The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A $100m eco-resort in Exuma is set to  start construction in October once their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is approved.

Victor Barrett, chief executive officer of Silent Resorts, the company behind Club Ki’ama Bahamas in Exuma, told Tribune Business that the EIA is the final step before they can actually start constructing the first two residences on the site.

“We’re building three of the four bedroom residences and the beach club and all of that is actually starting some component fabrication and engineering in the factory in Belize.

“So we hope that as soon as we get our approvals, we’ll be able to put the pier foundations in, which will be the start the work.

“We’re hoping to have everything up, the first two or three residences and the beach club and our first yacht by April/May of next year.”

Mr Barrett added: “We’ve got 30 original founding orders that are financing the first two villas and the beach club. We’ve watched sales now and we just started in May, and moving forward with the next group of owners. So we should be announcing some progress here in the next month or two on what we’ve sold.

“But also in addition to selling the fractional ownership, we are also selling the whole ownership residences, as well. We have a lot of interest in that.

“My understanding is over the next 30 charter members, I think we’ve got about half of those subscribed and it looks like we’ll have one of the first of the eight homeownership residences sold here in the next 30 to 60 days.”

The Club Ki’ama boasts of having the world’s first electric boat that will be used to ferry guests to and from Great Exuma to the Elizabeth Island where the resort is located.

Silent Resorts is offering shared ownership in a limited number of its fleet of Silent Yachts, solar powered yachts managed by Silent Resorts and available to cruise anywhere in the world.

The long awaited appearance of a Silent Yacht will have to wait as well because the supply chain issues have forced the manufacturers to push production back from the end of this year until the beginning of 2023.

Mr Barrett said: “The Silent Yacht is behind schedule because of the global supply chain problems. They’ve had issues like everybody else has with getting certain parts and pieces and it is about six months behind. The EIA study has also delayed us about four months but we can’t do anything until that is completed.”

The EIA being stalled was just part of the natural process of doing business because it takes up to four months for an EIA to be completed. “We thought that because we weren’t touching any of the beaches or mangroves or that we weren’t disturbing anything beyond the water line and we’re not expanding the marina, we were hoping we could get away without having to do an EIA, but the new rules is that no matter what you are doing you need an EIA.”

The Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) requires an EIA and Environment Management Plans (EMP) for Industrial, Commercial and Residential developments throughout The Bahamas’ archipelago.

Regardless of the red-tape, Mr Barrett is “positive” on the progress being made and working out all of the environmental issues that may arise as a result of Club Ki’ama. “We had a meeting with the Bahamas National Trust to explain to them that the water systems we’re using the wastewater systems and the treatment systems and that all of this is the newest and latest technology. So it’s pretty impressive in terms of its ability to process clean water and not pollute anything in the groundwater or in the waters around.”