By BRIAN MAJOR From Travel Pulse

Cayman Islands officials have a specific funding mechanism in mind for their ongoing project to build a new cruise pier facility in George Town Harbor.

The government RFP (issued December 5) to develop the financial modeling for the cruise ship pier and terminal facility seeks operators with “experience in concessions and Design-Build-Finance Maintain (DBFM) modelling.”

DBFM modeling refers to a type of public-private partnership agreement large scale infrastructure projects said Stran Bodden, permanent secretary and chief officer at the Cayman Islands Ministry of District Administration, Tourism, and Transport in a statement issued Wednesday.

“What this essentially means is that financing for the project could be obtained or provided by the appointed contractor and would generally include all of the development costs from construction through to completion,” said Bodden. Moses Kirkconnell, the Cayman Islands’ minister of tourism, has previously placed the project cost at around $150 million.

In recent years, major cruise lines have partnered with Caribbean destinations to build new cruise ports and private-island facilities. Kirkconnell has previously said the government is working with cruise lines to create a funding model. While the negotiations are ongoing, cruise giant Carnival Corp. is likely to play a key role in the new development, he said.

The effort to secure a financing model follows the government’s decision this summer to re-locate the pier site to ameliorate the project’s impact on George Town harbor’s marine environment.
Engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV is currently performing civil engineering design work on the re-positioned piers, said Bodden. “With that process now well advanced information is being developed to better estimate the cost of the piers,” he said.

“The Ministry of Tourism is confident that repositioning the piers and constructing them in deeper water will minimize dredging and greatly reduce the impact on the environment,” Kirkconnell said in
the tourism ministry statement.

“While we await the official confirmation and full details of the redesigned plans, the decision has been taken to move ahead with other aspects of the project. The ministry has been working to an aggressive timeline since the business case was approved by cabinet in October 2013 and we are keen to maintain that positive forward momentum,” he added.

IMAGE: The Cayman Islands’ revised cruise pier plan will “minimize dredging and greatly reduce the impact on the environment,” said Moses Kirkconnell, tourism minister. (Photo courtesy of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.)

For more on this story go to: http://www.travelpulse.com/news/destinations/cayman-islands-cruise-pier-planners-target-specific-funding-model.html

See also related iNews Cayman story published December 8 2016 “Ministry of Tourism seeks financial consultants for Cayman Islands cruise pier project” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/ministry-of-tourism-seeks-financial-consultants-for-cayman-islands-cruise-pier-projec/