Grand Bahama

Grand Bahama is poised for an economic boom (at least that is the projection). The 10th annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook Seminar will be held tommorrow. I will attend it and give you readers a report afterwards. It's going to be very interesting, especially with so many projects being forecasted for the island.

Update

I apologize to my readers for my month long absence. I will try to keep those to a minimum. It is mid Febuary now and the Nassau Beach Hotel is still standing. The concessions that were given to the developers of the massive $2.6 billion dollar Baha Mar development, were made under the PLP government which was voted out of office in May 2007. The new FNM government has made considerable changes to the concessions by reducing them drastically in various forms and this has led to a notable increase in the amount of money that the developers will have to invest in the project. Nonetheless, a supplemental heads of agreement has been signed although there are still some documents that have to be finalized between the company that will operate the casino and The Bahamas government. Once these documents are finalized, then the second phase of construction which will bring about the vast majority of changes, will commence.
The Nassau Beach Hotel seems to still be in the sights of the Baha Mar developers, therefore it is still just a matter of time before it is imploded.

End of the Nassau Beach Hotel.

The end of an era. The Nassau Beach Hotel, which has existed on the Cable Beach Strip since the 1940's officially closed on January 4th and is set to be imploded this week, to make way for the new billion dollar Baha Mar mega resort development. The Nassau Beach Hotel which has appeared in two James Bond movies, occupied a prime spot on one of Nassau's best beaches and has been the home of both the highly popular Cafe Johnny Canoe Restaurant and The King and Knights Night Club for years. I remember as a small child being taken to the hotel on Saturdays to eat ice cream from the Howard Johnsons Ice Cream Parlour that used to occupy the area that Sbarros presently operates from. I also attended many receptions and parties at the hotel over the years. I feel sorry for the employees of the hotel and restaurants that are being forced out of work, but I believe that the hotel employees along with the restaurants and their employees have been invited to reopen and work at the Baha Mar property once it opens for business

As they say, progress has a price. We'll see what the future holds.

During the early to late 1980's a series of events were held in Freeport that became known as Grand Bahama Speed Weeks. These were races that were held annually in which well known international racers would converge in Freeport along with their vintage racing vehicles to race for trophies. The races were carried out circuit style with the number of laps depending on the particular type of race that was being held.

The starting line was on East Sunrise Highway. Although the direction of the races changed from time to time, the typical route was east on Sunrise Highway to East Mall Drive, North on East Mall to Ponciana drive, west on Ponciana Drive to West Atlantic Drive and south on the long stretch back to East Sunrise Highway and the finish line which was in the area of where the BazaarPolice Station is presently. Concrete barriers would be placed along the roads. There are still a few of the locally owned cars around. The original Grand Bahama Motorsports Club building still stands as well although in need of quite a bit of repairs.

My information is that owners of businesses in the Bazaar area complained about the customers not being able to access their stores due to the roads being blocked off with the concrete barriers. Apparently, this is what led to the Grand Bahama Port Authority withdrawing their support of the races which contributed alot to the economy in terms of tourism, customs duties, etc. Wouldn't it be nice to see something like this again. If you have old pictures, information or just want to comment please feel free.

The purpose of this blog is to give readers some insight into happenings and occurences that have taken place in the islands of The Bahamas over the years . The focus will be on providing and discussing information about the people, places and events of the Bahamas that may either be forgotten or just not known.
The Bahamas covers a vast area of approximately 700 islands and cays all made up of different people from various walks of life with vastly different experiences to share. It is important that these experiences are documented but it is a shame though that not many people seem to be interested in Bahamian history. We should attempt to gain as much information as possible about our past as a nation before its too late. This blog will serve as such an attempt.