The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Freeport attorney yesterday said he was “extremely concerned” about the Government’s renewed silence on the Grand Lucayan, urging: “They’ve got to take the bull by the horns.”

Carey Leonard, the former Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) in-house counsel, told Tribune Business he feared both government and public attention had been distracted by Hurricane Irma.

Now a Callenders & Co attorney and partner, Mr Leonard said the economic impact of the resort’s prolonged closure was at least equivalent to that inflicted by Irma.

He reiterated his previous call for the Government to take over the Grand Lucayan via compulsory acquisition, then offer it to the likes of Memories and Wynn at a realistic price the market can afford.

“I’m extremely concerned,” Mr Leonard said, given that silence again seemed to be shrouding the resort’s fate. “Everyone is paying attention to the hurricane and its aftermath, which is important, but whether you like it or not, look at the economic impact.

“The opening of the Grand Lucayan is equally important because its impact is equal to the hurricane. They’ve [the Government] got to man up on this and deal with it, and deal with it now.”

The first anniversary of the Grand Lucayan’s post-Hurricane Matthew closure is now just weeks away, having deprived Grand Bahama of 59 per cent of its room inventory and at least 1,000 jobs.

Dr Hubert Minnis, in a national address, said renovations at the Grand Lucayan would likely start in August - a deadline that is now long past.

Mr Leonard, who said there was “no sign” of any restoration efforts at the property, has increasingly advocated that the Minnis administration take a hard line with the Grand Lucayan’s owner, Hong Kong-based developer, Cheung Kong (CK) Property Holdings.

In the absence of any realistic effort by CK Property Holdings to either re-open Freeport’s ‘anchor property’ or sell it at market price, Mr Leonard has called for the Government to use its constitutional ‘compulsory acquisition’ powers to take over the resort and ensure its rapid re-opening.

“I just want the Government to get on with the job and sell it to someone else,” he argued. “It’s gone really quiet. I really believe it has to turn around to the Memories and Wynn’s of life, and say: ‘This is the price we can offer it to you at’ after doing a compulsory acquisition. They’ve got to take the bull by the horns.”

The Toronto-based Wynn Group emerged as the front-runner to acquire the Grand Lucayan under the former Christie administration. However, it was unable to close a deal with CK Property Holdings, and pulled out after the Government seemingly lost confidence in its ability to complete the purchase.

The Minnis administration, which had announced it would part-nationalise the hotel by taking a temporary equity stake in its acquisition, has been trying to entice Sunwing and its Memories brand to return to the Grand Lucayan once CK Property Holdings is out of the picture.

It has also been talking to the Port Lucaya Marketplace’s owner, UK developer Peter Hunt, and his partners. Mr Hunt told Tribune Business in a recent interview that his $350 million plan to redevelop the entire Lucaya area, including the resort, could be jeopardised if the Government brought in an all-inclusive operator such as Memories.

Yet with no solution achieved, the Grand Lucayan is likely to remain closed for at least the majority of the peak winter 2017-2018 tourism season - a development that could prevent Freeport from ever rebounding as a tourist destination.

Reiterating that the Bahamas will be facing “an economic disaster” should an imminent Grand Lucayan resolution not be reached, Mr Leonard said the continued closure continued to take a heavy toll on jobs and businesses in the Port Lucaya Marketplace.

“They’ve got to pay attention to the number of businesses closing in the Port Lucaya Marketplace,” he added. “They’re laying off staff, and a number are staying closed longer than they normally would.

“One of the main restaurants, Pisces, is now closed. It was a very successful operation for 20 years, but a lot of the business came from the hotels. There will be more closures and the Government has to do something.

“They will close unless they see some sort of hope, and at the moment there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Mr Leonard said that while the Minnis administration’s focus on Irma-related damage in the south-eastern Bahamas and Bimini was understandable, it needed to rapidly refocus equal attention on the Grand Lucayan and Freeport.

“I cannot begin to describe how quiet the Port Lucaya Marketplace looks during the day, not to mention the evening,” he told Tribune Business. “You can pass by restaurants in the day and night, and there is not a soul in them. They’re not going to stay open much longer.

“A number of stores are staying open, thinking things will pick up, but there’s not a soul in their either. How long can you keep running a business without any revenue?”

Suggesting that such businesses will be “haemorrhaging” money and jobs, Mr Leonard added: “There’s nothing to prevent some of these shops in Port Lucaya Marketplace from closing for a whole.

“For some of them it may be their sole business, so they may have to fold it and be done with it. The unemployment aspect is quite astounding. If they don’t get a grip on it, it will grow really quickly.”

Emphasising that Freeport was the Bahamas’ second largest population centre, he continued: “This is not an area that cannot be ignored, and must not be ignored.”