Flipping Grand Bahama

If you thank we cannot fix it, then I implore you to take a step back and let those who think we can fix it step forward. Even if its just one person who feels it can be fixed can make a fix that will affect all others. Now, how to fix it. Well look at the problem and see where we can make changes. Research on the island took me to a site called Grand Bahama Future blog. It felt like a ghost town left with the wind blowing. It has been abandoned. It takes more people seeing it and making posts. I took at look at what Wikipedia had to say about Grand Bahama's economy and found this snippet, " Tourism is the mainstay of the island's economy. The resort area at Port Lucaya and visits by cruise ships provide the bulk of this activity. Grand Bahama's tourism sector is complemented by the BORCO oil bunkering facility owned by Buckeye , [ 6 ] the South Riding Point oil storage and transhipment terminal owned by Statoil , [ 7 ] and a transshipment / container p...

Last week the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahama Hon. Perry Christie presented the 2015/2016 budget from which we look specifically at what is being set aside for Grand Bahama: "Grand Bahama  Grand Lucaya/Sunwing "Hutchison Whampoa has announced a $5 million investment in renovation of its Lighthouse Pointe Hotel and refurbishment of its 198 rooms, suites and associated facilities, planned for completion in November 2015 in time for the winter season. "The Sunwing Group continues to boost arrivals and acceptance at Memories Resort in Freeport. In addition to Sunwing Airlines winter fights from seven (7) Canadian cities in Freeport, it will also operate flights from six (6) U.S. countries this summer, with the first flight arriving from Houston this weekend. Bookings are already well ahead of last year. "New Cruise Port "My Government is progressing in its negotiation with Carnival Cruise Line and Freeport Harbour Company for the devel...

At the beginning of this week I asked a question that still only one person has answered. The question, "What future do you see for Grand Bahama?" This was one way to find out how many persons are actually reading the posts even though in total we have around 15,000 views so far and for the article on Sarah St. George at the Grand Bahama Business Outlook we have almost 500 views alone, the highest views per page yet. It was great to hear Terence Gapes"  view during the Chamber of Commerce meeting this week though, almost in answer to the question, but he also brought with him a pamphlet entitled, "Economic Crisis in Freeport: A Call to Action Volume 1." This is what I wish to share today. The attorney noted that this was an article written since September 2012 with a follow up, "Call to Action II: Freeport 2015 and the Bridge to Nowhere." Mr. Gape further said that since the Call to Action I the conditions of the economy in Freeport...

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 ...

As I sit to write every Tuesday and Friday mornings, at the back of my head I hear the negative things that some may say - someone reading this will be saying... "how could she be this positive when things look so bleak in Freeport?" I really believe that we get what we want and we get what we say we want - both the same, both different. If you believe it can and will change, you will be doing something to aide in bringing about the change. If you have decided that it's over and there is nothing you can do, you will do nothing and your prophecy will come true. Did you want it to come true or were you hoping for change? If you were saying one thing but hoping for another you will get lots of the prediction, but somewhere in there you will see where others were able to benefit from some positives. Freeport needs a lot! According to the Flemming Strategy we need at least $26 billion to get us started. But that is only to put one group in charge - Hutchison Whampo...

Is the Grand Bahama Port Authority still for sale? Some years about, within the last five years, there has been a few rumours about persons who were interested in purchasing the "Port"and one that stuck out in my mind was the British Parliamentarian Lord Michael Ashcroft. This flirting idea I was made to believe was rejected. True or not, we are left to speculate. Earlier this year I was able to get my hands on another investor who wanted to purchase shares in the Grand Bahama Port Authority, I guess with the hopes of being the major shareholders promising the world. Their report was left with members of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and is called "the Flemming Strategy" which took a look at the island as it is (was in 2009) and gave their ideas which would bring in lots of money and jobs to the island, beginning with a $26 billion injection right away. The report was compiled by Global Fulfillment Services in 2008. But I wonder, what were the circumsta...