President of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), Ian Rolle sought to defend its efforts to attract investments to Freeport on Tuesday.
Rolle told reporters that large scale projects like Carnival Celebration Key and the expansion at the Grand Bahama Shipyard take time to develop. He said, “these transactions they don’t take two years, they don’t take three years, some of them don’t take four or five years. And we the Port Authority have been, from the very beginning, attracting and meeting with these relevant parties. Take for instance Carnival deal, that probably started from 2006-7. Now at the end of the day the government and the Port Authority have to work together no matter what the deal is at the end of the day we must work together cause we all play our part.”
The GBPA President also revealed that they are currently working on various real estate transactions. He did not provide specifics stating that NDAs (non disclosure agreements) had been signed. He did say, “they’re real estate deals that we are working on presently that could leave a significant impact for the economy of Freeport.”
There has been ongoing tension between the GBPA and the government for sometime. The parties are current participating in arbitration to resolve the government’s claim that the GBPA owes more that $350 million in fees per a clause in the Hawksbill Creek Agreement.
Rolle was also questioned about recent comments by Minister for Grand Bahama, the Hon. Ginger Moxey who said that fees owed to the GBPA by the owners of the International Bazaar and the Royal Oasis is slowing the development of the Afro-Caribbean Marketplace.
He said, “in every business deal you have financial plan. You have a business plan to determine if a deal is feasible. We have not seen that and I don’t think one exists. So once we see a feasible plan we are willing to do our part facilitate anything that will bring new life into that International Bazaar area.”
On the relevance of the GBPA Rolle pointed out the infrastructural state in east and west Grand Bahama and other parts of the country under the management of the central government and said people will make their decisions based on the facts.
