Flipping Grand Bahama

As the title says, this was the topic addressed by Carey Leonard at the recent Business Outlook Grand Bahama. I want to share his entire presentation. 2015 is a very important year, not only for the stakeholders here in the Port Area on Grand Bahama, but also for our country, as a whole. This year we are faced with an opportunity; we are at a crossroads; we are at a point in time when we can either make decisions that are truly innovative and life changing as the original Hawksbill Creek Agreement in 1955 or we can take a conservative, botched up band aid approach as we did in the 1990s. All that was done in the early 90 was to extend to 2015 that which had already existed. The results were a couple of new investments, container port and shipyard, though nice, which can in no way be compared to the massive investment that created the infrastructure and massive development that were created in the first 20 years of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. In this presentation it is going to ...

During the Grand Bahama Outlook last Thursday President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce Kevin Seymour, gave an inspiring talk on Freeport then, now and the future. The title of the speech was Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce Continuation, Collaboration and Competition. However as he looked at the future here is what he had to say: "The city has been built, they did come, but the sad reality is, a good number of them also did not stay, so how do we now get investors to return? "In the past, when the Central Government was being asked to extend the tax exemptions relating to real property taxes and business license fees, under the Freeport Grand Bahama Act, 1993 and the HCA respectively, the Government demanded in return that certain “works and undertakings” be carried out by the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the Grand Bahama Development Company. "These works and undertakings in the main, focused on the island’s physical infrastructure, which I hasten to ...

During the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting, the guest speaker was Peter Goudie, Chairman of the Employment and Labour Division, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce & Employers' Confederation. Here we have what he had to say about a possible minimum wage increase: http://youtu.be/KnOS_mG6Zt8

During the recent Grand Bahama Business Outlook 2015 the Tourism Development Corporation CEO David Johnson spoke on Grand Bahama Tourism Development post Cuban Embargo, New Investment and Employment moving forward. He stated that i t is accurate to conclude that had it not been for the Cuban  Revolution and Fidel Castro, the development and launch of  Freeport/lucaya would simply not have happened when it did and w ith the players it attracted. Then moving forward he said our focus should be on sustaining and building upon the momentum we have achieved over the past 12 month of a 33% growth rate in stopover or more than 20% points above the country's average. "  As we embark on new growth and new repositioning strategies t hat would ensure that Grand Bahama’s tourism gain and maintain i t’s solvency, while maintaining a growth path even as Cuba  Reopens there are a few specific core pursuits we must accomplish i n short order.     1.   ...

After a number of questionable starts and announcements on things to come the Grand Bahama Port Authority seems to be waiting for the ink to dry to let you know what is here, business wise. So this week it was announced, after months of rumours, that the Port Lucaya Marketplace has been sold for $5.5 million to UK investor Peter Hunt. According to a newspaper report this acquisition was announced by the Prime Minister Perry Christie during his recent mid-year budget speech. He was quoted saying, " The Port Lucaya Marketplace, which was recently sold for $5.5 million, will also now undergo significant upgrades, creating additional jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities." Port Lucaya Marketplace features 40 stores and boutiques, 14 restaurants, six bars and three late night bars/lounges, plus three watersports operators. Targeted at stopover visitors from the Memories and Grand Lucayan hotels, plus guests at other Freeport resorts, cruise ship passengers and loca...