The Team at Pelican Bay Hotel at an informal reception on the 5th floor of the new Canal House set to open in early 2010. Pelican Bay team… Melissa Carroll, revenue and reservations manager, Marva Munroe, sales and marketing director, Sybilene Cooer, executive housekeeper, Giovanni, maintenance manager, Magnus Alnebeck, general manager, Patra Albury, financial controller and Allan Scavella, security director. Missing are Della Bridgewater, front office manager and Julie Paice, purchasing manager. Photo: Derek Carroll

The preferred choice for happy meetings and events in The Bahamas.

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island – Pelican Bay at Lucaya announced today its repositioning to a hotel with the focus on visitors and meeting facilities coming on stream early 2010.

“ Increasingly, Grand Bahama Island is becoming more of a destination where we have visitors rather than tourists.   It makes every sense for Pelican Bay to embrace this situation and reposition itself to cater to this market, ” said Magnus Alnebeck, general manager of Pelican Bay.

Alnebeck continued: “ The repositioning of the hotel marks the completion of a strategy that commenced five years ago.     We want every business person to know that Pelican Bay is the hotel of choice when visiting Grand Bahama Island.

Further, he pointed out that “ Pelican Bay enjoys close partnerships with businesses in The Bahamas, Grand Bahama Island in particular, and excellent word of mouth referrals from the community. ”    Alnebeck added,   “ We thank every company and local person who recommend our hotel to clients, friends and family. ”

With the repositioning has come the launch of Pelican Bay‟s new logo, which is tagged “ Meet Happy. ”  The new logo portrays the hotel‟s brand promise “ to create happy experiences for meetings, weddings and guest stays at the hotel. ”

Our new logo, a " Happy‟ Pelican donning sunglasses, injects a breath of fresh air, colour and vibrancy into the property, ” says Alnebeck.  “ It allows for a warm experience at touch points preceding our guests‟ actual arrival at the hotel. Presented in Caribbean secondary colours of turquoise, warm red orange with a mix of yellow, our new Pelican has charisma. ”

Pelican Bay Hotel's new Canal House, a five story meeting and banquet facility set to open in early 2010. Photo: Robbin Whachell

To complete the repositioning, The Canal House, a US $7.1 million five-storey building with a total of 30,680 sq ft (2,850 sq m) and total meeting space (including balconies) of 15,600 sq ft (1,450 sq m) will open early 2010. The building will comprise a breakfast/special function restaurant of 3,120 sq ft (290 sq m), a big meeting room (including balcony) of 3,110 sq ft (289 sq m) and four meeting rooms, each 655 sq ft (61 sq m) of which two can be combined into one room of 1,310 sq ft (122 sq m), “ back of house ” and administrative space of 8,935 sq ft (830 sq m).

The Canal House will cater to small meetings and conferences and Destination Weddings. Combined social/sleeping room packages will be offered. The hotel will continue to offer vacation experiences to the individual leisure guest.

The repositioning of the hotel brings unusual experiences and happenings around Pelican Bay.  Amongst these is the blowing of a conch shell as the Bahamian flag is lowered from its pole each evening and an amenity of a gold fish in a bowl available to extended stay guests wishing to have this during their stay. Other niceties include complimentary Mimosas at the hotel‟s Sunday Continental Breakfast, mangoes and servings of Bahamian coconut tarts for guests to sample in the hotel‟s lobby.

Pelican Bay is smoke-free and boasts 89 waterside rooms and 93 waterside state rooms, three outdoor swimming pools, Jacuzzi and Sabor Restaurant and Bar,

located in the garden overlooking the bay;  high speed wireless internet connectivity is featured hotel wide.   Four acres of colourful, lush tropical gardens with heliconias, bamboo, bananas, palm trees, a butterfly garden, gingers, climbing vines, unique shrubbery and ground covers grace the property.

Manager of Pelican Bay Hotel, Magnus Alnebeck stand with his architect Kristian Geertsen on the left, and site building manager Jim Goodrum on the right. Photo: Robbin Whachell

A big community supporter, Pelican Bay is a major National Trust sponsor for the rebuilding of the foot bridge, sponsor of hotel rooms for Korath Wright, first Bahamian Olympian snowboarder, instructors who teach summer camp at the Grand Bahama Sailing Club, the Premier League summer soccer camp at The Freeport Football Rugby Club and The Devard Darling Football Summer Camp.  In addition, Pelican Bay has sponsored Miss Grand Bahama pre and post events, hosted Jeffrey Poitier, who wrote the documentary Voices as the documentary was shown on Grand Bahama Island and was the venue for the taping of VoiceIt, a new youth television programme.     Pelican Bay’s lobby is home to a display of art by Bahamian artists.

Pelican Bay’s vision statement is “ The preferred choice for happy meetings and events in The Bahamas. ”

And, its mission statement is, “ With our empowered team, we provide extraordinary guest experiences through a passion for cutting edge service, understanding the needs of our stakeholders, making Pelican Bay the pride of our community and the pulse of The Bahamas. ”

The Canal House, a US $7.1 million five-storey building with a total of 30,680 sq ft (2,850 sq m) and total meeting space (including balconies) of 15,600 sq ft (1,450 sq m) will open early 2010. The building will comprise a breakfast/special function restaurant of 3,120 sq ft (290 sq m), a big meeting room (including balcony) of 3,110 sq ft (289 sq m) and four meeting rooms, each 655 sq ft (61 sq m) of which two can be combined into one room of 1,310 sq ft (122 sq m), “ back of house ” and administrative space of 8,935 sq ft (830 sq m).

Pelican Bay at Lucaya is owned by Sundt AS, a private investment company based in Norway.     Pelican Bay is the only investment that Sundt AS has in the Bahamas.     Sundt AS is also the majority shareholder of Pandox, which is a specialized European hotel owning company, that currently owns 45 hotels in Europe and Montreal, Canada (10,800 rooms).     Pandox' hotels operate under well-known brands such as Scandic, Hilton, Radisson SAS, Crowne Plaza, Choice, Hyatt, Intercontinental or are independently managed.