The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Pointe’s developers expect to break ground within the next 30 days on their entertainment and condo hotels, having already invested $8 million into what is expected to be an eight-storey parking garage.

    Leslie Pindling, director of external affairs for China Construction America ‘s(CCA) NewWorld One Bay Street Ltd subsidiary, said yesterday said each hotel would likely cost around $100 million to construct.

The condo hotel will be sold through  a Bahamian sales team, while the entertainment hotel is expected to feature the Hard Rock brand.

    Mr Pindling was addressing the media following a tour of the Summer Palace,  Nassau’s newest “authentic Chinese restaurant’,  which opens today.

Mr Pindling said construction at the $250 million The Pointe development was on schedule. “We are building it in phases. Our first phase will be the parking garage. That will be an eight-storey garage that will be able to accommodate 1,000 cars,” he said.

“We are hoping that will alleviate a lot of the parking problems in downtown Nassau. We are hoping that will be completed by summer of 2016.    

Mr Pindling added: “We just got planning approval for phases II and III, which  will be our entertainment hotel and our condo hotel. That will be on track for a 2017 opening.

“We are anticipating  that Hard Rock will be the brand we will be using for our entertainment hotel. The hotel sits around the amphitheatre overlooking the ocean.

“We are hoping that Hard Rock can bring in the names for us, along with Bahamian groups, in order to have music-themed events. All of the rooms in the entertainment hotel angle down on to the amphitheatre, so that your room is actually a stage. We also had a stage on the ground level where everyone who does not have a room can enjoy.”

Mr Pindling continued:  “In conjunction with that we are building our condo hotel and, in the middle, we are also building a restaurants, bars. We’re putting in a small bowling alley and we are putting a small movie theatre in. We are looking to bring life back to downtown.”

Ground was broken on The Pointe last August following the sale of the British Colonial Hilton to CCA, the  first resort acquisition in the Caribbean by the company.

Also included in The Pointe development is a marina which, according to Mr Pindling, is in the final phases of gaining the necessary approvals, with $300,000 to $400,000 being spent on an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

A boardwalk is also envisaged for the development, according to Mr Pinlding, who said: “We anticipate building a boardwalk that would start where Señor Frogs is and encompass the front of the property.

“That would take the tourists coming off cruise ships  around to view our property, and also if they would like a drink or meal to do that, and they can exit out on to Junkanoo Beach if they wish.”