By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE government signed a heads of agreement yesterday for the Kakona South Abaco Development worth over $800m.

The project is expected to provide hundreds of jobs.

Steve Harrell, the senior trustee for the Harrell Family Trust, talked about his vision for the location and commitment to South Abaco.

“I have been coming to The Bahamas for 30 years. My family has been coming here for 25 years — 15 years ago I was in Abaco and someone introduced me to this 700-acre property that I just couldn’t get off of my mind.”

“I felt like it was the most incredible piece of beachfront property on the planet and I moved swiftly to purchase that 15 years ago,” he said.

 “And we have been daily, Tom and I, in pursuit of this moment, and we are simply thrilled. Finally, we can make a point to the people of South Abaco that we are in their corner. I’ve slept in the homes of the people in Sandy Point.

 “I know everybody down there, we go down there frequently and I’ve made promises as to what our family trust would do for South Abaco. And we’re at a point now that we can move swiftly through the other governmental approvals.”

 Central and South Abaco MP John Pinder explained that all of the project will be developed on private land.

 “The full cost of the project is well over $800 million. It’s nearing a billion dollars. The start is going to be within months as best I can say. There are some finalisations that have to do with certain governmental approvals,” he said.

 “However, we’ll have shovels in the ground within months and the finalisation is dependent on how quickly we could develop the skill set within our people to make it happen and supply chains and so on, so forth.”

 He said this project is a “monumental step forward” in the development of Abaco.

 “The community and the people of South Abaco are behind this,” he said. “It involves hundreds of room keys. It has a marina that will be able to accommodate boats up to 250 feet, which goes in line with the ever developing and increasing demand for yachting facilities.

 “The workforce in South Abaco will have somewhere to go besides driving all the way to central where the economy is now centric. So it is important for the people of South Abaco to be able to feed their families, to be able to have a career and the youth to have a future right there in South Abaco.”

 The area MP spoke on the number of jobs being created.

 He added: “It’s a significant undertaking to build, but it’s also going to be hundreds of jobs to sustain long term and there’s a skill training component to it. So we won’t be only looking for skilled workers outside of this country, we’ll be training our people to do the right jobs, and the skills will evolve as the project evolves.”

 Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper described this as “significant” and a boost economically for the island.

 “As I’ve indicated before, I’m delighted for South Abaco and I celebrate with my colleague, John. This is going to be a boost for the entire economy that’s going to build around this resort in South Abaco,” Mr Cooper said.