NASSAU, Bahamas — The principals of Coral Harbour Development plan to move ahead with a “smaller scale” $300 million luxury hotel and residential development, the company’s attorney Valentine Grimes said on Tuesday, April 19, The Nassau Guardian reported on April 20.
The initial multibillion-dollar project, the brainchild of Bahamas Leisure & Resorts Ltd. President and Chief Executive Officer Aboudi Debs, was slated to cover 400 acres in southwestern New Providence and feature a 300-slip marina, 2,500 hotel rooms, a casino and convention center, but it was shelved in 2015 after the $3 billion Baha Mar project went into receivership.
“Unfortunately, the very same day Baha Mar went into chapter 11 my client made a proposal for a multibillion-dollar project in Coral Harbour. There was absolutely no taste for a large project of that size at that time and we all know the history of what took place at Baha Mar, and Christie will never get the credit for what he deserves with respect to resuscitating the Baha Mar project, but in terms of the project in Coral Harbour, there was just no appetite for it,” Grimes told Guardian Business.
“Ultimately my clients had to review what their plans would be. You know COVID had come for the past two years and now they are proceeding on the basis of a smaller project which will be phased and which could be dealt with in the foreseeable future. So we wanted to appraise the government with respect to what the plans were.”
Grimes, along with Debs and the other executives of the development, met earlier this month with Prime Minister Philip Davis and Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper. Grimes said the project is in the infant stages and plans have not yet been completed for approval, but work will begin in earnest.
“My clients were in town for two weeks meeting with various specialists to proceed along those lines. But as you know, any project of any serious significance takes a while to get going, and that’s what they’re doing now,” he said.
“The initial phase will cost probably about $300 million, phase 1A. It will be a combination of upscale luxury hotels and residences, and a marina.” See complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://thenassauguardian.com/billion-dollar-coral-harbour-development-now-a-300-million-project/
