• Smith refutes RCL’s 1,000 guest per day assertion

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian entrepreneur seeking to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse yesterday blasted that it was “a damn lie” for Royal Caribbean to assert his project will have a higher guest density than its own.

Toby Smith, the Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club principal, vehemently rejected assertions by Jay Schneider, the cruise giant’s chief product and innovation officer, that his venture was seeking to accommodate some 1,000 visitors per day on a three-acre Crown Land parcel he has been battling to lease.

Mr Schneider, in an interview with Tribune Business, said environmental activists are criticising the $110m Royal Beach Club over plans to bring a daily average of 2,750 passengers to its 17-acre western Paradise Island site yet supporting Mr Smith’s project and its greater guest density. As a result, he argued that concerns Royal Caribbean’s project will “decimate” Paradise Island’s environment “are not necessarily rooted in consistency”.

However, Mr Smith said his planned maximum capacity - should the project obtain all the necessary approvals to proceed - was half that asserted by Mr Schneider and Royal Caribbean. He pledged that the beach break destination which will accompany the lighthouse tour will be “low impact, sustainable” and a location that will “show the world what Bahamians can do when afforded the opportunity”.

“It’s a damn lie,” he blasted of the suggestion that Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club is targeting up to 1,000 visitors daily. “I have never once proposed 1,000. It’s always been between 200 and a maximum of 500 people per day. Our target, because we are a low impact, sustainable operation is not mass tourism but where Bahamians will be put first. In due course, we will be providing more details as to how we shall be putting Bahamians first.”

Pointing to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Royal Beach Club, Mr Smith said it showed that the only “inconsistent” party was Royal Caribbean. For while the EIA’s section 4.2 said the facility was being built for 8,719 guests, the “maximum capacity” was set at 3,750 - 3,500 guests and 250 workers. Mr Schneider said the daily average, spread across 365 days per year, will be between 2,500 and 2,750 visitors.

“Royal Caribbean initially presented the proposed Beach Club for a capacity of 3,500 passengers. In the fine print of their EIA point 4.2, they are building it to a capacity of 8,719 passengers. Royal Caribbean’s [Michael] Bayley then claimed this year they are building it to only 1,000 passengers, and now last week saying 2,500 to 3,000 and presenting an average of 2,750. So if Jay Schneider is looking for inconsistency, he need not look beyond him and his boss,” Mr Smith added.

“I have affirmed my position to the Davis administration, and look forward to an approval. It will be for the benefit of all Bahamians, and now that we have rolled out Royal Caribbean from encroaching on our location we are confident that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet will follow through on the previous administration’s Cabinet conclusion so we can show the world what Bahamians can do when afforded the opportunity.”

Royal Caribbean has reduced the Crown Land requirements for its Paradise Island project by 43 percent, reducing its needs from the original seven acres to just four. This is part of a strategy to extricate the cruise line from conflict with Mr Smith, as both sides were competing to lease the same two-acre parcel for their respective projects after it was seemingly ‘double dealt’ to each of them by the former Minnis administration.

This, in theory, has created a pathway for both projects to proceed and co-exist side-by-side as neighbours - if they can obtain all the necessary approvals. For while Royal Caribbean still needs to obtain the Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) and construction permits, Mr Smith has been told by the Davis administration to reapply for his permits.

That came after the Supreme Court, via chief justice Sir Ian Winder, ruled that Mr Smith did not have a valid and binding Crown Land lease for the two separate parcels that comprise his five acres. However, the Bahamian entrepreneur yesterday challenged whether the Government and Royal Caribbean should have been negotiating a reduction of the latter’s Crown Land footprint when at least part of the land involved was the subject of his Supreme Court battle.

“Royal Caribbean, in their statement, confirmed they have been negotiating with this new administration since they took office on land that was in litigation,” Mr Smith added. “We will be seeking the court’s assistance for clarity as to possible contempt of court for negotiating land in litigation. This land has been in litigation since before Minnis was voted out.”

Calling on Royal Caribbean to publicly confirm whether the disputed two-acre parcel is still included in its present Crown Land lease for Paradise Island, the Bahamian entrepreneur also queried whether that document will have to be revised or a new one drawn up to reflect the fact that the cruise line’s demands have been reduced from seven acres to four.

“We believe that the Government of The Bahamas is in a great position to allow Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club to get on with it. We are a country of beaches, and we don’t need royalty distracting us from how a Bahamian beach club should be run,” Mr Smith added.

“Every single environmental group in The Bahamas have provided written support for the Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club project because we have gone about it in the right way and involved the environmentalists since inception. My letters go back as far as 2015.

“The environmentalists being up in arms about Royal Caribbean is because they are coming into our country as if they are royalty in attempting to divide and conquer Bahamians for the chance to export millions of dollars out of The Bahamas for the benefit of foreign shareholders, not Bahamians.”

Royal Caribbean, though, has for the Royal Beach Club negotiated a PPP, or public-private partnership (PPP) model, which has been hailed as a first-of-its-kind for the tourism industry. This will see the Government exchange the four Crown Land acres that Royal Caribbean requires for an equity stake in the project.

Bahamian investors will also be able to buy into the development via an investment fund and, together with the Government, the two will collectively own a 49 percent stake in the venture. There will also be greater participation by Bahamian entrepreneurs, who will own and operate the amenities at the Royal Beach Club, plus increased job opportunities.