this is. This is not a normal Freeport downturn; this is a crisis.

“It’s starting to spread. Freeport’s got a lot of problems. No one is hiring, people are being let go. Freeport is in bad shape. The opening of the hotel is a start, but a lot more needs to be done to create a better environment for business and to attract investors,” Mr Cartwright added.

“Regardless of what people say, Freeport is in dire need of a fix, and that’s going to cost money.”

The Grand Lucayan’s closure deprived Freeport of its ‘anchor’ property and some 1,000 rooms and jobs, leading to fears that Grand Bahama may again depopulate.