Flipping Grand Bahama

Just five months away, the taxation part of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement is expected to drop away if the Government of The Bahamas and the principals of the Grand Bahama Port Authority do not come to another agreement. The Prime Minister Mr. Perry Christie said he is setting up a committee to deal with this and expects that the committee this has not be established yet, will come to a conclusion in more than enough time to be signed before August 5, 2015. With talks still waiting with the public, the Grand Bahama Port Authority stated their feelings during the recent Grand Bahama Business Outlook. Sarah St. George, Vice Chairman stated now is the time to unleash the economic potential Freeport and to do so by extending the concessions under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. "Extending the concessions will boost investor confidence within and without Grand Bahama. It will attract new investors and last but not least it will significantly increase Freeport's direct and ind...

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 ...

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...

The following is the speech given by the Prime Minister Perry Christie to open the annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook on Thursday March 5, 2015: Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to have been invited to Grand Bahama to participate with Joan Albury and her team at Counsellors, together with a cross-section of the business community in another Grand Bahama Business Outlook. Despite the economic challenges of Grand Bahama, including those caused by natural disasters, protracted adverse international and local economic conditions , and lack of adequate promotional and planning initiatives, Grand Bahama continues to demonstrate its resilience, its staying power and its optimism about the future. And for good reason too! More than any other island in our archipelagic nation, Grand Bahama has almost limitless economic development potential because of its unique combination of e infrastructure, human resources and strategic geographical proximity to the North American mainland. My Go...