Freeport, Grand Bahama, the second-most populated city in The Bahamas, is poised to be the “fastest-growing economy in the Caribbean”, The Tribune, one of largest daily newspapers in The Bahamas, reported Friday.
Derek Newbold, the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) chief investment officer, told The Tribune that the GBPA had opened a satellite office in Nassau earlier in the week to capitalize on the momentum generated by Freeport’s $2 billion investment pipeline.
With Freeport’s infrastructure currently servicing just 20% of the 250,000 people it was designed to accommodate, Newbold explained that the Nassau office will function as a first point-of-contact to help educate Nassau-based businesses on how The Bahamas’ second city functions and the tax benefits/concessions available to them under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement.
In August 1955, the then-government of the Bahamas signed the Hawksbill Creek Agreement with American investor Wallace Groves, granting his company, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), 99 years for the exclusive right to develop some 50,000 acres of undeveloped land on the island of Grand Bahama. In return, Groves agreed to provide infrastructure that included the dredging of a deepwater harbor, the construction of an airport, hospital, schools and other amenities. As an added incentive the government granted the GBPA control of the administration and issuance of business licenses.
Groves and other investors subsequently acquired additional acreages that were developed into what is now the city of Freeport. To encourage investment, the Hawksbill Creek Agreement allowed the GBPA to not pay taxes on income, capital gains, real estate, and private property until 1985 — a provision that extended the agreement a further 49 years. This has since been extended to 2054.