The Tribune

• Grand Lucayan, Carnival and airport to each generate 500

• Five bidders to present on resort; sale close target of April

• Thirty-day airport RFP issued March 28; May for port start

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Freeport is poised for a two-year construction boom that will create 1,500 total jobs at peak build-out if major investment projects come to fruition, the deputy prime minister revealed yesterday.

Chester Cooper, also minister of tourism, investments and aviation, disclosed in a recorded address to the Grand Bahama Business Outlook conference that Carnival’s proposed cruise port, the Grand Lucayan’s sale and revitalisation, and the planned airport transformation will each create 500 construction jobs once they get going.

Disclosing that the search for a Grand Lucayan purchaser has been narrowed to five bidders, each of whom will present their plans for the resort to its government-appointed Board on Sunday, he said the Government had set an April date to close negotiations on a sale with the selected buyer.

Mr Cooper, suggesting that the resort will be “fully on stream by 2024”, with parts of the redeveloped property open sooner, pledged that the Davis administration would be just swift in moving to repair Grand Bahama International given that its status as the island’s leading stopover gateway is vital to the Grand Lucayan’s success.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) process, seeking an investor to transform the key infrastructure asset via a design, finance build and manage private-public partnership (PPP), will launch on March 28 with bids to be submitted within a tight 30-day deadline.

Promising that the Davis administration “will not tarry” or delay in efforts to revive Grand Bahama’s economy, Mr Cooper said he had also reiterated the Government’s support for Carnival’s Grand Port project at Sharp Rock to the cruise line.

Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama, in an earlier address to the same conference, revealed that Carnival’s potential $200m investment is currently expected to “break ground” this April as the Government works with the cruise line to finalise the necessary construction and environmental approvals. She added that construction would likely take two-and-a-half years, with the project becoming operational in November 2024.

Freeport and Grand Bahama residents, weary of many false dawns and proposed investments that have failed to come through, will likely only believe these projects are for real - and the entrepreneurial and job opportunities that come with them - when they see it. Alluding to this, Mr Cooper yesterday said it was vital to “get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible”.

“I’m happy I have some good news for you this morning. I know you don’t get good news often,” Mr Cooper told attendees. “Firstly, after much effort on the part of the Davis administration and my ministry, we are nearing the end of the process to sell the Grand Lucayan. Five bidders are to present to the Grand Lucayan Board this coming Sunday, after which we intend to enter exclusive negotiations with one of them for the sale of the resort.

“Vision, financing capacity, the speed of mobilisation, and the commitment to a shared vision for Grand Bahama will be the over-arching factors that will inform our selection of the bidder with whom we will partner. We have set a deadline for the conclusion of the negotiations. We have a firm date in early April to seal the agreement and for the conclusion of discussions to be over. I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, we will not tarry.”

Such tight timelines for selling what is a complex asset, with a long history of loss-making, will likely be regarded as ambitious and difficult to achieve by some given that it is now mid-March and the end of April is just six to seven weeks away with Easter in the middle.

However, Mr Cooper added: “We anticipate during the construction phase of redevelopment there will be up to 500 new jobs, and this is why we must expedite these discussions to the point where we get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible.

“We anticipate that, once the sale closes quickly, we believe the Grand Lucayan will be fully on stream by 2024. We anticipate some aspects of the property will come on stream before that, adding additional jobs and expediting the tourism rebound for Grand Bahama.” No figures were provided for the likely number of full-time jobs that will created given that this will be determined by the winning bidder once the deal closes.

Acknowledging that the Grand Lucayan’s sale and Grand Bahama International Airport’s revitalisation are inextricably linked, Mr Cooper said: “For Freeport to fully take advantage of a redeveloped Grand Lucayan resort, and some significant projects like it, we need a world-class airport that makes flying into Grand Bahama easy and affordable.”

The deputy prime minister added that there was “no reason” why it was cheaper to fly to Nassau from Florida than it was to travel to Grand Bahama, given that the time and distance to the latter is shorter. Similarly, he asserted that “there’s no good reason there’s few direct flights to Grand Bahama”.

And, in a swipe at the former Minnis administration, Mr Cooper said: “By now we ought to have seen repairs that preserved our pre-clearance facility.” With generators and a new elevator for the airport’s control tower on order, and additional funding set to be released by the Government to effect further repairs, he added that the planned transformation - via PPP - should help persuade US Customs and Border Patrol to return pre-clearance to Freeport.

Confirming that the RFP tender, which will solicit private sector bids to transform the Government-owned Grand Bahama International Airport, “begins on March 28”, the deputy prime minister said the Government is seeking a partner “to create a world-class airport and strong entry way into Grand Bahama”.

“We’re encouraging all Bahamians groups who have been approaching me over the last several months to engage in this process directly,” Mr Cooper said. “I have indicated to the Department of Aviation this must not be a protracted exercise. The people of Grand Bahama have suffered long enough, and I expect this process to close in 30 days. We expect there to be 500 jobs in the construction phase.”

Similarly, Mr Cooper said of Carnival’s cruise port: “We expect there will be 500 jobs at the peak of construction. We will not tarry to ensure we work with these developers to get shovels in the ground.” He left further details to Mrs Moxey, who described Grand Bahama International Airport as “priority number one” for the Government amid all the Family Island airports it inherited from the Minnis administration.

Turning to Carnival, the minister for Grand Bahama said: “Today, I am also pleased to announce that we have been working in partnership with Carnival Corporation on finalising all permits and approvals to start the Grand Bahama port project.

“Carnival has shared that they are committed to developing a Bahamian experience at this port, at this project, which will provide opportunities for many entrepreneurs and employment for the Bahamian people, both during the construction period - which is expected to last two-and-a-half years and during the operations of the port once open, which is now scheduled for November 2024.

“We have made significant headway in our discussions and are close to finalising all that is needed to start the project and, with that said, I am happy to say we are now targeting a ground-breaking ceremony this coming May 2022. Yes, this is a major milestone.”

Carnival previously said its proposed Grand Port will be able to accommodate two 6,000-passenger cruise vessels at the same time, with 1,200 full-time jobs created between the cruise line, local concession holders and spin-off opportunities.