The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Port Lucaya Marketplace’s tenants and vendors yesterday yesterday received a boost after its owner pledged that all buildings deemed structurally safe will start to “re-open three weeks from today”.

Ivan Moss, one of the Marketplace’s directors, told tenants and vendors in an October 3 memorandum that repairs to buildings which pass this week’s inspection by structural engineers will begin immediately and not have to wait on settlement of the property’s Dorian-related insurance claim.

“Port Lucaya Marketplace will immediately repair all buildings that pass the structural survey to ensure they can be opened to the public at the earliest possible time,” Mr Moss wrote in his note.

“The repairs will not be delayed or affected in any way due to reporting of loss adjusters and our negotiations with the insurers. Port Lucaya Marketplace will do its best to resume normal business as soon as possible and we expect gradual openings to start three weeks from today for all structurally safe and sound buildings.”

While providing the Marketplace’s tenants and vendors with some certainty as to when they will be able to re-open their businesses, and start earning revenue again, Mr Moss’ memorandum marks a reversal of what was communicated to Tribune Business by its principal just three days earlier.

Peter Hunt, of UK-based PNH Properties Group, told this newspaper that repair works would not begin until the marketplace’s insurance claim is settled, suggesting it would take weeks - if not months - to re-open a destination that forms a vital component of Freeport’s tourism product as well as a central venue for Bahamian small businesses and entrepreneurs to showcase their wares.

This now seems to have undergone a 180 degree reversal after Mr Hunt also accused the government and his insurer of pressuring him to re-open the complex prematurely given its numerous unresolved “safety” issues.

He said then that the marketplace will not re-open until a full structural survey is conducted to determine if all its buildings are sound following Dorian’s battering of Grand Bahama. That survey, which is expected to last seven to ten days, with a full report compiled within two weeks, began this week.

This suggests that the earliest any “structurally-sound and safe” premises will re-open is either the first or second week in November, which is still a relatively long time for retail and restaurant owners, plus vendors, to carry themselves and staff without the benefit of a regular revenue/income stream.

Mr Moss’s update again suggested that Port Lucaya Marketplace’s post-Dorian restoration had been delayed by its loss adjusters being sent out of the country because they did not possess the correct work permits. It is unclear how that situation arose, especially since the Insurance Commission issued detailed instructions on how the industry could obtain such permits in the storm’s immediate aftermath.

Meanwhile, Mr Moss also promised that Port Lucaya Marketplace “will also conduct a full strategic review of our hurricane and disaster plan to ensure a more efficient path to reopening quickly is developed in the event the island experiences an event like we did four weeks ago”.

Arguing that Port Lucaya Marketplace is being guided by both its insurance company and the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) building and development department over the structural survey, given that the complex has endured four hurricanes since 2004, Mr Moss also recalled how it reopened within six weeks of Hurricane Matthew’s passage in 2016 after its owners worked at “a feverish pace” to finance repairs in the absence of an insurance settlement.

Mr Hunt had revealed to Tribune Business earlier this week: “We are getting pressure from the insurance company and the Government to open up Port Lucaya. We think they’re wrong to do it. We’re being advised by professional people who know how to do it.

“We’ve had a Category Five hurricane blast through the place; the strongest ever. They’re [the insurance company] asking us to open to keep the claim down. They’re bashing us on the head, this insurance company; they’re out of order. They’re continually asking us to open but we’ve got to do it in the right way.

“If it’s safe to open, we will open. They should give us time to do the necessary work. This insurance company should be saying to us: There is a claim here but let us do everything in the correct way. Let’s make sure everything is repaired, and done correctly, because if something did happen I’m going back to the insurer saying I’ve got another claim because someone’s been killed or badly injured.”

Mr Hunt said two structural engineers will survey the Port Lucaya Marketplace, and in two weeks will produce a report saying “what buildings are unsound, unsafe and need work, and what buildings can be opened to the public”.

The loss adjusters will then work with the Marketplace’s insurer to sort out the claim value, bur Mr Hunt made clear no repair work will take place until that is settled. “Work will not take place until the insurance claim is settled,” he told Tribune Business then. “We need money to get this work done. We are working very hard to get Port Lucaya open but it does take time.”