The Tribune

* PM's top advisor confirms local investor group approval

* Principals were 'optimistic' after 'doing all we should'

* Original proposal called for up to 1,200 full-time jobs

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government has given the go-ahead to a Bahamian investor group aiming to generate $1.5bn in revenues by transforming Nassau's key heritage sites, a top official revealed yesterday.

Joshua Sears, the Prime Minister's senior policy advisor, told Tribune Business that the Cabinet's National Economic Council (NEC) had earlier this month given its blessing to the Public-Private Investments (PPIL) group's multi-million dollar proposal to restore and revive sites that include Nassau’s three forts, the Queen’s Staircase (66 Steps) and Water Tower, and the Pompey Museum.

"What I can say to you is that the NEC has approved the project, and the operational aspect is now subject to continued interaction between the Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation (AMMC) and the group," Mr Sears said.

"That'll be the next step. There's been several meetings but it was finally approved about a week ago." With the Government becoming ever more cash-strapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Sears said the hope was that outsourcing these locations to private sector management, capital and maintenance will unlock their true value for heritage/cultural tourism and Bahamians alike.

"When the proposal was submitted it was thought that these historical sites required an injection of private capital," he explained. "The Water Tower, in particular, required substantial investment.

"The overall idea was to improve the sites and make them more attractive and viable to the tourism product, and make the environs of the city of Nassau attractive to Bahamians and visitors alike. It's a very important part of our cultural history."

PPIL, which is headed by Dr Nigel Lewis, as its chairman, and businessman Olvin Rees, now have to finalise the details of an operations and management agreement for the historic sites they will be charged with restoring for the benefit of Bahamians, the wider economy and job creation.

The group already has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in place with the AMMC, and Mr Rees told this newspaper last summer that it projected the venture could generate $1.5bn in gross revenues over the duration of a 25-year lease along with several hundred jobs.

Both he and Dr Lewis recently told Tribune Business, prior to this newspaper's interview with Mr Sears, that PPIL felt confident it had fulfilled everything required of it and was now just awaiting the Government's approval to advance to the the operations and management agreement.

"We're still waiting on the final signing of the management agreement from the Government," Mr Rees had said. "We haven't heard from them yet. Hopefully some time in the New Year we may hear something.

"We're waiting for everything to be finalised. It hasn't changed. The Government has got other priorities right now. We couldn't do anything with it previously; the pandemic, cruise ships pulling out and tourism going to zero."

Dr Lewis gave a similar outlook, telling this newspaper: "We are waiting to get some word from the Government. I believe we have done everything we should have done. It's now in the Government's hands. We're just waiting for them to tell us when they are ready, and we are very optimistic. We have been waiting, that's all I can say to you at this time."

Besides Fort Charlotte, Fort Fincastle and Fort Montague, and the Queen’s Staircase and Water Tower, PPIL was - prior to COVID-19 striking - also hoping to take over operational responsibility for the Botanical Gardens, Pompey Museum and the National Public Library.

Its aim, via a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement with the Government, was to make all the locations financially self-sustainable by overhauling their appearance, enhancing the visitor experience and “pre-selling” tour packages to both cruise ship passengers and hotel tourists, reversing perceptions that Nassau is “boring” with little of interest to do amid “run down” attractions.

Documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal that PPIL aimed to provide 500 direct permanent jobs, and between 500 to 750 indirect jobs, via the proposed project before COVID-19 intervened to delay progress towards an operations and management agreement.

The papers seen by this newspaper show that the project has now been more than three years in the making, with PPIL quick off the mark to formally approach the Minnis administration with its proposal within three months of it taking office on May 10, 2017.

An August 8, 2017, letter from Dr Lewis to the NEC, which references "earlier and ongoing discussions with various members of the Council", likely meaning individual Cabinet ministers and officials, initially sought a 30-year lease concession to manage and operate sites that also included Government House, Heroes Park and Centreville (Collins) House.

Richenda King, the AMMC's chairman, yesterday confirmed that Government House was not included in the potential sites that PPIL would potentially assume responsibility for although she declined further comment, instead referring Tribune Business to the Prime Minister's Office.

Dr Lewis' letter, meanwhile, also suggested the group was interested in developing "guided tours through historical Adelaide, Fox Hill and Gambier Villages" while training local residents to manage and operate them, and creating "an educational heritage experience for all Bahamians".

"We seek to establish a sustainable world-class heritage experience for tourists and locals (generations of Bahamians) alike, with the full participation of all key stakeholders," Dr Lewis wrote, committing PPIL to an initial $30m investment and the creation of "multiple entrepreneurial opportunities".

"This has immediate and long-term positive implications for the Government as it seeks to rebrand The Bahamas as a destination, while controlling and constraining its capital budgetary expenditures," he added.

A draft operations and management agreement between the AMMC and PPIL, which is unsigned and dated from February 2019, states that the investor group will "seek to provide 350 temporary jobs, 500 direct permanent jobs, 500-700 indirect permanent jobs and multiple entrepreneurial opportunities, the economic impact of which is estimated at $1.2bn over 25 years".

It is uncertain whether these details have, or will, change, with the draft also detailing a 'sliding scale' profit sharing agreement where AMMC will receive a 20 percent share at $2m and 45 percent anywhere above $4m.

"PPIL Group views the development of an effective heritage tourism model as critical to any attempt to diversify our economy and strengthen its core tourism product," the group said in its accompanying business plan.

"This strategy speaks to the development of a 'signature' heritage tourism programme to be featured as a cultural focal point for ongoing efforts to preserve The Bahamas' unique footing as the 'cultural and geographical jewel of the Caribbean'."

Few would argue that the sites targeted by PPIL are in serious need of improved management and upgrading. If this can be accomplished, they can play a significant role in restructuring and enhancing the Bahamian tourism product post-COVID-19, while also monetising Bahamian history and taking the country into the higher margin cultural/heritage tourism niche.

The documents seen by Tribune Business also include a draft MoU between PPIL and the Public Parks and Beaches Authority for the Botanical Gardens and Heroes Park. It is unclear, though, whether this was signed or if the two assets are still included in the deal. Shanendon Cartwright, the Authority's chairman, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

PPIL's business plan, which is dated, named Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, former minister of tourism in the last Ingraham administration, and Michael Maura, then head of BISX-listed Arawak Port Development Company (APD), as members of the investor group.

However Mr Maura, who now heads Nassau Cruise Port, and Mr Vanderpool-Wallace both confirmed that they only had marginal and temporary connections to PPIL's plan and are no longer involved. The latter said he backed away because his involvement could have created a "conflict" with another project he was involved with.