NASSAU, Bahamas –A private-public partnership (PPP) proposal to transform and take over management of Bimini’s airport has been revived and presented to residents last week for community feedback, Tribune Business can reveal.
Evak Arthur, Bimini’s island administrator, confirmed to this newspaper that members of the PPP consortium provided residents with renderings of what the upgraded facilities will look like at a Thursday night Town Hall Meeting that was called to discuss the proposed “expansion” of the airport as well as Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) plans for its Ocean Cay private island destination, The Tribune reported on Wednesday, August 23, 2023 in an article written by Neil Hartnell and Youri Kemp.
“The presenters made their presentations along with pictures of what the international airport would look like. Of course this is just the initial phase where they want the community and residents of Bimini to be fully aware of what is going on,” the administrator replied via text to Tribune Business inquiries. “The residents had their concerns, which I’m sure will be addressed in the follow-up meeting. But no one outrightly said no.”
Dr Kenneth Romer, the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation’s deputy director-general and acting director of aviation, confirmed to this newspaper that there have been “active discussions” over the Government partnering with private investors, infrastructure developers and airport operators for the management and operation of Bimini’s main aviation gateway.
Confirming that Bimini is not among the 14 Family Island airports in the $263m-strong package put out to bid via a public Request for Proposal (RFP), he added: “The development of airports is an ongoing process. As you know, there were airports targeted specifically, the 14 for PPPs.
“Bimini was not part of the 14 airport PPPs but, outside of that, there were some airports targeted for development. I do know there were active discussions in terms of development. Dr Romer said suggestions that Resorts World Bimini, operator of the island’s largest resort property, is involved in the PPP group are incorrect, adding that “they are not listed as an active developer in the airport process.
“Resorts World is not the proposed developer for that south Bimini airport. Resorts World is not targeted to be the developer of that airport,” Dr Romer added.
Tribune Business has separately seen a section from a presentation by a group called Bimini Airport Development Partners. Its members are said to include Phoenix Infrastructure, a US-based infrastructure advisory and investment firm with offices in Washington D.C and New York; Plenary Group, another US infrastructure group, and an airport and fixed-base FBO operator called Avports.
The slide describes Phoenix Infrastructure as a “black-owned infrastructure investor and developer with experience in airport development and economic impact within its projects”. Its website shows air transportation and airport operators (FBOs) are among its specialist areas of interest. It was founded in 2015 by two University of Chicago Business School colleagues, Jeremy Ebie and Chris Baeza.
Plenary was said to be a “best-in-class” long-term infrastructure investor and developer with projects across the US, Canada and the Caribbean”. Its website describes it as “one of the world’s leading investors, developers and asset managers of public infrastructure projects” or PPPs, numbering 59, and it is owned by an institutional investor, CDPQ, with more than $300bn in assets under management. It focuses heavily on hospitals, bridges and other public sector facilities.
See article I The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2023/aug/23/bimini-airport-ppp-proposal-revived/
