Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is my great pleasure to be present here this morning as we officially open the new and improved West Bay Street at Cable Beach. This realignment of West Bay Street diverts traffic south of the Baha Mar Resort, nowadays marketed as Baha Mar: the Bahamian Riviera.

As you will be aware West Bay Street has been diverted to facilitate Baha Mar’s mega development. This new West Bay Street is being connected to JFK Drive by a new connector road now under construction extending from this new segment of West Bay Street to the intersection of JFK Drive with Gladstone Road. That connector road is a part of the original plan for the New Providence Infrastructure Improvement Project which, save for the Baha Mar Resort Development would have connected Gladstone Rd and JFK Drive to old West Bay Street in the vicinity of the Cable Beach Police Station.

The completion of the connector road linking JFK Drive and West Bay Street will further advance my Government’s plans to improve the north-south flow of traffic on New Providence, linking the heavily populated residential suburbs in southwestern New Providence to our principal work centres in Cable Beach and in downtown Nassau.

The existing portion of West Bay Street (from west of Sulgrave Manor and Breezes Resort to the round-a-bout in front of the Sheraton Hotel) will now be conveyed to Baha Mar by the Government for the construction of its 1,000 room casino hotel, 700 room convention hotel, 100,000 sq. ft. casino and 150,000 sq. ft. convention centre and related amenities. West Bay Street east of Sulgrave Manor will remain and shall be accessible by the new round-a-bout west of Goodman’s Bay.

This newly realigned portion of West Bay Street falls neatly within the greater New Providence roadwork development program now progressing to accommodate the most massive urbanization and community expansion that have ever occurred on the island. The very considerable movement of people to the farther expanses of the island especially to the South, West and East over the last four decades has now combined with the development of massive commercial establishments in more recent time to create an enormous imperative for addressing the challenges to ground transportation that this presents.

Projects of the size and scope of Atlantis and Baha Mar enjoy an especially symbiotic and complementary relationship with the Bahamian community. The requirement for improved entry and exit between the properties, the LPIA and places of interest around the island and the need for an improved general infrastructure to accommodate the required interaction between these vast properties and the Bahamian community naturally give immediate priority to measures that benefit all residents.

The need to improve and upgrade our road system in New Providence, to vastly improve the value of publicly supplied water and electricity, and to upgrade the physical and organizational quality of the island’s airport and harbour are without doubt driven by the immediate needs of large and important investments in our principal economic sector. Fortunately the success of that sector will enable these considerable expenditures to be undertaken. That is to say this huge expenditure is justified in both economic and social terms.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Bahamians and visitors to our island are guaranteed to enjoy this much improved and beautifully landscaped thoroughfare whether as motorists or as pedestrians. Certainly, those who have for many years used the West Bay Street median stripe as a part of an exercise route or as the lush backdrop for photographs of wedding parties or other special family occasions will find that the replacement walking and jogging paths and park gardens meet, indeed comfortably surpass, what was offered in the old median park.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I note, in a nod to history, that the deviation southward of West Bay St at Cable Beach is not a new or recent idea. Indeed, the earliest proposal to shift this principal roadway southward affording increased acreage for resort and convention room development along Cable Beach dates to the early 1980s. So imminent were those plans at the time that when the Hotel Corporation constructed what became the Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Centre, the main entrance to the building was placed at the rear of the building fronting on what was then intended to become the new deviated West Bay Street.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have been involved during most of the past four years in a planned upgrade and enhancement of infrastructure on New Providence meant to transform this island into a world-class destination. Nassau Harbour has been deepened permitting calls by the newest and largest cruise ships; the expansion of Arawak Cay is completed and the transfer of the commercial cargo port from the city centre to Arawak Cay is underway. The first phase of the redevelopment of the LPIA is completed and phase 2 is progressing well.

It is a wonderful reality that our infrastructural upgrade is helping to spur economic development generally, to sustain and create jobs in the important construction sector and additionally, as in this case, to improve our tourism sector widening hotel choices available to the very important stopover visitor market.

You will recall that a year ago last month, discussions between the Government and Baha Mar and its financiers resulted in an increase in the value of contracts to be awarded to Bahamian companies in the construction of the core works of the new Baha Mar Resort from $200 million to $400 million.

Baha Mar’s new Commercial Village accommodates a newly constructed and expanded Cable Beach Police Station and three banking institutions previously located along old West Bay Street: the Bank of Nova Scotia, Commonwealth Bank and Fidelity Bank. And, the development of a new and improved replacement straw market to be called Pompey’s Village is taking shape at the entrance to the Village.

I am especially proud of the first class workmanship demonstrated by those Bahamian companies already engaged in the construction of ancillary facilities for the project and in particular in the construction and landscape of this new road and the new Commercial Village. They have produced first world quality work and they have completed their contracted projects on time. Their success, I believe, bodes well for the success of Bahamian companies bidding on components of the core project.

I was very pleased that Mr. Jimmy Mosko provided me access to the work site during various stages of the road construction. He was especially proud to point out his supervisors working alongside the workmen on a Sunday morning – all committed to getting the job done well and early. I hope that he was able to win the bonus he was seeking to earn for coming in ahead of schedule!

I am pleased to acknowledge and recognize all those Bahamian contractors who won substantial contracts in this early phase of Baha Mar’s development:

• Road works and sidewalks - Bahamas Marine/ISD Bahamas and Bahamas Hot Mix and Caribbean Concrete.

• Electrical works by the PDEC Company.

• Commercial Village Construction:

- Commonwealth Bank - Osprey Developers Ltd

- Police and Fire Station - CGT Contractors

- Fidelity Bank - John F. Dunn, and Associates, and

- Scotia Bank - Cavalier Construction

And, I am told some $500,000 has been expended on the construction of the temporary Pompey Village site accommodating straw vendors, the daiquiri shack and a number of kiosks.

Landscaping has been carried out by Caribbean Landscape, the Artistic Group, Enviroscape 2000, Creative Design by Munroe and Oasis Landscape Ltd.

Supervision of the road-works was provided by Reiss Engineering, a Bahamian owned company based in Florida engaged by the Bahamas Government.

As you may recall the Heads of Agreement concluded between the Government of The Bahamas and Baha Mar requires the Government to pay 50% of the total costs of these infrastructural works inclusive of roads and utilities.

The Heads of Agreement also provides for Baha Mar to purchase the Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Centre to make way for the casino hotel. The developers propose to demolish the building to make way for the construction of the Resort’s focal point – the new casino and convention hotels.

As a consequence of these developments, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance will relocate to new offices. The former SG Hambros building was purchased by the Government to house the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This planned mega redevelopment underway by Baha Mar gives new meaning to the word ambitious. The Resort when completed will in addition to the casino and convention hotels include:

• 200 room luxury hotel;

• 300 room lifestyle hotel;

• 100,000 sq ft casino;

• 150,000 sq ft stand-alone convention center;

• Timeshare offerings;

• 20 acre beach and pool grounds;

• 60,000 sq ft retail entertainment village, and

• 18-hole signature golf course.

With the opening of this road, Baha Mar will enjoy access to a large single-space campus enabling it to bring to fruition its dream of a Bahamian Riviera over the next three years. Beyond enjoying the economic benefits arising from this project, residents of New Providence will also enjoy a scenic, aesthetically pleasing drive along one of the last remaining areas of New Providence’s original wetland wilderness, restored and made accessible for the first time to the Bahamian public.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The completion of this 1.25 mile realigned portion of the West Bay Street includes the completion of five (5) round-a-bouts, a lighted jogging/footpath and lakefront boardwalks. The finished product conveys, I believe, a sense of place because of the incorporation of indigenous resources such as conch shells and native stone into the landscape design.

I join the Minister of Public Works & Transport in expressing the appreciation of the Government of The Bahamas to Baha Mar for the wonderful training and employment opportunities being created for Bahamian workers and for Bahamian business.

I congratulate the Izmirlian family and very particularly Mr. Sarkis Izmirlian and extend best wishes to him and his team here at Baha Mar for the successful completion of this resort development. And, Sarkis, now that we are opening the new deviated West Bay Street I remind how much I am looking forward to the early release of Frank and Phil to assist us with a more timely completion of the New Providence Road Infrastructure Improvement Programme. Not that you will need prodding, - Monday would not be too early a start date!

I express my thanks and appreciation to the Government of the People’s Republic of China for its role in supporting and facilitating the financing of this mega development by the China Export Import Bank. We are especially grateful for the confidence the financing of this project demonstrates for the future strength and growth of the economy of The Bahamas.

I thank also the China State Construction Company and in particular Mr. Tiger Wu and his team for the work they have done to date toward the timely completion of the Baha Mar project which we confidently expect will be structurally sound, built with excellent quality materials and to the highest standards.

In the great enterprise of transforming our capital island we are building on and securing the dreams of many Bahamians. This new re-aligned West Bay Street has provided opportunities for the use of ideas and talents of capable Bahamian technicians and artists, environmentalists and planners and construction professionals. We look forward to more of this in the months and years ahead as the full Baha Mar story is unveiled.

And so, it is with great pleasure that I participate in the official opening of the new West Bay Street. Thank you!