By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Royal Caribbean's senior Bahamas executive yesterday said its Paradise Island project is "near the finish line" on obtaining the necessary approvals with a Heads of Agreement now being finalised.

Philip Simon, also the Royal Beach Club's president, added that the $110m project is "progressing" with the first phase of construction scheduled to begin in the 2024 first quarter.

He said: “We’re continuing to progress. I think it's advancing in terms of the timelines that we have outlined for the project. We still are hopeful and deliberate in our attempt to get to an opening in summer of 2025. We have achieved environmental approvals from the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection. We are near the finish line, I think, for our Heads of Agreement with government.

“Next steps, we've been involved from a development perspective, in the site preparation and the demolition, which is kind of like the phase one of getting ready for construction. We hope to commence that in the first quarter of 2024.”

Mr Simon added that the Royal Beach Club's construction will last a full 18 months once demolition is complete, and Bahamian vendors that wish to get involved "at any level" can still reach out via the cruise line's project website.

He said: “We continue to encourage persons who are interested in the project to reach out to us, and this is at every level, in preparation for the completion of the construction which, after the site prep and demo works, we hope to go more than 18 months in total in order to meet that timeline.

“So, persons again, you can reach out to us at the website to get on that list. We monitor it very closely, we respond to everything. RFPs will go out for each individual phase.”

Mr Simon has said that Royal Caribbean’s Paradise Island project targets "100 percent Bahamian participation, not just in terms of the employees but also in the vendors and the third parties that we partner with", and has held workshops to gauge the interest of potential Bahamian food and beverage, retail and artisan partners this summer.

He added that they are still communicating with those vendors and will send out bid documents to them once construction is completed.

He said: “As it relates to the workshops we would have held over the summer, we continue to communicate with persons in that regard depending on their interests and their activity. We will send out RFPs for the operations closer to opening when we would have completed the construction.”