By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM, Aviation and Investments Minister Chester Cooper said officials anticipate that parts of the Hilton hotel will be open during the summer months based on the most recent information from the owners of the property.

However, he said yesterday that they had to get an update from the developers.

“Work is actively going on at the British Colonial Hilton,” he said. “We need to get an update from the developers but we are anticipating that parts of the hotel will be open during the summer months based on the most recent information received from the owners of the resort and they are pushing to have the hotel fully opened by the end of the year by the winter season.”

The minister addressed complaints about the Nassau Cruise Port.

“This problem is decades old as you would well know - it’s not a new complaint,” Mr Cooper explained. “Firstly, I would say that I (toured) the Nassau Cruise Port itself yesterday, with a view to assessing readiness for an opening at the end of May. This is going to happen. It’s going to be phenomenal.

“For those who may not have seen it, you may perhaps imagine a larger version of Marina Village. So this is going to have a significant draw in and of itself. This will be also a driver I hope for the rest of Bay Street to redevelop. We’ve spent a lot of time already speaking with the stakeholders. We have issued demolition orders for nine of the buildings east of East Street.

“We are talking with the art community to see how we might be able to do some beautification works. We’re spending significant sums for remedial work like cleaning and beautification, but we need everybody to play their part. We call on the building owners to make efforts to improve the exteriors of their buildings.”

He also said: “We are going further. We’re currently looking at draft legislation for (the) management of the city centre of Bay Street. The Attorney General has been working on that diligently. We have drafted that legislation out for consultation at the moment and we hope to be able to present that to the public soon.

“So there are also issues of vagrancy. We believe we will be able to address some of this with the help of the police with the help of social services and under the auspices of the new mental health bill that we passed recently.”