The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The winning Nassau cruise port bidder yesterday said it aims to increase passenger spending by more than 100 percent and transform the entire city into a “worldwide brand”.

Mehmet Kutman, Global Ports Holding’s chairman, told Tribune Business the company planned to act as a “facilitator” by enabling Bahamians to transform Prince George Wharf and the wider downtown area into “a national monument” that will mirror the “landmark” effect the Sydney Opera House has had for Australia.

He described the Nassau cruise port’s transformation as “the most important and difficult” project that Global Ports Holding has taken on because its impact extends beyond the port’s boundaries in acting as a key catalyst to stimulate Bay Street and downtown Nassau’s revival.

The Global Ports Holding chief explained that, unlike its 16 other ports in Havana, the Mediterranean and Far East, the success or failure of Nassau’s cruise facility has a much wider economic effect - not least because New Providence’s 270,000 population is dwarfed by the current 3.6m cruise visitors it attracts.

And, while the company largely met the retail “product mix” already in place at ports such as Barcelona and Valletta, Mr Kutman suggested there needed to be a “mentality change” in Nassau towards selling authentic Bahamian products as opposed to those that were foreign-produced.

Pledging to invest in education and training to assist such a switch, he added that $28m in “cashflow” would be unleashed on the first day after Global Ports Holding concluded an agreement with the Government for Prince George Wharf’s operation and transformation.

Around $18m of this, Mr Kutman said, would flow into the $10m loan facility that will enable Bahamians to acquire an ownership interest in the Nassau cruise port; the $5m that will be made available to Bahamian entrepreneurs and small businesses; and the $3m initial grant to the YES Foundation that will be established to finance youth, educational and sporting activities.

The Global Ports Holding chairman added that he wanted as many as 100,000 Bahamians to acquire shares in The Bahamas Investment Fund which, under the current ownership model, will be created to hold a combined 49 per cent equity stake in the Nassau cruise port on their behalf.

With the Fund’s administrators, CFAL, already fielding calls from Bahamians interested in acquiring shares, Mr Kutman promised that a website will be set-up within the next two weeks to provide details on this and other aspects of Global Ports Holding’s plans.

He revealed that Global Ports Holding’s involvement with downtown Nassau’s revival may even extend beyond the cruise port, disclosing that it had already held “preliminary” talks with some of the area’s property owners on real estate development possibilities.

And Mr Kutman said he and Global Ports Holding were prepared to act as unofficial “ambassadors” to promote The Bahamas to markets beyond the US, which accounts for around 85 percent of visitors, adding that he was “99 percent confident” he could help bring “one or two high-end hotel brands” to New Providence.

Describing Nassau as the “biggest destination” in the Caribbean in terms of passenger volumes, he told Tribune Business: “It’s very important for the industry, very important for us but, I think, more important than that is the transformation that it’s going to bring to the whole area - not just downtown Nassau, the whole of Nassau. It’s going to change the whole process, and what people perceive of Nassau.”

Mr Kutman, recalling a recent visit to New Providence where he met with residents of high-end communities such as Lyford Cay, added: “They said they don’t go there [downtown Nassau]; don’t drive through there. There’s a perception, and I think that perception’s wrong, even as is. By the time we get through they will come two to three times’ a week.”

The Global Ports Holding echoed the findings of previous studies on downtown Nassau’s revival, which said it was vital to attract Bahamians back to live in the city if the area is to become an attractive, vibrant 24/7 destination.

“We are talking to a couple of landowners there to see if we can develop something together to bring more life to downtown,” he told Tribune Business. “You can’t have it open at 8-9am and at 5pm its shuts down.

“You need to have people living there. It’s very preliminary at this stage. If there’s any type of development we’d certainly consider it. We have a real estate arm, which my sister leads, and has done quite a bit of residential and shopping malls. We need to support people and, if they ask for it, we are open to it to develop the whole area. It has to live for 24 hours.”

While the Nassau cruise port’s transformation may not be the biggest project undertaken by Global Ports Holding in terms of size and investment value, Mr Kutman said it was “the most important and difficult one”.

“In most of the ports we do we don’t touch upon the whole neighbourhood,” he explained. “That’s why it’s difficult: the incorporation of the downtown area... Here’s it’s a bit more difficult in the sense that we need to develop a product, a product mix.

“In Europe the entire product mix from the shop owners is there. We also need to touch 270,000 people, the population. We never have to touch in other ports everybody.” As a result, Global Ports Holding’s impact in enhancing Nassau’s cruise port will be magnified to a far greater extent than any of the other ports it currently operates in the Mediterranean and Far East.

Mr Kutman described Nassau as “the most important emotionally” for him of all the company’s locations, given that his mother had praised it as “the most beautiful place she had ever seen” when visiting The Bahamas on a cruise in the early 1980s.

Determined to restore Nassau to those former glories, he added: “I promised to bring her here when we’re done. She’s 95, and I promised here she could come to the ribbon-cutting ceremony before she dies.

“Right now the passenger spend is around $60-$65 [per head]. There’s been some reports that its in the $100s, but I’m not comfortable with that. If we can get that number to $150... and I’m confident we can get there. It’s not going to be immediate, it’s going to take some time.”

Outlining his vision for a revitalised cruise port, Mr Kutman told Tribune Business: “This is not our project. It’s really a Bahamian project. We’re a facilitator. We plan to achieve something that is done by Bahamians, created by Bahamians, but is a world monument. Sydney Opera House is not Australia but is a world monument. I want to achieve that there.

“Very few ports around the world will carry the flag to lead the industry. Nassau should be the one carrying that flag. Not just the number of passengers but across the board; guest satisfaction, retailers, everybody. The whole neighbourhood, from the port running east and west, if that can be revitalised and downtown become a lively neighbourhood we will have achieved our goal.

‘The port is step number one,” Mr Kutman continued. “We have a bunch of other things. Every city is renowned for something around the world. Today, I can’t think of anything that Nassau is renowned for internationally.

“The other important thing we need to create is brand awareness; the Nassau brand around the world. The Bahamas is a brand, Nassau not. We need to brand Nassau worldwide. Nassau needs to be right there.”

The Global Ports Holding chairman added that its plans for Prince George Wharf will “complement” rather than compete with Atlantis and Baha Mar, adding that its night-time “entertainment” offering - featuring laser lights and live events - would provide a point of differentiation and lure stopover visitors from the hotels.