The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Grand Bahama entrepreneur will formally announce his bid to crowd-fund the development of an entertainment centre on February 3.

Brinard Sweeting, CayPlex Entertainment’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that any sums raised from crowd-funding will add to the capital already obtained from private investors. All proceeds will be invested in the entertainment centre’s first phase.

“We are planning on opening up a theatre later on in the year, and so we’re having an event on February 3. It’s a pop-up cinema event that we will be hosting,” he explained. The crowd-funding announcement, which will see CayPlex seek to raise small sums from a large number of investors, will be made at the latter event.

The project’s first phase will be an outdoor, 60-foot single screen 3D experience. Concessions will be served as well. “Phase two, which will be a couple of years after phase one, is where we will have the two screen movie theatres indoor, a six-lane bowling alley and then we’re going to have a roof deck restaurant as well,” Mr Sweeting added.

“So our first phase is going to be open more towards the end part of this year, and what we’re doing is we’re having just sort of a ‘testing the waters’ event on Saturday, February 3. That’s also where we plan on announcing our equity crowd-funding campaign that people have been asking about.”

Phase two is targeted for completion by 2030, Mr Sweeting said. But the open air cinema will remain open up until that time. He added that numerous investors have shown interest in partnering with him to develop an entertainment centre.

“It’s also going to be a mix of local and foreign investors because we already have some investors interested in the project as well,” Mr Sweeting said. “They are more of the high net worth individuals, and so by the time we’re putting out an offering to the crowd, it’s going to be a mixture of high net worth individuals, institutional players and also the average retail investor.”

Mr Sweeting and CayPlex did not divulge the dollar amount they are seeking from the crowd-fund raise, but it could be well into six figures if all approvals are obtained. The February 3 open cinema event will be when they announce the opportunity for investors to participate in the opening round of equity crowd-funding.