Cruise port deal in question
(CNS): (See updated breaking story above) — The long awaited development of the cruise berthing facilities in George Town could face further delays as government appears to be looking at other options for the project. CNS understands that the negotiations regarding the latest partner may well have faltered and the premier has confirmed that he will be making a statement regarding the future arrangements for the George Town cruise port shortly. CNS understands that government is now examining alternatives to the current partners GLF/ Royal Construction, the second preferred developer that stepped into negotiations with government after the plan to go ahead with DECCO (Dart’s construction company) collapsed last year.
Government has not yet revealed or confirmed the details of the latest change in plans but it has not denied that it is considering alternatives. Cline Glidden, who has been project leader for thecurrent government on the cruise port project since the UDP administration took office, told CNS on Tuesday that he had been away for the last week and was not sure what had happened. He said the premier had been dealing with the situation in his absence.
When CNS asked McKeeva Bush what was happening with the cruise port negotiations and if there had been a change of plan, he said he would be making a statement shortly and would not be drawn on the details of the current situation.
Despite his trip last month to Venice, Italy, in order to look at a dam built by GLF, who are known as marine development experts, it seems that government has already decided to review the current arrangements regarding the cruise port project.
Sources close to the negotiations revealed that it was unlikely that the existing framework agreement between the Port Authority, GLF/Royal Construction and government would be renewed. It is understood that correspondence as already been sent to the developers informing them that it is exploring other possibilities.
A spokesperson from GLF told CNS, however, that it could not understand how government could not be happy with the negotiations and as far as the team was concerned everything was going ahead. He said that the developers had met all of the requirements, had the financing in place had tested the designs in Florida recently to ensure the project was a viable engineering concept and that the team was more than ready to move forward. “We have spent around $1milllion already on this project and as far as we are concerned this is still on track,” he added.
It was announced that GLF/Royal Construction would be working with government to develop the cruise terminals in December following an announcement that the deal with DECCO had ended. The details over why those negotiations broke down have not been released, though it was believed that government and the islands’ biggest developer could not agree over the length of time that Dart would be able to lease the upland development of the port area in order to recoup its investment.
Government moved immediately to a framework agreement with GLF/Royal, which envisioned a much smaller project with a less ambitious upland element as that proposed by Dart. The GLF/Royal project was proposed to be financed mostly from cruise ship fees.
At the time Cline Glidden said the government was still committed to cruise tourism but was disappointed it had not reached mutually agreeable terms with DECCO. “It is has always been the government’s main goal to ensure that the agreement with the port developer would be in the best interest of the Caymanian people.”
The collapse came only a week after the Port Authority chair had said that Dart was still at the table in the face of earlier speculation that the negotiations had broken down. CNS has contacted Stefan Baraud for comment in connection with the current talks and the speculation that the GLF/Royal arrangement has also broken down and is awaiting a response.
Category: Business
With the Cruise Industry it’s called dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t. No guarantees at all. You don’t build what they want they will boycott you. You build a state of the art cruise ship docking station, and a few tourist get mugged or harrassed or worse they WILL boycott you. Yes that is why we need to address CRIME.Should Mr. Dart have the contract of the dock , many small people will fall. It was his plan to move all non tourist business to his camana bay and take over a lot of the retail catering mostly to the cruise industry in town and quality stores at you guessed where caymana bay.That is why some of his current employes in the retail business of Mr. Dart Empire all have one thing in common close connection to the Cruise Line Industry with close connection to the port lecturers or the “Gods” on the ship that tell people where to shop. A plan thought out a good while back. It started qietly with Island Companies, then Passman, then the liquor stores and so on. Then he brings in his people and the small merchant slowly goes out of business or gives up and sell out to ….. you guessed right. Someone is either asleep at the wheel or the wheel is very wrll greased. and then we play monopoly with hotels, land, roads and the small normal person wakes up one day and say HEY what happened here and there you have it. I have to respect Belize for having a long term vision not to let this happen. Diamond International very astuce as well with their close connections to the Cruise Line as well and go in any day day and count the Caymannians working there !. I have to applaud Kirk Freeport by adhering to the book meaning, playing by the rules. I hope they will continue. Come on people wake up, speak up because as Mr. Miller said and Mr, Alden asking the right questions which 3 will you be part of. Wonder what happened, wondered how it happened or Can’t believed what just happened. No it’s no dream tou are really awake or are you ?
My poor country. McDaddy has jumped from Dart pillar to GLF’s post and now he wants to climb into the Chinese’s bed. No sign of cruise berthing. Can the Kirkconnells retail clerks, the taxi drivers and boat operators get a job with Dr. Shetty or this fancy Jason Glick of the Cayman Enterprise City – because we’re killing the cruise tourism slowly but surely. Oops – Enterprise City is really for importing more expats though isnt it? The Government system is broken. The Premier is a renegade on a massive ego trip, one who has vision but no plan. His 8 elected UDP colleagues are too loyal or too passive to stand up to him. The competent Civil Servants have detached to file their nails, update facebook, bbm, go to conferences, complete another course, go off on fully paid study leave and basically wait for 2013 (the rest, the deadwood and the incompetent, were already doing this). The people are threatening violence, uprisings, destruction of private property. Some of us are considering taking up the cross of American Citizenship and paying taxes. Or Canada. For Pete’s sake – this is NOT Egypt! Discipline, integrity, hard work and accountability can fix this. UDP – with or without Big Mac – sort yourselves out, respect the Civil Service, partner with the private sector and get on with what LITTLE you can still achieve in the remaining two years. You might or might not get reelected thanks to the antics of your truly fearless leader, but at least you will not have completely destroyed the country. The traditional Caymanian character is of hardwork, honesty, integrity, peacefulness and respect. As anyone has dealt with an older Caymanian they will know, that gentle peacemaking has a limit and if pushed too far, when you least expect it, the Caymanian quietly gives a xxxx slap so hard it will to make your head spin. No words, just a slap. Next election I hope the people won’t waste so many words on CNS. Slap at the Polls.
The port authority board must feel like %$@. Every government company in this country is always prevented from doing there job because the elected government uses them as a political football. Cayman Airways for years and now the port. If you decided to resign we would understand. Im sure you guys dont need this crap.
Let us face it – all “Boards” are a sham.
Boards just give the appearance of the delegation of power. Our Boards get Ministerial instructions then rubber stamp the corrupt process.
The FCO knows all of this and it suits them just fine.
Can one make any other conclusion but this is another glaring example of gross incompetence……or worse!
Elementary. They are only looking at ideas for possible proposals. In order to begin planning a suggested concept. The first stages of the possible proposals will take place after an initial review. Then, the Premier will visit various sites to decide which of the concepts will go to the second stage. A complete assortment of his findings will be put under his pillow. Within two weeks a decision will be made which proposals will go to the third stage. After seeking advice from a priest and an astrologer the various developers will be asked four questions. Whichever developer answers all four correctly will get the contract.
Maybe this is what we get for relying on cruise ship tourists whilst neglecting stay-over tourism. And for being in the pocket of the Florida Cruise Association to begin with.
That is perhaps the funniest thing I have read so far this year. The Quick Images radio jingle comes to mind.
"Cline Glidden, who has been project leader for the current government on the cruise port project since the UDP administration took office"
Specifically this is the funniest thing. Terrifying. But funny. If it was not funny you would weep. Cline "project leader" Glidden . . .
This issue is of national importance. The cruise ships have already cut back significantly and starting next week cayman will be getting only 1 ship in port (on average) per day for the rest of the summer. This is not something than we can afford. It’s already hard enough for businesses to turn a profit with the expense of doing business here. The cruise ship operators have been warning us for years that they are going to skip our island if we don’t have a docking station. Well now we are all going to pay for this ignorant display of procrastionation and indecision.
If we had a national infrastructure plan that was created by technocrats independent of any party or government this would not be an issue wouldit. Problem is every wanna be person who has not created or made anything in the private sector or otherwise can be a politician. Then when they get in power they want to change all the plans that are in place so they can say they did something. Its egos, egos, egos and more EGOS.
Nonsense, look at the way the cruise lines have revised their schedules in recent years as the cost of fuel increased.
Cayman is a routing nightmare for these juggernauts and the operators are just looking for an easy way out.
As in everything else it’s easier to make excuses that just own up to the fact that the cruise ships don’t need Cayman any more.
Go look at Havana harbour, the Bay of Pigs and all those other handy Cuban locations that they will be able to sail into shortly, then ask yourselves if Cayman will still be part of the cruise industry in 10 years time.
It’s time to move on, the cruise business is played out and the only thing thing of ‘national importance’ now is to explore the other tourism options.
It can only be of territorial importance, this not being a nation and all . . .
Maybe so “Pit Bull” but are you from Alaska too with lipstick like the former candidate for VP hopeful as she described herself? If so you will know what it is to be cut off from the mainland and basically on your own and have to make decisions for one’s very survival!
Don’t you ever get tired of your constant baiting of Caymanians, Pit Bull old boy? It’s pretty childish, you know and it’s lost the freshness it had some months ago. You can go on about Cayman belonging to England, not being a country or nation etc etc until you’re blue in the face, but you don’t achieve anything other than confirm the fact that you’re a sad tosser.
Just pointing out the factsdear chap.
This is complete incompetence and the Premier, CG and The Chairman of the Port Authority should resign immedately given the negative implications for the cruise tourism industry.
It is time for real accountability in Cayman !
Chucky warned you Cline. The next 2 years will be horrible for cruise tourism. Ship sinking fast peeps !
Sixty Nine million dollars Not accounted for by chuckster ! We got the warning, thanks
We did not need Chuckie for that we saw it coming longer then that. Time for Mr. Dart to go to other islands. Oh I forgot he is already there with Passman. He will follow the money trail. And McKeeva and Chuckie did not see that one coming. XXXXX Promised public meetings hein ! Yea right. Glad your familly are all doing well though. Would one of these Islands in the sound be for you and your family ? PPM we need you to stop this non sense before this place goes bezerk and we have to shut down GeorgeTown or McKeeva sells us out. We are running out of options here.
I am not a party person but this shows a lack of Project Management capability for such a large undertaking. What comprehensive training and skills do the people that are responsible have in this area, perhaps they may have built their own house or condos but that is hardly being responsible for the management of critical infrastructure I say.
A whole different skill set is required. So who is the Project Manager appointed on the Government side for such an important project and where is the project office?
This resembles and is beginning to smell like the UK to France Channel Project aka “CHUNNEL” disaster. This fiasco has gone down in history as one with the highest cost over-runs. The PPM were critized for their schools projects and rightly so, but what lessons have the UDP learned from them?
Yeah who is the qualified architect (but not draughtsman) or PE leading the project as the Project Manager? Someone asked where did McKeeva get his engineering degrees so where did CG or Stephan Baraud get theirs either to make such critical decisions ? This is surely not pullin wire……….. or mixin cement…….
As time goes on and their ill-considered get rich quick illusions evaporate, they will get more and more desperate and the deal for the Caymanian people will get worse and worse. Would someone call Mr. Dart back please?
Away? Where, Mars? Rolston could call a local radio show from Russia for quite a few minutes to speak to the people of Cayman, yet CG crys he’s oblivious to what happens in Cayman when he is off-island? Is this how you run a country/company?
It’s what you say when the Boss hasn’t yet authorized you to speak.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. If they couldn’t make it work with Dart, then no one else is going to be as willing to put up with the government’s incompetence. Meanwhile, the downtown retailers are dying a slow death and the cruise tourism season has been reduced to 6 months a year. It’s a real shame.
The Body Shop in Westshore is closing. Whether this is due to the economy, fewer people on island or ?? But still another business closed.
Was a Caymanian affected?
I don’t know as I am not really sure what a Caymanian is – true blood, born here, parents born here but offspring somewhere else but offspring have come back, grandparents born here but their children born somewhere else who had children but those children have grown and come back , Caymanian man married expat woman, Caymanian woman married expat man, paper, permanent resident, status holder approved thru proper channels, status holder granted status by a political party, millionaire expat who paid to become a Caymanian. Happy Easter everyone!
It is not just cruise business. If Mr. Bush would pay attention to stay over tourism that would also help a lot of businesses. Stay over has more trickle down.
Guess this will be another one to go to the Chinese!!!
McChang must really be proud of himself!!!
cns:
please listen to radio cayman now….
what is happening is an outrage….mckeeva just told the host to cut a caller off and the host did it! ..unbelievable!
Obviously our Premier is only willing to answer questions that are convenient. Wish there was a way we didn’t have to wait for the end of UDP term. But then again I don’t like anyone else out there either. Wish some of our successful business men would run and give something back to the country that gave them the opportunity to excel and succeed.
I think you will also find that unless he has an answer written down on a post it note in front of him he can’t answer questions, that would involve Mac thinking off the top of his head, which we all know is impossible.
Dictator once again doing all he can to control the press.
Tic-Tock Tic-Tock
And you are surprised ?? We are dealing with a very confused man that plainly just need to quit while he is ahead. As far as I am concerned the damage he is doing to these Islands is far greater then anything affecting our country. Yes, even crime in which he inderectly helped create. He will be remembered allright ! I refuse to call Radio Cayman. Sad to say but another Macdonized person. There are 2 types of persons in charge or in management. A Boss which rules by fear and intimidation and a Leader who leads by example with and good communication skills. Very simple to determine what type we have here !
the host of that show is a disgrace……
Ah huh. Mr. Clifford advised them to continue with the implementation of his cruise berthing plans or face significant delays with the project.
Now we in the tourism industry, including and particularly public transport providers, are facing a 25% drop in cruise tourism this year. But yet we hear non-sensical statements like “the tourism numbers are increasing” and “crime really isn’t as bad as Caymanians think”
When will the UDP pull their collective heads of the sand and realise the harm they are causing our country. Will we have to protest too ??
This really is a national disgrace…….I remember hearing The Chuckster and CG on a Cayman Crosstalk programme in the last quarter of 2009 and The Chuckster warned CG that changing the plans that he had began to implement and abandoing the EIA was not a sensible move and would delay the project by 1 to 2 years. CG’s response was no we will start construction in the first quarter of 2010. Clearly CG is a man with no ministerial experience and is in over his head.
Isn’t this the second quarter of 2011 ?? Not only do we have no construction started but apparently not even a viable agreement in place……..WTF is going on ?
This is what happens when you have inexperienced people who have never made it to the top or even near it in a large organisation before. But suddenly gullible voters catapult them to run a country based on What? Promises and promises and more mouth, yea pure mouth. It is amazing to see but not surprising with the results we get. When are we gonna learn folks that talk is cheap.
CG said the Premier was dealing in his absence and he didnt no what happened.
CG and Rolston as educated young Caymanians, you need to start to move out on your own. Mac is a dinosaur and will only drag you down!
You are better than this CG!
back to square 1 then… (or what is before square 1??)
-1 or Ground Zero.
when dart walks away…you know something is seriously wrong…..
Wow the direction of the port development has taken a dramatic shift but only after a free ride to Venice, if CG and the Port Chairman had integrity both would resign, its fair to draw the conclusion that neither of them are calling the shots.
Cayman badly needs these cruise berths. Let’s wait to hearthe facts before we all dive in with criticisms, without knowing the reasons why this deal is looking shaky. I’ve been told the GLF/Royal designs are first class. This is sad news indeed.
hahaha…told you so!….. time for mr. baraud and mr. glidden to resign!
the incompetence of this government never ends!!!!!
So if this deal falls through, another $1M down the drain by the CI Govt?
I wish I could spend and watse millions upon millions of dollars and still make $20K a month with no repurcussions.
Oh dear. Look what happens what the Government wants it all….suddenly no one else is interested.
And this is a surprise because ——?
FIRE, Ok now Ready and then Aim
Amen!