The Bahamas Hotel Corporation has now turned its attention to Family Island Development having signed over the only government-owned New Providence hotel as part of the billion-dollar Cable Beach redevelopment plan.
Although many Bahamians believe that the Corporation existed solely to manage the Radisson, Chairman George Smith explained on Monday that a major mandate of the quasi-government body is to develop more hotels and resorts around The Bahamas.
“Our role hasn’t changed because an asset has been sold. The role remains the same. The Corporation has assets in other islands and we are now presently negotiating a joint venture agreement in Mayaguana between the Hotel Corporation and the I Group,” he said in an interview with the Bahama Journal on Monday.
“We are basically negotiating a joint venture agreement for the utilization of some of the 10,000 acres of land the Hotel Corporation owns in the Central part of Andros and we are negotiating with people who are interested in doing resort developments on some of the properties the Hotel Corporation owns in Eleuthera.”
In April, the government signed a purchase agreement allowing for the sale of Radisson to Baha Mar. The development group agreed to pay $45 million for the hotel and other government interests in the Cable Beach area.
Mr. Smith said on Monday that the Hotel Corporation will be around until The Bahamas has reached the point where there is a saturation of hotels and resorts, and tourism doesn’t need the quasi body.
“We are basically trying to attract people to look at hotel projects for Long Island, Cat Island, Acklins or Mayaguana,” he said.
“We will entertain other people who would wish to use public owned lands in other parts of The Bahamas in joint venture arrangements to stimulate and to cause greater growth in the tourism and the hotel industry in The Commonwealth of the Bahamas.”
He pointed out that the Hotel Corporation pre-dated Radisson – a hotel, he reminded, the government corporation built.
In fact, he noted that the Corporation built other hotels and at one point owned the properties that are now Sandals and Breezes, as well as other hotel properties in Grand Bahama.
Mr. Smith pointed out that it was the Hotel Corporation that owned and preserved the land on which Exuma’s Four Seasons Resort at Emerald Bay now exists.
The Corporation, he said, ensured that the property was not parceled off.
The chairman said the Corporation plans to do for Eleuthera, Andros and other Family Islands what it did for Exuma.
“The fact is that it (the Corporation) disposes of some properties. It didn’t die when it sold the property at Emerald Bay, Exuma. It didn’t die when it divested itself of the property in Grand Bahama. It didn’t die when it sold Breezes or Sandals and the need for its existence continues.”
Mr. Smith said when the Hotel Corporation has fulfilled its mandate of property development throughout the country there will still be more work to be done in assisting Bahamians to obtain a greater degree of involvement in the tourism industry.
By: Tosheena Robinson-Blair, The Bahama Journal
