By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Downtown Nassau Partnership's (DNP} co-chair is urging stakeholders to seize the opportunity provided by cruise tourism's absence to "reinvent the city", adding: "The door is open for change."

Charles Klonaris, warning that he expects to see plenty of empty retail and office spaces on Bay Street once the cruise lines return after a year-long COVID-induced absence, told Tribune Business that the Government and private sector needed to team with the cruise port developer to make it a "more attractive, liveable and environmentally friendly city".

He argued that the focus for downtown Nassau's near-term revival had to be placed on attracting Bahamians and residents, as well as hotel guests - whenever they emerge from their so-called "bubbles" - to shop and eat in the area.

This required improved restaurant options and parking, Mr Klonaris said, as well as a more diverse retail offering that appealed to locals' needs as he added: "There's got to be more than just t-shirts."

Downtown Nassau's redevelopment has been talked about for decades, spanning several PLP and FNM administrations, but to-date only incremental progress such as the harbourfront boardwalk and Pompey Square has been achieved.

The continued presence of multiple abandoned and dilapidated buildings 'east of East Street', and empty retail space, which existed before COVID-19 struck exposes how far the city has fallen and its long road back, but Mr Klonaris said the further "devastation" inflicted by the pandemic should provide the much-needed spark.

Speaking after Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, disclosed that the cruise lines had informed him their return had now been pushed back further into the 2021 second quarter, the DNP co-chair told this newspaper: "It's an opportunity for the city to reinvent itself, and that's not an easy thing to do.....

"Start thinking of the opportunity created by this virus and make it more attractive. I would say we have to look at a lot of the side streets in terms of pedestrian-only, and how we attract the visitors from the hotels and Bahamians back to the city, and not rely on cruise ships.

"What we have to focus on is how we quickly reinvent the city to attract the locals as well as the tourists from the major hotels. I think that should be emphasised for quickly turning the city around. It has to be a greener, more friendly and liveable city that makes it more enjoyable."

Many observers and prior redevelopment plans have argued that making downtown Nassau a so-called "living city", by attracting professional Bahamians to live there, was critical to its turnaround but Mr Klonaris argued that this was a medium to long-term objective that would do little to ease its current plight with the cruise lines likely to be absent for over 12 months due to COVID-19.

"The door is open for this change," he added. "We have to sit down quickly with the Government and Global Ports Holding [the cruise port developer] and see how best to quickly create this enjoyable, liveable city.

"More trees, more greenery, more parking and encouraging more restaurants. The quick turnaround for locals to come downtown is restaurants and retail that invites them to shop. It's got to be more than t-shirts. There's got to be a balance. You'll always have the tourists and gift shops, but we have to upgrade and look seriously at upgrading.

"Although right now it's devastating, what it's done is that it has opened our eyes to say we've got to do a much better job to encourage locals to come downtown."

Amid predictions by Global Ports chairman and others that cruise tourism may not fully recover from COVID-19 until late 2022, Mr Klonaris said it was going to be "extremely difficult" for Bay Street merchants and others reliant on the sector - restaurants, tour operators, taxi drivers, straw vendors and hair braiders etc - to survive the longer its absence lasted.

"There have been some landlords that have co-operated with the tenants in reducing the rent and trying to maintain the rental space," he added, "and they have made projections of being able to do that through December.

"Going forward that is a difficult situation for them for another three to four months [without cruise tourism]. It would depend on how valuable the retailers are to the landlord, and so I would presume the good ones that have tried and co-operated would get an extended discount. Whether the landlords would keep them I can't answer.

"The hotels, even though they are opening up, are all in a bubble so none of their guests will be travelling downtown to help support the loss of revenue from those store.. I would say the majority of them wouldn't be able to survive."

Pointing out that landlords are having to potentially cover mortgage costs themselves, as well as expenses such as electricity, maintenance and insurance, Mr Klonaris said: "I would expect to see a lot of empty retail space downtown as well as a lot of empty office space.

"The big catalyst is Global doing the port. We can sit with Global and see how perhaps moving forward we can reinvent the city."