The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS 

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel staunchly defended the government’s decision to purchase the Grand Lucayan resort, insisting the move will prove to be the foundation for “a full fledged economic rebirth” in Grand Bahama.

Mr Bethel, praising the move as an act that took “courage”, said the intervention directly reversed the fate of Grand Bahama’s economy. His comments came during the Senate’s debate of the 2019/2020 budget yesterday.

“(This was) a simple act of courage,” he said. “We had the courage to intervene, to break the economic - how should I say it - the economic theories of the last 25 years which called for the diminution of the role of State in the economy.”

Mr Bethel said policy, which he noted was established and continued by successive Ingraham and Christie administrations, failed Grand Bahama following the passage of hurricanes Francis and Jean in 2005. He said the failure of the Christie administration to intervene allowed for “the heart of that city to rot” and fall to the ground. The hurricanes led to hotel closures. 

Recalling the 2005 period, Mr Bethel said he petitioned the Christie government to step in, but was shunned and scolded by not only the then-government, but members of his own party.

“It was a political nostrum (at that time)… you get out when you can get out, but you don’t stay out when you must get in,” he contended. “I often say the story, I was like John the Baptist in the wilderness, a lone voice calling for the then-PLP government after the devastating hurricanes Francis and Jean that caused the Process Towers Hotel to be closed down right in the heart of Freeport.

“I said, ‘This the heart of Freeport, the government should intervene, buy these hotels and get it opened.’ All, left and right, poured sport on me, (Mr) Christie let them do it. Frank Watson (a former FNM deputy prime minister) said he don’t know what I had for breakfast.

“But I was the only person.”

He continued: “I only say that, to say this, that having seen the great harm caused to Freeport by the decision of the Christie government to stay out of the economy, to stay and turn, if you will, a blind-eye while the heart of that city rotted and fell to the ground with contagion spreading to the Pub on the Mall across the road, and spread straight through the International Bazaar, creating nothing but a wasteland in the heart of the nation’s second city.

“(The Minnis administration) had the courage, and I have to commend Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis for his courage to reverse the economy of Grand Bahama and say we are not going to repeat same stupid mistake twice,” he asserted.

The government purchased the Grand Lucayan resort property for $65 million from Hutchison Whampoa last August.

The hotel closed in October 2016 for repairs after it suffered damage from Hurricane Matthew, which led to the loss of over 1,000 jobs.

In November 2016, only the 196-room Lighthouse Pointe reopened.

Shortly after taking ownership of the resort, the government opened a tender process for the property, attracting some 62 expressions of interest from local and global firms.

That list was shortlisted to 11 on February 14, and subsequently, on March 22, Royal Caribbean International (RCI) was unanimously approved for recommendation to Cabinet.

As a part of its $65m letter of intent to purchase the resort property, RCI proposed an initial investment of $135m for the first phase of its proposed redevelopment of the site.

RCI has said its project will take place over a 24-month period and estimates that some 2,000 jobs would be created in the first phase.