“Govt. Purchases Grand Lucayan Resort” – The Tribune 22. Aug. 2018

Excerpt from this article; “The Minnis administration has purchased the Grand Lucayan resort in Grand Bahama, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced after a tour of the property on Wednesday.

During a press conference on the island, Dr. Minnis said the government made a deposit of $10 million on the property. The full purchase price is $65 million on the property, Dr. Minnis said.

Dr. Minnis said it is not the government’s intention to run the hotel, saying it is his administration’s intent to save jobs, saying if the three-property would close, it would have a ‘devastating’ impact on Grand Bahama.

He said the government was ‘holding’ the property to preserve the island’s economy and as soon as possible, the hotel would be sold.”

 I read this article and thought while the government’s intentions may be good; the holistic approach to the goal of preserving ‘the islands economy’ could not be realized by the simple act of buying the resort.  So I waited for the opposition Progressive Liberal Party to interject a more viable solution to the issue and got the leader of the PLP, Philip ‘Brave Davis’ suggesting that the purchase of the resort would be a ‘a waste of money’ without giving any viable solution to the economic woes that face the island of Grand Bahama but then why should I expect vision from a set of people that only increased the cost of government on that island during their last years in office, which did nothing to lessen the problems of that island, really not surprised by their lack of vision but then enters Maurice Glinton with his opinion, with most of us being like, “WHO?”

“Lawyer says resort’s purchase unlawful” – The Tribune 6 Sept 2018

Excerpt for this article; “ATTORNEY Maurice Glinton QC believes the Minnis administration’s purchase of the Grand Lucayan resort is unlawful.

In a recent written opinion price, he described the purchase as evidence that the government’s ‘decision making process-making process (or lack thereof) is critically impaired’.

‘By that’, he noted, ‘I mean ‘flawed’ for not obviously being informed as such process must be by views of proximate stakeholders consulted on the practicality and legality of an acquisition that will make The Bahamas government a licensee of Grand Bahama Port Authority Limited entitled to enjoy the benefits and privileges in virtue of the 1955 Hawksbill Agreement and the subsequent 1960 and 1966 amended agreements, all statutory in nature as enabled by Acts of the Bahamian Parliament.”  As I listen to Mr. Glinton’s contribution I first wonder where did he come from but at the very least he brought to the forefront what I feel may the problem here, which in my opinion is the Grand Bahama Port Authority.

Although I understand why the Minnis administration has committed to the purchase of the Grand Lucayan resort, I do not feel that it was the most prudent move in this case because of the economic strangle hold that the Port Authority has on the Freeport area; my solution is a simply this, if the Port continues to be the problem as it pertains to the economic advancement of Grand Bahama, then put them out of business or just work them out of the equation and the only way that I can see this being done is by shifting the economic focus of Grand Bahama from the city of Freeport to East End or West End, preferably West end.

It has been speculated that the purchase of the resort will be financed by the Chinese government, who currently own the resort; so borrowing from them to buy and fix a property that they seem uninterested in makes no sense to me, so I simply suggest that the government take that money to build a new hotel and casino with airport in the east or west and allow the current owners of the Grand Lucayan to unload the property while they continue to pay extra  taxes to the Port Authority.

There was a recommendation by former Prime Minister, the Hon. Hubert Ingraham for the government to buy the Port Authority instead of the resort but are the Haywards and St. George families even willing to sell, I doubt it, it is a sure ‘pay check’.

I say then force the families into a timey ‘death’ and go in and purchase the Port for pennies on the dollar and then dismantle it because it has long served its purpose for the island of Grand Bahama and the Freeport area and only now serves to make the ease of business in that area that much more difficult and another advantage of building a new hotel with its own airport, beside shifting the economic focus of the island, would be that if you are serious about selling the resort because you do not want to be in the hotel business, would be that the allure of a new resort is much more attractive to an investor.

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