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Tiger Woods Enthused About The Billion-dollar Albany Beach & Golf Resort Bahamas Project
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Tiger Woods Enthused About Bahamas Project:
By Tameka Lundy -
Nassau, Bahamas:


Golf great Tiger Woods might have blown his chance of an eighth successive golf tournament victory this past weekend, but his partnership with Joe Lewis and Ernie Els is billed as the winning combination needed to successfully drive an exclusive resort styled community under construction in southwest New Providence.

Ground has already been broken on the billion-dollar Albany Beach & Golf Resort which developers project will inject roughly $2.7 billion into the economy of The Bahamas over a 15-year period. That money will primarily come from taxes and duties paid to the government, wages paid to employees and local expenditures.

The completed vision will showcase a 565-acre new development inclusive of a 50 to 60-room boutique hotel, 350 private residences, a golf course and marina and separate centres for horse riding, fitness and beach activities that dot the island’s southwestern shoreline.

Mr. Woods appeared enthused about the project when questioned about it in a recent CNBC interview on the sideline of a golf tournament in Orlando, despite his winning streak in golf coming to an end.

He called the Albany project a fantastic vision.

"We’ve just started construction. The marina is going well. The golf courses are coming in. We are going to have something for everybody basically. It’s going to be absolutely incredible," he said at the time.

The developers have projected that during the first stage of construction, $800 million will be pumped into the local economy, a financial injection that would be more than welcome considering the global economic slowdown and local jitters about its trickle down effects combined with other local realities.

The international financial climate has not been the best for many of the developers who were looking to take their massive projects around The Bahamas to the next level.

For instance, Eddie Lauth, the man pursuing the French Leave Resort in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, told the Bahama Journal recently that with the collapse of the sub-prime market, the bottom essentially dropped out of a $200 million bond-issue that was being negotiated to build out the entire project at one time.

Even some of the bankers with which Mr. Lauth was dealing are no longer employed with the financial institution.

Across the waters on the quaint island of Mayaguana, the challenge has been a cooling off in the market for larger resort hotels that has translated into diminished interest in an alliance with the I-Group’s intended $1.8 billion development, according to Stephen Pritchard, executive vice president of the Mayaguana Management Company Limited.

The current state of the U.S. economy has also affected Tiger Woods’ business partner Joe Lewis who is reported to have lost big in the demise of a US bank.

American and British newspapers have reported that Mr. Lewis lost an estimated $800 million in the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns.

He was reportedly the second largest shareholder in the bank.

Mr. Lewis also founded The Tavistock Group, which owns exclusive residential club communities, financial services, oil and gas investments and retail companies. The elite Old Fort Bay club here in New Providence is also in that portfolio.

Principals of the development company have dismissed concerns about the reported Bear Stearns loss having an adverse impact on the commitments made for the Albany Beach & Golf Resort.

And when he spoke about the plans in his recent interview, Mr. Woods gave no indication that it would.

"It is going to be absolutely incredible…" he said of the investment.

"The place…it is hard to describe the beauty of it. We are going to have something modern. We are going to have classical buildings. We’re going to have it all. It is going to be this great blend of this all inclusive area."

The government has said that it is certain the development is in this country’s best interest and together with the other massive project planned adjacent to it – the new South Ocean resort – will help to transfer the island’s entire southwest for the better.

Over the next 15 years the project is expected to produce stamp tax paid on the transfer of property, import duty paid on materials brought in for residential construction and property taxes amounting to roughly $550 million; $1.1 billion in salaries; over $660 million in revenue for area businesses; over $200 million in commissions; and $100 million in revenue from promotions.

Currently, less than $400,000 in tax revenue is generated by Albany’s land holdings.

The company has projected that a guest staying in a hotel would spend around $3,000 for a one-week stay whereas a homeowner would spend around $75,000 per year maintaining the home.

Over the next 10 years the project is anticipated to employ between a minimum of 600 and a maximum of 1,000 construction workers every year.

March 26, 2008

March 26, 2008 | 5:45 PM Comments  0 comments

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