NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A top Royal Caribbean International (RCI) executive said yesterday that he was hopeful that local entrepreneur Toby Smith’s plan to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse comes to fruition, suggesting that his project and the company’s $100 beach club development could successfully coexist.
Jay Schneider, RCI’s Chief Product Innovation Officer told Eyewitness News firmly that they have “no overlap” with Smith anymore.
“We wish him luck in his development. Just like Atlantis we will be great neighbors and keep our guests contained at the beach club and because he is doing a development as a neighbor in the same plot of land, we would ask him to live up to the same level of stringent environmental commitments that we did.”
Schneider said that restoring the lighthouse as Smith hopes to do, as well as RCI’s development plans would help to improve the brand of Nassau for cruise visitors who are currently greeted with a lighthouse and buildings in disrepair.
As to the current status of RCI’s project, Schneider said: “We have reached an agreement with the government, essentially and approval in principle pending environmental clearance which includes a series of steps we have to go through in the coming weeks and months. That approval was very important for us because it got us to our new public-private partnership which really allows for Bahamian partnership in the Royal Caribbean Beach Club which is a tourism first for The Bahamas. We have taken that model to other destinations around the world.”
He continued: “We are now excited to move forward with our environmental story and we released our six environmental pillars this past weekend. We have a supplemental hearing with DEPP coming up and we are also excited to release the questions we have gotten over the past few years to through prior hearings on any environmental questions people had.”
The Royal Caribbean executive noted that 49 percent of the company’s beach club development will be for Bahamian ownership. “We want 100 percent participation in all bespoke parts of the business whether that’s food, beverage or the bar, security, lifeguards, the environment or landscaping. All of those will be available for Bahamian participation. We plan to go through a very transparent reprocess where we will look to find already scaled businesses to work with us.
“If we can’t find that business, but there is a smaller business that needs scaling help, we will help that business. If the businesses don’t, exist but there are local entrepreneurs who want to create a new business to support us, that will also be a step in the process,” said Schneider.
