Workers in the kitchens at The Pointe’s new restaurant. Photos: Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
THE Pointe’s Director of External Affairs Leslie Pindling admitted that while there are more Chinese workers than Bahamian labourers right now at the development, he expects this dynamic to change as the project progresses to meet several of its target dates.
Mr Pindling explained yesterday that The Pointe’s heads of agreement with the government stipulates that there are to be 60 per cent Chinese workers to 40 per cent Bahamians, but only during the development’s super structure phase or start up construction.
However, when the super structure phase is completed – foundation work for the eight-story, 1,000-car garage, condominium and entertainment hotels – more Bahamians will be needed to do the finish work. This includes electrical, plumbing and dry wall work.
He was responding to a question from the media regarding critics who have complained that there was a higher ratio of Chinese to Bahamian workers.
As it stands, the government has granted The Pointe 500 work permits. Mr Pindling said they have nearly reached this cap, which is the cut off point.
It is estimated that The Pointe will cost between $250m to $300m. So far, developers have spent $8m to $10m on the parking garage on the western end of the property, Mr Pindling said.
Once it is complete, developers anticipate hiring 500 Bahamians for the day-to-day operations of the resort.
“I think it is being built by the Chinese for Bahamians,” Mr Pindling said during a tour of Summer Palace, Nassau’s newest authentic Chinese restaurant featured on the property.
It opens today at the former location of Scotiabank in the Commerce Centre of the British Colonial Hilton. Summer Palace seats about 200 guests and features public and private dinning spaces.
Outdoor seating areas, a karaoke and multifunction room, noodle and sushi bars and a fully stocked beverage bar are also featured.
“I think that is incorrect (to say it is being built by the Chinese for the Chinese),” Mr Pindling said.
“And what you can’t see (is) we have an eight foot fence. You can only see above that. What you don’t see is the Bahamians on the ground level doing all the other structural work.
“Yes that is all you see at present but as stated we are using that for the super structure build. So you will be seeing that for the next year and a half but we will be increasing Bahamian employment as we continue through our construction phases.
“(There will be) more people coming in to start the super structure and we are going to be employing more Bahamians so the numbers will fluctuate over the next 30 days.”
He continued: “With the heads of agreement, we have an agreement for 40 per cent Bahamian labour and 60 per cent foreign labour. That is only for start up construction that we call the super structure. The super structure is what we call the garage and the two hotels. Once those have been created, then the dynamics and numbers will change because we will need more Bahamians to do the finish work - maybe electrical, plumbing, dry wall, all of those finishes will be done by Bahamians. So in order for us to meet our target, we have that agreement with the government so that we can build it on time.”
He further said that the Christie administration has raised concerns over how the construction will impact the environment. He said the developers have spent $300,000 to $400,000 on environmental impact assessments.
Officials anticipate the Hard Rock to sign on as the entertainment hotel brand.
Mr Pindling has said the resort is on track to be officially opened in 2017.
Comments
Publius 8 years, 1 month ago
Next.
B_I_D___ 8 years, 1 month ago
Birdie will justify it somehow...
Publius 8 years, 1 month ago
Indeed
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 1 month ago
The name just sort of leaps off the page at the reader, doesn't it?
Publius 8 years, 1 month ago
Indeed it does
Economist 8 years, 1 month ago
Where is the Great Minister responsible for Immigration?
Why is Shame Gibson not protecting Bahamian jobs?
Why the silence?
Let any Bahamian construction company try to bring in a work crew which is 60% Chinese.
After all the rhetoric about looking out for Bahamians, how is all this possible?
How could the PLP Government agree to this travesty?
Publius 8 years, 1 month ago
Well at least the Pindlings and the Christies have jobs (Christie's daughter at Baha Mar who was the only one kept on after the layoffs in a department that no longer existed due to the layoffs). They're Bahamian, right? *sarcasm off*
proudloudandfnm 8 years, 1 month ago
Looka the crony making press releases. PLP really do take care of their own now. Muddos. The cronyism is so damned blatant....
proudloudandfnm 8 years, 1 month ago
So all the workers are Chinese and the executives are PLPs....
And people wonder why the PLP was so friendly to the Chinese after they sabotaged Bahamar....
asiseeit 8 years, 1 month ago
"“I think it is being built by the Chinese for Bahamians,” Mr Pindling said". No Mr. Pindling, the Chinese are building the point for the Chinese. they own it, they run it, they are building it, they will profit from it, and Bahamians will still be begging for a shitty job cleaning rooms. How does that equate to building it for Bahamians? Just another PLP telling LIE'S!
birdiestrachan 8 years, 1 month ago
This is what Birdie has to say. How ever many of them come . they should come for a period of time. Train Bahamians. and then leave gradually Bahamians should out number them.. and there should constantly be an exchange do not come forever, some come some go. Unless the Bahamian women marry them . then it will be all over. keep on smiling.
realfreethinker 8 years, 1 month ago
birdie's logic 2.0
asiseeit 8 years, 1 month ago
You are smiling because you are a PLP CRONY who is implicit in the destruction of your own country and people for the sake of a dollar. Smile on but do not dare make a peep when the people rise up.
GrassRoot 8 years, 1 month ago
hey birdie your grandkids will look like Chinese.
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 1 month ago
Don't forget that Steffan P. Christie sold the property to the Chinese and made all the government arrangements including the work permits. *BAHAMIANS ARE BEING LOOKED AFTER*Strong. Just not the common or garden ones. In other words the ones that the PLP believe in are straight and working and being handsomely paid. Doe anyone know who contracted with the Bahamian Contractors and why ? Why didn't the General Contractor do that ? And they here spending hundreds of millions of dollars and no one says squat.
Greentea 8 years, 1 month ago
If this is true, it might be interesting to follow the other sales he has brokered. I guess that would take some investigative journalism - something extinct longer than the Arawaks on these shores.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 1 month ago
PLP and FNM political elites alike have always looked down on the vast majority of black and white Bahamians as being downright dumb and stupid! Only now are most oppressed Bahamians just beginning to realize this horrible reality. For the past 40+ years, Pindling, Ingraham and Christie have been leading most Bahamians into a dire state of poverty all the while lavishing upon themselves and their family members luxurious and opulent riches of one kind or another unjustly obtained by stealing from the Bahamian people......leaving many Bahamians living a fearful and miserable existence in deplorable conditions.....with our country saddled with a mountain of debt that will eventually drive a spike in the heart of all honest hardworking and suffering Bahamians. If the vast majority of impoverished Bahamians don't soon wake up and take back their country, all will be lost as the political elite seek help from the Chinese military industrial establishment to put rowdy poor dumb and stupid Bahamians in their place!
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 1 month ago
Agree, when one looks at the arc of forty years' history, it's plain to see.
The design is plainly now visible for any who care to see it.
birdiestrachan 8 years, 1 month ago
soon you all will be voting for women rights. If the vote passes. and the Bahamian women marry these men. The men will be Bahamian. That is the reality.
banker 8 years, 1 month ago
Do those dollars bills that the PLP give you chafe underneath your burka?
birdiestrachan 8 years, 1 month ago
Look at the big picture and look into the future. It is important to do so, and you can bet that while Bahamians fight among themselves. persons from other Countries know the laws better than you all do. and if you all do not love the Bahamas they do and they will fight to the death to be here. just watch what is going on all around you.
asiseeit 8 years, 1 month ago
Maybe you should take your own advice and open YOUR eyes as to what is going on in the country. PLP until death right Birdie?
asiseeit 8 years, 1 month ago
Until a couple of these nasty, corrupt, politicians go to jail NOTHING will change in this country as far as government goes and corruption. This government is blatantly corrupt and if ever there was a chance to jail a politician, this is it. Whoever is next better try and lock some of these crooks up!
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 1 month ago
A third of a billion dollars, in a spot very hard to enter and exit by car; how will traffic be handled? Bridge? Tunnel? Rooftop helipad? Seriously, it makes one curious, doesn't it?
Of course, it's pure coincidence this is situated within eyeshot of the American Embassy, isn't it?
sansoucireader 8 years, 1 month ago
Didn't you hear? The US Embassy is looking for a new location. Outgrew their current Queen Street locations eons ago but with the new Asian neighbours across the street they knew it was time to find a new address.
BMW 8 years, 1 month ago
We got plenty land in the north
banker 8 years, 1 month ago
Right now, it takes the Chinese three hours to try and back out of a driveway anyway. Quickest way to blind a Chinese is to put a windshield in front of his eyes.
Chucky 8 years, 1 month ago
Or you can blindfold them with a piece of dental floss.......
realfreethinker 8 years, 1 month ago
Man that is low LOL
banker 8 years, 1 month ago
So Bahamians can't cook? Why the Chinese cook? Surely Bahamians can make rice. It would take a few tries to skin a cat without getting fur in the sauce, but I'm sure that we could learn it.
Publius 8 years, 1 month ago
Ha! Hilarious
Chucky 8 years, 1 month ago
I agree that's too many work permits to give.
Regarding the work permits. I was in the Solomons Fresh Market food store, it occurred to me that we are really hurting ourselves in so many other ways.
For example; I noticed the pies in the bakery case in the store. These imported pies, come in a cardboard box, built for shipping. To the point, it occurred to me that when we import all these various items that we could make here, we are really allowing the "Miami Bakery" to sell their wares here in Nassau, without even having a business license, much less a work permit for their staff.
Think about that for a moment. Obviously we can't set up an auto manufacturing plant here, so we have to import autos, and perhaps many other complex item. But when we can't even bake the apple pies that we eat here in the Bahamas, then we are the fools who are giving away our jobs and opportunities to the foreigners. ! person and a couple of $1000.00 ovens in their garage could bake more pies than Solomons can sell in a day. Solomons be charging $25.00 and more for a pie, or cake. We're the fools who can't see the opportunities in front of our faces.
Pies and cakes are an easy example, but there a millions of examples, and yet we say there aint no jobs? Sure seems to me there are many missed opportunities that we could explore.
I guess it's easier to just complain about how all our problems are caused by someone else.
banker 8 years, 1 month ago
The trouble is that Bahamian entrepreneurs do not have access to two things: (1) startup capital and (2) capital in a convertible currency to pay for equipment, supplies etc.
There is no tradition of venture capital or angel investing to fund good ideas. The efforts put out by the government is just a way to re-distribute wealth to their cronies, and there is no due diligence in making sure that the business is viable.
Your idea of pies is a good one, and it would have been done in a healthy, diversified economy with a merchant and commercial banking system. Instead we have the BoB cronyism. There are many more ideas. I previously pointed out foreigners making sea grape leaves cosmetics in France. I am sure that there are many exploitable things that we could make and sell domestically if there was an incubator system for startups in the economy.
sealice 8 years, 1 month ago
how you sray Bahlamian Assrole in Chinnee? ... Karoke?
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