The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Commonwealth Bank may “accelerate” the almost-$2 million expansion of its Oakes Field branch depending on how much damage Tuesday night’s fire caused, its president said yesterday.

Ian Jennings said the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s fire department only handed back the building to the BISX-listed bank at midday yesterday, and its own damage assessment might not be completed until Friday.

Until that exercise was completed, Mr Jennings said Commonwealth Bank did not know whether it was facing just roof repairs and a case of minor water damage, or more serious destruction to the branch’s electrical infrastructure.

If it was the latter, and major repairs that could close the Oakes Field branch for several months were required, Mr Jennings suggested Commonwealth Bank could bring forward the expansion plans it was readying for the end of 2013.

“We’ve really got to get all the facts in front of us to make a sensible decision,” he told Tribune Business. “Until we know that, we’re in limbo.”

Construction tenders for the Oakes Field branch expansion were sent out to bid last week, Mr Jennings added, and once the damage assessment on the fire was in the bank would meet with the project architect to “talk it through” and assess options.

“It’s a bit under $2 million,” Mr Jennings said of Commonwealth Bank’s planned investment in the Oakes Field branch expansion.

“We were adding roughly 1,600 square feet, which is really to expand the lobby area for the customers and add more office space on the north side.

“It was going to be a phased approach because obviously it’s a large branch. There were four phases, starting between the third quarter and fourth quarter this year, and finishing in early 2014.”

Mr Jennings said the 30 staff at the Oakes Field branch had already been redeployed, as had all Commonwealth Bank personnel at its East Bay Street branch. The latter location suffered minor flood damage, and it will re-open today as normal with all staff present.

“All our branches are important,” Mr Jennings added. “That [Oakes Field] is a very busy junction and has a lot of traffic.

“To some degree it’s not as cataclysmic as if it were a food store or store where you’re selling a product. With the electronics, we can move to wherever the customer is.

“It’s inconvenient, but until we get a handle on it, whether it’s week-long inconvenience or a longer inconvenience, we don’t know.”