Pelican Bay to undergo major refurbishments in wake of Dorian

The Pelican Bay resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama. FILE

The Pelican Bay resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama, will undergo $5 million in repairs over the next two years as part of its reconstruction efforts post-Hurricane Dorian.

Pelican Bay General Manager Magnus Alnebeck said in the next few months the resort will begin closing in sections to be renovated.

“We actually had substantial damage and we’re going to start probably in three to four months, closing down sections and doing some major refurbishments,” he told Guardian Business.

“We will do what we did after Hurricane Matthew, when we closed 25 percent of the hotel in different phases and due to the layout of Pelican Bay we can do that without any inconvenience.”

Although Pelican Bay was one of many properties and business impacted by the Category 5 storm, which ravaged parts of Grand Bahama, it reopened nearly immediately after the passage of Dorian.

“The majority of our damage is replacing interiors and drywall and so on that we need to upgrade. We’re going to take the opportunity of doing about 100 new and fresh bathrooms, but it’s going to be an ongoing process as well,” Alnebeck said.

“We have close to 200 rooms and we will take it out in a quarter each time. We have not totally decided, but I think we will probably in the next two years invest around $5 million in Pelican Bay.”

The property housed many of its 80 staff members during the storm.

Albeneck said despite the devastation, the property experienced above record occupancy immediately after the storm.

“But again, the types of people who come here to Pelican, they want to be somewhere that’s safe and comfortable to sleep. That’s why we have remained open and kept on going. And then we actually ended up having the best September, October, November and half of December in the history of Pelican Bay hotel,” he said.

“Then we had the worst Christmas we’ve ever had and then our January and February were about 20 percent down.”

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/03/05/pelican-bay-to-undergo-major-refurbishments-in-wake-of-dorian/