Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest of the Bahamas has announced that he expects costs to decline in operating the Grand Lucayan resort in Grand Bahama, which the government has been spending $1.5 million on every month.
The government purchased the casino in September for $65 million with the intention of keeping it operational so that jobs were not lost while it finds a private buyer. It operates the property through Lucayan Renewal Holdings, a vehicle it created for that purpose.
Turnquest commented the day after Christmas to an inquiry by the Nassau Guardian, “We have budgeted $1.5 million basically a month, but we expect that with the VSEPs that are just being settled, that that will bring that cost down.” He added, “In addition to that we have some good business coming in for the next six months that’s going to further bring it down and we actually might turn a profit for the next six months.”
He said he was optimistic of bringing costs down and staying within budget. In November the government hired a private company Colliers to manage the cost of finding a buyer. Meantime Lucayan Renewal Holdings has made voluntary separation offers to line and managerial staff and 200 employees have applied for the offers.
