Although the government intends to purchase the Grand Lucayan resort, it does not plan to spend the near $100 million to renovate it, according to Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar.
D’Aguilar said the government is only interested in purchasing the hotel and finding a buyer.
“The government wants to buy it, hold it, continue to actively look for a seller to stabilize it and to sell it on,” D’Aguilar said.
“That’s what we are doing. The renovations, upgrade…that may change but right now I don’t think that’s the policy of the government.
“The prime minister has said many times, ‘I don’t want to be owning [and] running a hotel. I just don’t want it.’”
Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced that the government has decided to purchase the property after Canadian real estate developer Paul Wynn, who had signed a letter of intent with the Hutchison Whampoa to buy the resort, pulled out of the sale.
D’Aguilar noted that two of the hotels that make up the three-piece property remain closed following Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
“It hasn’t reopened,” said the minister in a recent interview on the Peace 1075FM radio talk show “Hard Copy” with host Steve McKinney.
“Hutchison Whampoa has taken the insurance money and said they are not going to reinvest in it.”
Only Lighthouse Pointe reopened in 2016.
Wynn said that he thought the final purchase price negotiated, of $65 million, was too high.
He said it could take between $110 million and $120 million to fully open the Grand Lucayan.
D’Aguilar said the government cannot allow Hutchison to walk away from the property.
“I’ve heard a lot of noise in the marketplace that we should not buy it, that we should just negotiate a harder deal with Hutchison Whampoa,” he said.
“We have been back and forth with Hutchison Whampoa time and time again trying to drive a better deal. It’s nothing to them to say, ‘Look, we are going to stick to $65 [million] and if it has to close; it got to close.’
“The government of The Bahamas doesn’t have that choice. These are people’s lives. This is the economy and lifeblood of Freeport, Grand Bahama.
