reEarth : Environmental issues in The Bahamas

30th July

By Candia Dames The new administration should move speedily to finalize a supplemental agreement with Baha Mar, former Prime Minister Perry Christie said recently. “I don’t think the government has a choice in the matter,” said Mr. Christie when asked by the Bahama Journal whether he believes the new government would allow the multibillion-dollar Baha Mar project at Cable Beach to go through.

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“Baha Mar represents a tremendous breakthrough in tourism for The Bahamas government and even though the FNM government may wish to amend agreements that we negotiated in some respects, that agreement is much too powerful in its potential impact to be ignored and I think it would be in the best interest in The Bahamas if they move very quickly to finalize it.”

On Friday, Baha Mar executive Robert Sands said the company was still in negotiations with the government for a supplemental agreement.

Since March 15, Baha Mar’s partners – Harrah’s Entertainment and Starwood Hotels – have been legally entitled to exercise walk-away rights. But Mr. Sands confirmed that neither had done so.

After signing a heads of agreement with the government, Baha Mar upped its intended investment on the Cable Beach Strip from about $1.5 billion to more than $2.4 billion. The developers subsequently requested a supplemental heads of agreement, with concessions that reflect the revised level of investment.

The government said in a statement in March that the Baha Mar Development Company Ltd. was seeking to have the already generous concessions granted by the government under a 2005 heads of agreement vastly increased in addition to other requests, which could also impact other property owners in the area and the flow of vehicular traffic.

The statement issued on March 18 was in response to one issued by Baha Mar days earlier in which the company said that its failure to conclude negotiations with the government on a supplemental heads of agreement by a March 15 deadline was exposing its Cable Beach development to risks.

Baha Mar recently re-flagged the Radisson to a Sheraton property.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Baha Mar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.