By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

BRICKELL Management Group is planning a $510m development in western New Providence, with its chairman Sebas Bastian encouraging locals and foreigners to invest in the venture.

The project is expected to provide 3,290 jobs and be completed over the next couple of years, according to Mr Bastian. Each phase of the project is projected to have close to 100 employees or more.

Mr Bastian welcomed Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and the press to his company’s Venetian West Residential Office for a presentation on projects.

He referred to various projects, including modern vacation rentals, luxurious rental units, premier office space on University Drive, a shopping centre, a sports club, waterside family homes, a beachside condo hotel, a 224-room condo, and more.

“I was one of those individuals that used to say that they give everything to foreigners, and they don’t give nothing to Bahamians,” Mr Bastian said.

“And I had to correct myself because I could only say that if I had asked and I was told no. So I hired a consultant to study the previous concessions given to the hotels in the past.”

Mr Davis commended the entrepreneur’s efforts to provide affordable homes for Bahamians.

“The perception that government will not do for Bahamians as which they do for the foreigners, I think this is evidence that is not true,” he said. “We just need to know, and you need to ask. If you don’t ask, you will not get. And once you ask, it should be given. Now, what is given may not be as what you asked, but something would be given.”