There comes a time in deal making when the talk must be brought to an end. That is the moment when the proverbial fat lady sings. As Phil Ruffin puts it: “In the end someone has to come up with money and that’s usually when the rubber meets the road, when someone has to come up with cashﾅﾒ
That moment came and went. No deal was made. While we wait in hope for a real deal, like a lot of Bahamians we are not holding our breath in heady anticipation of the making of a sweet deal in the matter-involving sale of certain Cable Beach properties.
Past performance suggests that we wait and see what happens from here on in.There are many people who believe that what is proposed for Cable Beach is only a fantasy and there is not enough money around to make that fantasy happen.
There is still the possibility ﾖalbeit remote- that something big will happen for and on the Cable Beach Strip. But we also make the point that we just have to wait and see. We are ﾖeven now- yet in the comfort zone of conjecture, wish and exuberant hope.We believe that in the Cable Beach discussions, there was some over-reaching which makes the deal too difficult to consummate.
Some of this rhetorical flavor infuses the thinking of a number of Bahamian leaders. Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie waxes eloquent as he talks in the billions of dollars about money and investment, and their myriad of potential in the area of jobs and financial empowerment for the Bahamian people:
As he expatiates, ﾠﾓWe live in a country where the challenge for the government, if we are to listen to advice, is how do we go about when an investor buys a property and decides with his money that he wants to spend $5 million, how do we tell him to spend 2? How do we do that? That is the difficulty that we face,ﾒ he said.
ﾠMr. Christie said he would like to see a five-star development on Cable Beach to complement the five-star Paradise Island development and the planned upgrades to the Nassau International Airport, which will also make it a five-star facility.
ﾓThat is what I saw, being able to facilitate this significant increase in tourism to New Providence,ﾒ the prime minister said. While this kind of brave talk is well and good as a motivator, in the real world a promise ﾖaccording to the wise King Solomon- is little more than comfort to a fool. There are other proverbs ﾖall of which are as wise- speaks to the architecture and construction of folly.
As Mr. Ruffin told this newspaper, he was hoping that the Baha Mar Group would have been able to see its way clear to produce the monies for the deal. He thought the company’s plan was adventurous, to say the least.
“But the contract lapsed. So now they have no contract with us. They didn’t perform. I don’t know what will develop from here.,ﾒ he said.
“In the end someone has to come up with money and that’s usually when the rubber meets the road, when someone has to come up with cash, and that has not happened.”
These thoughts and others concerning the power of words and their capacity to beguile and ensnare come to mind as we reflect on some of what is happening concerning the ﾓimminentﾒ sale of the Ruffin properties on Cable Beach: and about a fascinating vision that the Strip was on the verge of a magnificent make-over. This time around tourism in The Bahamas would rival ﾖsome prophesied- Las Vegas!
Regrettably, this is not to happen ﾖjust yet.
Instead we are getting new information to the effect that American hotelier Ruffin claimed that he plans to sign a deal with an unnamed buyer sometime this week to sell his Wyndham Nassau Resort and Nassau Beach Hotel.
This would mean that the painstaking negotiations between Prime Minister Perry Christie, other government officials and principals of Bah Mar Development Company Ltd. would go down the drain, sources close to the talks said.
It is also being said in certain circles that the sale of the two properties to Bah Mar was considered critical to the deal. The group had planned to carry out implosions and multimillion-dollar renovations to Mr. Ruffin’s hotels, as well as the government-owed Radisson Cable Beach Resort.
It is unclear what impact Mr. Ruffin’s planned sale to another buyer would have on the Radisson. Prime Minister Perry Christie had said during his budget debate to parliament last May that the government had planned to dispose of the hotel and obtain a net $10 million for the Treasury.
Like everything else in the world of hope, wish, and if ﾖnothing beats cold cash as a signal for real action. Apparently, this is what Phil Ruffin wants: cold cash, nothing more, and nothing less.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
March 9, 2005
