French Leave Resort

While in Eleuthera over the weekend discussing the supposed $1.2 billion development by Urgo Hotels set for Governor’s Harbour, Mr. Ingraham mentioned the many developments approved by his administration for Eleuthera between 1992 and 2002, but which did not come to fruition.

"They have not lived up to what they committed to the government, and we will have to make some determinations," Mr. Ingraham said in one media interview.

Mr. Ingraham on Monday made it clear that his remarks in Eleuthera had nothing to do with French Leave Resort, a development begun under the Christie Administration.

EIC Resorts chief Eddie Lauth, who is piloting the redevelopment of the old Club Med, told the Bahama Journal on Monday that his project was still on track.

Mr. Lauth said he and his partners met with the Office of The Prime Minister last August, along with representatives from the Standard Bank of South Africa.

He said they were "very far down the path of a $200 million bond-issue to build out the entire project at one time."

"Unfortunately, this past fall the sub-prime market collapsed, and the bond issue evaporated. In fact, even some of the bankers that we dealt with are no longer employed with the bank, so it’s unfortunate. I can’t cry about it, I’ve got to keep going ahead and we have continued with our presale programme," he said.

He said his lawyer, Valentine Grimes, is trying to set up a meeting with Prime Minister Ingraham around the end of March.

"We have every intention of trying to keep moving forward. A lot of people have thrown in the towel on The Bahamas, and (there are) a lot of problems with financing out there – there are real problems, it’s very hard to get the financing, but we’re committed to it, and we’re going to continue to move forward unless we’re told otherwise," Mr. Lauth said.

Mr. Lauth said there were other groups who’d made commitments to The Bahamas that had bailed out because of problems on Great Exuma and Abaco.

"As developers, you deal with problems, and if you have a commitment you keep going. There’s nobody I can call up every time I have a problem…That’s what I get paid for," he said.

"I love this island, I love The Bahamas, and we’ve gone to a presales programme, and our presale programme is very healthy and talk is cheap, so I haven’t said anything."

"I’ve kept quiet," he added, "but it seems that every time I turn around I have to put out a fire about someone saying something about us, so I’m just going to continue to try to move forward."

Mr. Lauth said his group had worked with several hotel companies, and had in fact bent over backwards to try to accommodate them, but – as he put it – "at the end of the day, if they don’t bring the cash to the table, you don’t make the rules if you don’t have skin in the game."

Prime Minister Ingraham asserted that his remarks about potential developers not meeting their commitments did not refer to Mr. Lauth and his development.

"We made no comment about the French Leave development while I was in Eleuthera," he said. "Some comments were made at the meeting – because it was a public meeting and people were able to ask questions and make comments, and I remember people did make comments and ask questions."

"I spoke to a number of projects that had been approved by my government whilst in office earlier that didn’t come off, that didn’t come to fruition in Eleuthera, and I expressed my regret, and said I’d come to Eleuthera this time with the Urgo group because they appeared to have the wherewithal to do what they were proposing."

The prime minister explained that a significant amount of acreage of government-owned land at the former missile base is being used for the development, and the government had told the developer that it couldn’t agree to dispose of that land without consulting the community.

"The community was in full support," he said.

Mr. Ingraham elaborated on the government’s intentions for the land for the development.

"I also told the community we were not likely to transfer all of the land, we were probably going to consider leasing a portion of it for a golf course that they are going to put in, and that we’d consider leasing land for a marina they were building," he said.

"(I told them that) some land would have to be alienated – or transferred to them – in connection to the resort, and that since the Urgo group had contracts to purchase some 300 acres of land adjacent to this land, that we would probably undertake an exchange of property for some of the government property."