By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

As the Grand Lucayan Resort’s sale was announced on Tuesday, the Grand Bahama chamber president, James Carey, said “more is needed” for Grand Bahama than just the sale.

Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, announced the sale of the resort to Electra America Hospitality Group, and said that there will be an additional $300m in renovations to take place at the resort along with the sale.

This $100m sale will provide a boost for the island of Grand Bahama in the wake of Hurricane Dorian in 2019 along with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will also generate 2,000 construction jobs and another 1,000 permanent jobs on the island.

Mr Carey said “this is exciting news” to see the Grand Lucayan sale finalised and is a “positive” move in the right direction for the island.

He added: “I listened to the Minister for Grand Bahama (Ginger Moxey) and she said that we will have a world class hotel by 2025. Our airport is nothing to speak of and quite frankly it needs some interim work to make it workable in order to get some traffic in here. We need airlift. We do desperately need an airport.

“But this sale is a positive step in the right direction, but we need more than the Grand Lucayan sale even though they said they will create some 2,000 construction jobs and an additional 1,000 permanent jobs.

“This helps some of the displaced workers in the hospitality industry, but I think there is a lot more that need to be done in order to cause the flow of dollars through this town, but this certainly helps.”

The previous administration, led by Dr Hubert Minnis, purchased the resort for $65m in 2018 and failed to secure a deal with the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line led group for $150m, with RCCL walking away from the deal after the government changed in August, 2021.

Russell Urban, president and chief executive officer of Electra, said about the purchase: “We saw this as a very unique opportunity in a world class location to create energy and to revive a community that has been so ravaged over recent years. So we are very, very pleased and humbled to be chosen for this for this amazing opportunity.”

James Rolle, Dolly Madison’s general manager, also told Tribune Business: “I have not done any research on this company to find their track record, but it sounds good that they are purchasing the resort.”

The additional matter of concern is how Electra will spend the $300m to renovate the resort and how many Bahamians they hire to help along with this renovation, but there is hope that it would “turn into a Baha Mar style investment”.

Mr Rolle added: “I think the next thing that needs to happen is that they really need to get the airport up and running. You can’t have a hotel without an airport.

“So we just need to see what kind of progress and arrangements will be made on the airport and getting that back up and running to an international level.”

He added: “I’m cautiously optimistic, but they are creating 2,000 construction jobs. I just want to also see now what’s going to happen with this Carnival Cruise Line deal.”