The Minister of Public Works, Lieutenant Colonel the Hon. David A. Burch, OBE (Mil), ED, JP, MP responded to the Shadow Minister of Public Works comments on the Bermudiana Beach Resort.
“The Bermudiana Beach Resort is certainly not a failed project the details of its history was laid out last Thursday, but I note the amnesia displayed by the shadow Minister in his comments as he would have had conduct of this matter when he served as the Minister of Public Works under the OBA administration.
“Under the OBA administration one of their three Ministers of Public Works would have secured the agreement to convert the units to a hotel in 2016.
“We are faced with a situation that has not produced any revenue to the government yet and a comprehensive review was conducted to guide us to that end. Rental accommodation versus a hotel guarantees greater income and experiences less risk than a hotel.
“We have indicated that those on the Bermuda Housing Corporation list will be reviewed so that some of them may take advantage of this opportunity as well as some guest workers to ensure sufficient revenue is raised to service the outstanding debt.
“This government has done more to assist Bermudians in gaining affordable housing than the OBA ever did and continues to do so. It is unfortunate that the Opposition has chosen to politicise this issue given the challenges that both the PLP and OBA governments faced in trying to make a success of this project in any shape or form.
“We had a choice. We received expert advice which led to two recommendations. We believe that either one of those recommendations would work – the hotel route or turning the site into residential rental units.
“As I stated previously, we have decided to go with the rental accommodation option as it will result in more revenue in return over the long term and it poses less of a financial risk than the hotel option.
“As to the claims that turning the property into a residential rental complex ignores Bermudians and is biased against guest workers, I say, nothing can be further from the truth.
“As I said last week, we had to look at the requirement to generate enough revenue to cover the project’s debt, so that no more public funds would be spent on the project and that we would go through the BHC waiting list and determine those families that would qualify for this type of accommodation including the normal support we give to families (rent geared-to-income, etc).
“While Bermudians and Bermudian families will be eligible to rent these units, I do not see it as a negative either that guest workers will also be eligible.
“Everyone agrees, that part of the challenge that we are facing is that we need more people in the island. And you cannot have more people here if they do not have anywhere to live.
“Elsewhere, I have been asked to reveal the exact cost of to break our development agreement with Hilton Hotels. While I do know the exact amount, I do not wish to put it into the public domain at this time.
“Last week I said it was under half a million dollars. It is significantly below that price, however I don’t want to publicise it without some collaboration with Hilton.”
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