By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT faces “a very rough, tough road” just to reach a position of economic survival, a well-known QC warning that Hurricane Matthew had set the city back “many, many years”.

Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, told Tribune Business that parts of the Bahamas’ second city - and several key economic assets - looked like “a nuclear wasteland” in the aftermath of Matthew’s Category 4 winds and storm surges.

Concerned that a protracted recovery period lies ahead, Mr Smith implied that Freeport now found itself in a similar position to the state it was in 12 years ago, following the devastation inflicted by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.

He added that it had taken “nearly a decade” for the city to rebound from those two storms and, hinting that a similar recovery period now lay ahead, said Freeport was “gasping for survival”.

“It was a really bad hit for Freeport at a really bad time,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business, calling for a renewed partnership between the Government, Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) and the latter’s 3,500 licensees to help revive the city.

“This is truly a devastating setback for Freeport’s economy which, as you know, was already moribund. I’m a little bit discouraged. Freeport is like a nuclear wasteland.”

Mr Smith said that prior to Matthew, the city and wider Grand Bahama had seen several positives emerge in the form of renewed tourism activity through Memories, plus several government pre-election infrastructure projects .

Now, citing the Smith’s Point seawall in particular, Mr Smith said this would cost “many millions of dollars more”, as Matthew had washed away the entire foreshore, enabling the sea to start undermining the road itself.

“The plan to build the additional clinic at the Rand and other positive expenditures the Government was making are obviously going to cost more,” the QC added. “And there are thousands of people who are not insured for hurricanes.”

Mr Smith said uninsured homeowners and businesses, whose properties had sustained significant damage from Matthew, would likely experience tremendous financial difficulties in trying to rebuild.

“The big problem is that there was very little money in the economy before the hurricane, so people are finding it difficult to find money for band-aid, patch-up jobs,” he told Tribune Business,

While praising government officials, and GBPA and Grand Bahama Power Company staff, for doing “as fine a job as possible in the circumstances”, Mr Smith said communities such as West End, Pinder’s Point, Lewis Yard, Hunters and Eight Mile Rock, had been devastated.

“It’s a very challenging economic environment,” he added. “Places such as Coral Beach Condominiums have had whole sections of the roof torn off. The International Bazaar looks like a wasteland. It’s just shattered.

“Freeport has been hit over these recent years with devastating cyclones. It has taken us nearly 10 years to recover from Jeanne and Frances. Now, to have this body blow, is a great challenge for the people of Freeport.

“It’s going to be a very rough, tough road and climb back just to go back to economic survival for Freeport. I think this is going to set us back many, many years.”

Tribune Business has been told that major industrial concerns, including Bradford Marine, Polymers International and the Freeport Container Port, were hit hard by Matthew, while companies such as Freeport Jetwash and Jiffy Cleaners also sustained major damage.

“The physical infrastructure has taken a shattering blow,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business. “The rumour at Port Lucaya is that they’re going to have to level many parts of it.

“Canals have silted up, and will have to be dredged. There won’t be anything for tourists to enjoy. Club Fortuna has been wrecked. I know the beach park facility at Taino Beach, built by David Wallace and his investor group, has been completely ripped up, although some of it remains.”

Freeport residents still have fresh memories of what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Frances, when Driftwood (Freeport), the then-Royal Oasis owner, decided to close the property, lay-off 1,200 staff and seek a buyer after pocketing the storm insurance proceeds.

That represented a blow from which Freeport, and its economy, have yet to fully recover, with the Royal Oasis remaining closed to this very day, despite its purchase in 2007 by Harcourt Developments.

Similar concerns are now being whispered about whether similar developments could befall the Grand Lucayan, the island’s largest hotel property, which is currently in the middle of its own sales process.

The resort has been a major loss-maker for years, and Hutchison Whampoa’s spun-off property arm, Cheung Kong Property Holdings, appears to be seriously pursuing an exit route.

The Ministry of Tourism, though, said previously that despite suffering water and roof damage, the Grand Lucayan’s Lighthouse Pointe property was set to re-open on November 7.

Mr Smith did not directly address fears over the Grand Lucayan, but said: “Certainly, if there are no tourists coming, it would be business suicide to stay open.”

The well-known QC said a resuscitated partnership between the Government, GBPA and the latter’s licensees was key to reviving Freeport’s economy and society in Matthew’s wake.

“Right now, Freeport’s economy is flat-lining,” he told Tribune Business.

“It’s going to take a tremendous commitment on the part of the Government, in co-operation with the GBPA and its licensees, to breathe economic life into Freeport. It is gasping for survival.

“This is a rocky road that Freeport faces but, at the end of the day, the city still has the answer to the future of the Bahamian economy.

“It can be a huge industrial engine, touristic and second home economy, and now, more than ever, there needs to be imagination and co-operation between the Government, Port Authority and licensees.”