McAlpine Talks GB Airport, Grand Lucayan, and GBPA

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GRAND BAHAMA, BAHAMAS – Independent candidate for Pineridge, Fred McAlpine, weighing in on key issues affecting the nation’s second city.

Top of mind for the former parliamentarian: the sale of the Grand Lucayan Resort.

Last year May, the government signed an agreement to sell the hotel and the adjacent Reef Golf Course to U.S.-based developer, Concord Wilshire Capital, for a reported $120M.

The deal includes plans for the $827M re-development of the 56-acre beachfront property into a mixed-use resort and cruise destination.

However, so far there’s been little movement, with reports of layoffs and staff going weeks without salaries.

McAlpine says Grand Bahama residents need movement, desperately.

Fredrick McAlpine – Independent Candidate, Pineridge

“If something happens for the hotel, it happens for the people of Pineridge and in by extension the people of Grand Bahama, so I don’t wish ill. I really want to see the hotel sold and some productivity taking place and development taken place so that it would be a betterment for Grand Bahama.”

Then there’s the Grand Bahama International Airport.

In late January, while holding a cabinet meeting in Grand Bahama, Prime Minister Philip Daivs announced a deal had been signed worth around $130M for the Grand Bahama International Airport.

This comes amid uncertainty from Grand Bahamians that the airport, destroyed by Hurricane Dorian back in 2019, would ever be rebuilt.

Fredrick McAlpine – Independent Candidate, Pineridge

“In order for us to as a second largest population in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, we should have a better airport than we have now.

We need to understand that it is the first thing that a tourist or a person is coming to this island will see, and if you can see [that] they see a dilapidated building called an airport, it does not speak well of us. It’s a very bad first impression for us.”

The Hawksbill Creek Agreement signed in the 1950s gave the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) broad control over how the city of Freeport develops from land use to infrastructure – including major projects that has been a part of Grand Bahama for decades.

However, is it perhaps time to move on?

Fredrick McAlpine – Independent Candidate, Pineridge

“The fact that the port is responsible for our roads and our lights. That’s not something we would want to see in the hands of any government, this government or any government.”

“However, we do believe that the Port Authority have become complacent with regards to vision and we’d like to see more productivity going on in that area, we’d like to see them trying to advance Grand Bahama.”