The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A DAY after details were disclosed regarding the cancelled Grand Lucayan purchase agreement, Opposition Leader Michael Pintard said he thinks excessive concessions should not be granted to foreign companies seeking investment in the country.

In the House of Assembly on Monday, Tourism, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper said Bahamas Port Investment Limited offered to purchase the Grand Lucayan resort from the former Minnis administration for $50m and also wanted the former government to provide $100m in cash concessions for redevelopment of the property.

While he told The Tribune that refusing huge concessions did not mean that there weren’t other means of encouraging airlift, the Marco City MP said special care had to be taken to ensure the country does not go “overboard” in trying to ink an arrangement.

He also said that while the co-joining of the hotel and the port may have been advisable in the beginning under the previous administration, it was now “clear” that it did not work.

 In respect of the concessions, Mr Pintard said he was not intimately involved in those discussions but the former minister in the previous administration suggested that they were “excessive”.

 He said: “The Bahamas has a tremendous brand. This is an important destination and whoever negotiates on behalf of the Bahamian people ought to do so seeking to save resources and seeking to enter into relationships where those that are coming that their pockets are deep enough to not only execute the sale but also to pump money into the redevelopment of the property.

 “And so philosophically from my standpoint, and I believe that of our colleagues who I am working with today leading the Free National Movement, we do not believe that excessive concessions ought to be granted to companies that are coming into The Bahamas. We believe that the value and the proposition that this destination presents is such that those who are coming in should have the wherewithal.

 “That does not mean that we do not find a way to encourage airlift into the jurisdiction, but we ought to be very careful that we do not go overboard in trying to ink an arrangement.”

 Mr Cooper said the $50m purchase price was arrived at after the property suffered damage following the passage of Hurricane Dorian.

 According to Mr Cooper, following Hurricane Dorian’s damage of the property the board of Lucayan Renewal Holdings claimed $20m in insurance damage and received a settlement of $13m, which was applied to the mortgage.

 “At this point,” Mr Cooper told Parliament on Monday, “the property was under contract for sale to Bahamas Ports International, a joint venture between Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and the ITM Group, for $65m, therefore, a discount of $15m was extended to the prospective buyers and the purchase price was adjusted to $50m.

 “On March 2, 2020, a Cabinet appointed negotiating committee finalised the Sales Purchase Agreement between LRHL and Bahamas Ports International, at a price of $50m. The agreement included condition precedents, among them the requirement to complete an agreement with BPI and Hutchison on the cruise port.”

 However, after the pandemic hit - dealing another economic blow to the Bahamian economy, Mr Cooper said officials sought to amend the agreement with BPI even further.

 Details of the revised deal, he added, included requests for a $33m loan to finance with the property’s purchase and millions of dollars in cash concessions from the government among other incentives.