In typical PLP fashion, it turns out that the announcements regarding the progress on the Cable Beach redevelopment plan may be nothing more than government PR.
Stressing that a purchase agreement is not a “sealed deal”, hotelier Philip Ruffin said the Cable Beach redevelopment project was not certain, as the interested company never “put money down.”
In typical PLP fashion, it turns out that the announcements regarding the progress on the Cable Beach redevelopment plan may be nothing more than government PR.
Stressing that a purchase agreement is not a “sealed deal”, hotelier Philip Ruffin said the Cable Beach redevelopment project was not certain, as the interested company never “put money down.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the government of Perry Christie has outright lied to the Bahamian public. Mr. Christie and his Minister of Financial Services and Investments, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, are weekly fixtures at press conferences touting all the new investments coming on stream and the resulting jobs to be created. Few of the projects have ever gotten off the ground and the ones that have, like the “big” development in Abaco, are considerably smaller than what was originally announced.
In an interview with the Nassau Guardian on Tuesday from Witchita, Kansas, Mr. Ruffin said he was not confident that a deal would actually be sealed.
On Monday, Baha Mar Development Ltd., a consortium of major US and European investors, trumpeted the fact that it had completed a “purchase agreement” with Mr. Ruffin to aquire his interestes in the Cable Beach area, including the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Casino, and the Nassau Beach Hotel.
Mr. Ruffin admitted he had been in frequent talks with the company and that it had expressed interest in the takeover of his properties but no “hard money was ever put up. You can’t have a deal where no money was put up.”
“So the story you heard is really nothing. The real story is that there is no deal. We have an interested group but there is no sealed deal,” he stressed.
Mr. Christie is advised to stop lying to, and misleading, the Bahamian public regarding investments and the economy. He needs to understand that a government must do more than issue press releases. They must actually make progress. The Prime Minister is cautioned against making announcements until they are the “real deal”.
