The government has received $45 million for selling the Radisson Cable Beach Resort and associated assets to the Baha Mar consortium, thus completing the deal for an investment project that is expected to generate an extra $475 million per annum ingross domestic product (GDP) over the first 21 years.
In selling the Radisson, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that the contractual relationship with George Myers’ Myers Group, which had operated that hotel, had come to an “amicable ending”. The franchise agreement with the Radisson brand had also come to an end.
The government is understood to be especially keen to minimise expenditure on infrastructure, such as new roads and utilities like telecommunications, electricity and water and sewerage, associated with new developments for fear this could place additional strain on the public finances at a time when it is already running a high deficit.
Apart from re-routing the current roads through Cable Beach further to the south, the Baha Mar project also includes cutting a four-lane highway from Gladstone Road over Prospect Ridge to a new roundabout outside the development area.
Source: Neil Hartnell, The Tribune
