Freeport, Bahamas - The Pelican Bay Hotel in Grand Bahama officially opened their new conference facility called the Canal House on September 17th with a brief ceremony and night of celebration on their property. The Rt Hon Hubert A. Ingraham was in attendance for the occasion along with local dignitaries, politicians, and business persons.
Guests arrived to live Junkanoo music. The Grand Bahama Youth Choir led by Kevin Tomlinson opened the ceremony with several Bahamian musical numbers, and after remarks by general manager Magnus Alnebeck and the Prime Minister, a ceremonial conch shell was smashed by Prime Minister Ingraham to officially open the building. Those in attendance were then welcomed into the 5 level facility to enjoy food, drink and music provided by The Matrix band and DJ President. The evening ended with a Junkanoo rush which carried everyone back outside where lit sky-laterns were launched into the night sky.
The following are remarks made by the general manager of Pelican Bay, Magnus Alnebeck at the opening ceremony:
The Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of the Bahamas,
Cabinet Ministers,
Senators,
Members of Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome,
I know you have all come here to party, but you are going to have to
listen to a couple of speeches.
My name is Magnus Alnebeck, I am the GM Manager of Pelican Bay.
It is wonderful to gather the Grand Bahama Community for the
opening party of the Pelican Bay Canal House. A facility that has
been under planning and construction for several years. Many of
you have noticed that we did not have a ground breaking ceremony
and we have been very quiet during the construction process. That
was intentional.
General manager of Pelican Bay Hotel, Magnus Alnebeck gives remarks at the opening of the Canal House on September 17th, 2010. Photo: Yasmin Popescu for The Bahamas Weekly
We feel that GBI over the years have become accustomed to
announcements and groundbreaking ceremonies of projects that
never happens, and I am proud to stand here today, in front of a
buidling commenced, but actually has been completed........
My main job tonight is to thank all the people involved in this
project, but before I do that, I would like to take the opportunity to
explain a bit more about Pelican Bay, who we are, and what we are
trying to do .
Under the current ownership and management, we have existed for
5 years. During that time, we have re-positioned the hotel, and the
opening of the Canal House is the final step of that process. We are
now fully positioned as the best suited hotel in GBI to welcome
business travellers and small meetings. That is the main market for
Pelican Bay. We cannot be a resort hotel, we have no beach, spa,
tennis facilities and similar.
The job of getting that type of guests to GBI, we happily pass on to
our neighbours and colleagues on the beach.
We want to be the British Colonial of Grand Bahama, A hotel
convenient to stay in, and easy to conduct business from. A hotel
that has great facilities for meeting, events & weddings.
Pelican Bay is owned by a Swedish-Norweigan Hotel property owning
company. We are actually the biggest hotel property company in
Europe. We now own 120 hotels, more than 24 000 rooms located
in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the
UK, Switzerland, and Canada the Bahamas.
The Canal House Photo: Robbin Whachell for The Bahamas Weekly
Pelican Bay is the only business that Pandox owns in the Bahamas.
We have no other investment in any other business in the Bahamas.
The business model is the same wherever we go. We carefully
evaluate each hotel that we own, and with active ownership decide
what is the best operating system for that particular property.
We have hotels that are leased to management companies, hotels
that we operate ourselves under franchise agreements, as well as
independently operating hotel under their own brand, such as Hotel
Berlin Berlin, Bloom in Brussels, and Pelican Bay.
We own hotels that operate under the following brands, Hilton,
InterContinental, Hyatt, Radisson, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Clarion,
Quality, Best Western, and several others.
We are a very lean organisation, we have a head office with 17
persons, running a company with 120 hotels.
We strongly believe that running a hotel is a local business, and
therefore the responsibility of running Pelican Bay, is the
responsibility of the PB management team. We do not believe that a
hotel or any business can be micromanaged from another place in
the world. That is regardless if you are across the Atlantic, the Pacific,
or in the Atlantic. To be a successful business in GBI, the decisionmaking
has to be here, with a solid knowledge and understanding of
GB.
As some businesses have found out the hard way, it is even hard to
sit in Nassau and manage something in GB. And maybe that is why it
is rumoured that we will soon see a Ministry and Minister of GB.........
The management team of Pelican Bay is made up of
Patra Albury, Financial Controller
Della Bridgewater, Front Office Manager and operationally
responsible for the Canal House
Giovanni Sands, Maintenance Manager
Melissa Carroll, Revenue and reservations Manager
Sybilene Cooper, Executive Housekeeper
Marva Munroe Director of Sales and Marketing, Weddings
Julie Paice, Purchasing Manager
Allan Scavella, Outgoing Director of Security (We trained him so well,
that he is now going to sort out Security at the Albany Project in
Nassau). Yvettte Evans, who will be the new person in charge of
Security at PB.
Kara Manouzi, seconded to us by MOT, helping us with S&M, based
in Florida.
I trust you have noticed that most names are familiar Grand
Bahamian names, and that the only one at Pelican Bay who needs a
Work Permit is me. (Since I am a St Lucian citizen I am obviously
hoping for the Bahamas becoming a full member of Caricom, so that
I can then brag that we do not need any work permits)
I would also like to introduce Gourmet Kitchen, the company that
operates Sabor, and who will be providing the F&B for the Canal
House, and tonight’s event, Chef Vorly, Isabel Alison, Chef Emanuel
Smith, and Chef Liz.
I would now like to thank the group that has created this wonderful
building .
Jim Goodrum, who was the project manager who kept the project
together. Jim had a very close involvement with the previous
company that owned Pelican Bay, and when we started planning this
building , it was great that he was prepared to come back in an
individual capacity, to help us. His achievement is self evident when
you walk through the Canal House, but I would especially like to
thank Jim for his integrity, honesty and willingness to always help
and assist, (not only us) but anyone who wants to make Grand
Bahama and Freeport a better place. We could do with a few more
individuals like Jim in Grand Bahama.
Kristian Geerstsen, architect, I guess we all dream of leaving
footprints of what we have achieved in life. Kristian came to Grand
Bahama, many years ago, and has been involved in the design of
LMV, now GBYC, Ritz Taino Beach, and Pelican Bay. These building
incorporate elements of Bahamian architectural details that makes
them very appealing and constantly talked about as pleasant
architecture. It will hopefully be many years when persons will be
coming through this part of Grand Bahama, admiring the
architecture of these building. Kristian, thank you for your
contribution not only to Pelican Bay, but to Grand Bahama in
general, and enjoy your retirement, you have deserved it.
Silvia Reif, our Interior designer. Thank you Silvia for the faboulous
interiors, and all the fun details. As a small example, Nobody can
walk by the straw bags on the fourth floor, without smiling, and be
impressed with what you have created.
Freeport Construction, the main contractor, Bruce Silvera, Vic
Skinner, Kerry Payote, Thank you for working with us. I know it
wasn’t always easy. We needed to keep the hotel open and keep the
inconveniences to a minimum. Thank you for giving us a solid, good
looking building, with almost no leaks.....
Main Subcontractors, Junior Kemp, C&G, Charlie Mortimer, Quality
Plumbing, Alfredo Buzzi, Mechanical Engineering, Thank you for all
your work, and DONT FORGET ALL THE ITEMS THAT ARE STILL ON
THE PUNCH LIST, I don’t care that you are busy with the new
government building in town.
To all other subcontractors, and workers that has been involved in
the project, as well as the GBPA technical department. Thank You.
To Antonius Roberts and Natalie Willis, thank you for helping us with
artwork that does not only compliment the building, but actually lifts
it.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Grand Bahama
Youth Choir for putting life into this ceremony, Father DeAngelo
Bowe of St Nicholas Anglican Church for blessing the Canal House
this week. Our Lucaya and GBYC / Ferry House who kindly let us use
their parking this evening.
There is one person who always reminds me that I never thank her,
which usually makes it for an uncomfortable drive home after an
event like this. So for the record, for the first time, I would like to
thank my wife Dunya, who has to deal with me at the end of what
sometimes are frustrating work days.
I would obviously also like to thank all of you who are here tonight.
To all of you that are loyal customers or represents companies that
support us, I thank you. For anyone else, I hope to see you back as
what we refer to, as a revenue generating guest...... (that means a
paying guest)
I thank you.
The Rt Hon Hubert A. Ingraham gives remarks. Photo: Yasmin Popescu for The Bahamas Weekly