By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

THE Buena Vista Estate and micro rum distillery remains on track for a Christmas 2012 opening with its warehouse now 70 per constructed, the project's principals telling Tribune Business yesterday that they were still holding to "conservative" forecast of 150,000 visitors during its first full year.

Jose Portuondo, a director of John Watling's Distillery, which plans to produce rum under the same name, said the principals were now focusing on the rebuilding of Buena Vista's main house and restoring it to its former glory.

With the architectural and design work for the house now completed, Mr Portuondo said that construction on this aspect of the multi-million dollar project was likely to begin "at the end of next week", once Town Planning approvals were received.

Noting that between 10-20 construction workers had been on-site at all times during the project to-date, Mr Portuondo said he and fellow John Watling's principals - brother Mario Portuondo, cousins Pepin and Leon Argamasilla and Guillermo Garcia-Lay, were still "shooting" to open the heritage and historical Bahamian tourism product in time for the 2012 holidays.

Estimating that John Watling's Distillery would create around 20 full-time jobs when opened, Mr Portuondo described the development as "a good example of what needs to start happening in downtown Nassau" in terms of its revitalisation.

And, noting the project's duty-free status under the Downtown Nassau Revitalisation Act, he told Tribune Business that "a lot more people should take advantage of it" to help upgrade the Bahamian capital's city centre and turn it into a product matching this nation's major destination resorts.

"It's all moving very well. We right now have all the walls up in the warehouse, and the roof has arrived on island. As far as the warehouse is concerned, we're realistically around 70 per cent done," Mr Portuondo said of construction progress at Buena Vista.

"On the house, we've done most of the architectural work, and we're trying to get all that finished - the designs and the drawings. The real focus and push is now on the house.

"It's going into Town Planning, and realistically we're starting work and will be ready to go probably by the end of next week. Everything's pretty much going on as planned and on schedule. We're shooting to be open for the holidays.

"Everything has to be in production wise before the holiday season starts. The intention is to have inventory ready for sale for the holiday. We feel very confident we will have enough inventory to do what we want to produce for the holidays."

Apart from producing John Watling's rum for sale to both tourists/Bahamians visiting Buena Vista and local restaurants/liquor retailers, the project is designed to provide a visitor experience.

Visitors will be able to tour the old Buena Vista house, view the rum production process itself, and shop for it while enjoying food and light drinks. In essence, it is reviving the concept of a Caribbean 'working estate'.

"It's been a really fantastic project," Mr Portuondo told Tribune Business. "It's such a great challenge, and the result will be something rewarding.

"We've already done a lot of work on the house as far as architectural design, and are looking to keep the historical aspects of the building. I think a lot of people will be impressed with the final product once it's finished."

When it came to likely visitor numbers, Mr Portuondo told this newspaper: "Realistically, we're shooting for 150,000 in the first year. Those are very conservative numbers in so far as what we understand from other business people and the number of tourists who come here. That's kind of our starting position."

On the rum front, John Watling's has already begun its promotional push. Mr Portuondo said the company's Facebook page was starting to get "great traction", even attracting feedback and pictures from families who had previously owned the historic 2.37 acre Buena Vista site.

"The first year is a big push," he said. "There's going to be a lot of advertising and brand awareness happening, and on a local level we want to expose all Bahamians to this product, so they have a chance to support it, love it and spread the word."

Apart from attracting taxis and tour operators to bring their tourist customers to Buena Vista, Mr Portuondo said that given its location just one kilometre from downtown Nassau's cruise port, together with the number of other historical attractions in the area, he also hoped to establish walking tours.

Besides Buena Vista, other properties of note in the area were Graycliff, the art gallery, the Greek Orthodox, Baptist and Catholic churches, Antonius Roberts' studio and Government House.

Suggesting that other Bahamian-owned businesses in the area would also benefit from tourists walking in the area, Mr Portuondo told Tribune Business: "I'm very encouraged.

"I feel that this project [John Watling's] is a good example of what needs to start happening in downtown Nassau. It provides a great experience for tourists coming to Nassau.

"It's a great example of how Nassau's revitalisation should work. We're duty-free under the Act, so it encourages this kind of project to go through. I think a lot more people should take advantage of it."