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Advertisers Dupuch & Turnquest & Co.
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Multimillion-dollar hotel investments breathe new life into Grand Bahama
When The Lucayan resort is completed, it will feature 1,350 guest rooms; two world-class championship golf courses, one designed by Dick Wilson that previously existed; a 30,000-square-foot casino; 40,000 square feet of meeting facilities; 14 restaurants, bars and lounges and a 13,000 square-foot- spa and fitness center. Perhaps its biggest attraction is that it is set upon 7 1/2 acres of pristine white sand beaches.
Phase One of The Lucayan, the Lucayan Reef Village, a 550-room family-oriented resort that features three restaurants, is already open. It involved refurbishing an existing hotel, formerly called the Grand Bahama Beach Hotel, and building additional rooms. Reef Village features a special, stand-alone, 3,000-square-foot “resort” just for children (infants to 12 years old) called Camp Lucaya. Parents pay a small fee for the children to participate.
Phase Two of the project is scheduled to open in December and will completely renovate the former Lucayan Beach Hotel and construct a “Manor House” reception area, the casino, meeting facilities, spa area and restaurants on an area where the Atlantic Beach hotel once stood. When finished, the resort will create more than 1,500 jobs.
“The Lucayan is the seed that we have needed to reposition the island to get a more affluent clientele. We think that it will help our business tremendously by providing additional airlift. I think that we can do well and we hope they do well,” said William Lacaff, regional vice president of The Resort at Bahamia. “I think the majority of the businesses and individuals that live in Grand Bahama that have an economic stake in it think the same thing. We want to assist and encourage them (the developers of The Lucayan) as much as we can in the development of the resort. It is a real prize; we do not think that it will take business away, it will actually bring business to the island.”
“Business is different in Grand Bahama,” said Marco Nijhof, senior vice president and general manager of The Lucayan. Nijhof, a Netherlands native, left a lucrative career with Hyatt and Marriott to join The Lucayan team.
“At The Lucayan we have a community obligation. Where a normal general manager’s job is to run a hotel and that is it, here we basically have an influence on possibly every family on the island. Whether we affect the taxi drivers because they have more rides, the straw market retailers who will get more people inside, the telephone company that will handle many more phone calls being made or the chicken supplier who will have more chickens to deliver, we have an obligation. That is how seriously I take my job. The impact that we have on the island is far larger than in any other country I have ever worked in,” Nijhof affirmed. “The economic benefit is not just for the hotel, it is for the whole island,” he added.
According to Nijhof, the hotel will bring in 12,000 group rooms this year. The economic impact of this influx has yet to be measured, but it will be substantial.
The Lucayan investment has mobilized other hotel properties to expand and /or upgrade their facilities. The Resort at Bahamia, formerly the Princess Hotel, is pending sale to Striffwood Investments. According to Lacaff, if purchased, the hotel facilities likely would be upgraded and be comparable to those at The Lucayan. “We must continue to reposition the island into a more upscale product.”
Adding value to the hotel property is New Hope Holding Company’s Lucayan Marina, rated the best marina in The Bahamas for the quality of its facilities. The marina was finished more than a year ago, and offers 140 slips that can accommodate yachts up to 150-170 feet. This will be an attractive feature to the Lucayan Marina Village where luxury, million-dollar homes are being built.
These are just some of the millions of dollars of investment that are being made in the hotel industry.
“Our biggest challenge is that no one knows about us,” said John Markoulis, president and chief executive officer of the Grand Bahama Development Co. Ltd., a joint venture between HPH and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. He noted that a lot of marketing of name awareness needed to be done.
Nijhof concurred with Markoulis saying what needs to be done is to promote Grand Bahama Island. “I have told my public relations agency to stop promoting The Lucayan and start promoting the destination. Our slogan is Great People, Grand Bahama,” he said.
Tourism makes up more than 60 percent of the Bahamian economy and it will continue to be a strong force in Grand Bahama. Markoulis noted that in the next 10 years Grand Bahama hopes to expand from the present 3,500 hotel rooms on the island to 8,000 hotel rooms that will provide 10,000 direct jobs.
According to Nijhof, the Bahamas Hotel Association, the Caribbean Hotel Association, the College of the Bahamas and others are working hard to make sure that enough highly trained, qualified people will be available to work in the industry. Many people that went to work in hotel developments in Nassau will be able to return to work in the industry in their home island. The future for the industry looks very bright.
“Grand Bahama is the best-kept secret,” said Ernestine Moxyz, manager of public relations for The Lucayan, a Bahamian native who has returned to the Grand Bahama because of this job opportunity. “We are seeing the Renaissance of Grand Bahama as a new destination.”
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Table of Contents The Bahamas: An established tourism and tax-free financial services center experiences a renaissance |
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A new $350 million resort called The Lucayan, owned by Hutchinson Port Holdings, has boosted Grand Bahama Islands’ tourism industry. The construction of this mega-resort has been the catalyst for the refurbishment and expansion of other existing hotel facilities islandwide.
The Lucayan will create the numbers and the quality of visitors needed to increase airlift to Grand Bahama Island. This will benefit other hotels as well. Under normal circumstances, there would probably be some resentment that The Lucayan would usurp business from other hotels. The situation in Grand Bahama seems to be one of the opposite.
New Hope Holdings Company, owner of the Pelican Bay Hotel, is investing $120 million to $130 million in a project that spans from the hotel industry to marina construction and into home building. The Pelican Bay Hotel, recognized as a “Small Treasure” by an organization in the Caribbean that recognizes small, romantic, top-of-the-line hotels, underwent a 21-room expansion last December. Another 21 rooms are scheduled for completion this year, bringing its total rooms available to 90. The hotel will be further expanded by the addition of 100 luxury apartments.