Grand Bahama Port Authority Chief Investment Officer, Derek Newbold recently sat down with ZNS News to talk about many investment projects underway in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
According to Newbold Freeport is the most diverse economy in The Bahamas. He said, “we have investments taking place across a broad range of different industries.”
He went further stating, “the construction industry is going to benefit initially from a lot of the projects that are taking place. Then that’ll be followed by the full time employment opportunities and then the spinoff entrepreneurial opportunities. And so it’s a phased process. If you’re not feeling it yet I’m sure you will feel it in the years to come.”
Grand Bahama is set to receive millions of tourists by the year 2027 with the help of projects such as the new Celebration Key Cruise Port and other development projects. Newbold said, “we have Carnival Cruise Lines set to receive their first cruise call on July 19th. We have the Grand Bahama Shipyard that’s set to receive their first dry dock or their major dry dock by the end of this year. We have Six Senses that’s slated to commence construction by the end of summer. We have Western Atlantic University that recently got the heads of approval from government which gave them the confidence to move forward with their second phase of their development. And these are six hundred, six hundred sixty five million dollar investments, three hundred million dollar investments, two hundred million dollar investments and these are all taking place, these are all in progress.”
The GBPA Investment Chief also spoke about other investments happening on the island like the condominium project headed by Xquisite Yachts. “They came here with one investment in mind and with a very limited budget of spending only about $5 million and they have already doubled that investment.”
Newbold said the important thing is getting investors to the island because once on Grand Bahama they will start to see different opportunities available.
