OBA Chairman ‘Amazed’ By Furbert’s Statement

January 7, 2013

One Bermuda Alliance Chairman Thad Hollis said he was amazed at the statement made by former Minister of Tourism Wayne Furbert this weekend about the cancellation of the Park Hyatt contract.

Mr Hollis noted that Mr Furbert said the contract was terminated back in September 2012 — which he later retracted – and said it would be very easy to assume that the Bermudian public was misled due to the upcoming election.

The Park Hyatt resort was originally scheduled to open last year at the old Club Med property, however construction has not even begun.

In September of last year Mr Furbert told ZBM the agreement between the Government and developers was “terminated,” however the following day he issued a statement saying he “misspoke.”

Speaking this afternoon, Mr Hollis said: “I am sure I speak for most Bermudians when I express my utter amazement at the statement made by the former Minister of Tourism, Wayne Furbert, to the effect that the PLP Government cancelled Mr Bazarian’s contract to build a hotel in St George’s some time last year.

“Mr Furbert actually announced that the agreement had been terminated in September. At the time, he said: “The agreement with the Club Med, or Park Haytt, has terminated. We all know that the termination took place. But the Government is looking at its options of what it should do.”

“Then the following morning, he issued a statement saying that he had had made a mistake. ‘Yesterday, when I spoke on ZBM news,‘ he said. ‘I misspoke when I said that government has terminated the Park Hyatt agreement.

What I meant to say, is that the time period for the agreement has expired and that the agreement has lapsed. We are fully committed to a hotel in St George’s. Mr Bazarian and his team are travelling to Bermuda and we will be meeting with him next week.’

Mr Hollis continued: “It would be very easy to make the assumption from these statements that Mr Furbert told the truth in the first place, and that his colleagues in the Government, knowing an election was to be held in December, selected the option of misleading the Bermudian public, lest the news harm the fortunes of their candidates in St George’s.”

“If that is the truth, it would be an extraordinary abuse of the trust many voters had in the PLP, trust which the PLP told us, over and over again, was entirely justified.

“Perhaps Mr Furbert should tell the voters, especially those who live in St George’s, exactly when this termination of the agreement with Mr Bazarian took place,” concluded Mr Hollis.

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Comments (36)

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  1. Ride says:

    Humm. Yet another case of having to deceive us, me’thinks.

    Ride.

  2. Pastor Syl Hayward says:

    Boy, I really wish Mr. Furbert, or some other PLP official would take you up on this. I’m not holding my breath though.

    I will say this. If the agreement WAS terminated, whenever it was terminated, I am glad to hear it. That 200+ year lease was outrageous!!

    • Hmmmmm says:

      For what length of lease would you expect someone to invest $200m? For what length of lease would you expect a purchaser of a high-end unit on the site to invest $3.5m? For what length of lease would you expect someone to purchase a fractional unit or whatever else was going to be built there? Oh right, its Bermuda where everything has to defy normal standards of commercial viability. People should bring their money because we’re special. The lease was of that length so that people would feel like they owned it when they purchased it or invested in it. The land is and always will be zoned tourism so what Bermudians are being deprived of it by keeping it zoned tourism under any new development? So sick of ignorance dressed up as commentary in this country. You all won the election so now there’s a responsibility to think before you speak. Its called governing.

      • Sandgrownan says:

        The irony is delicious. Thinking before you speak….something we haven’t seen for a while.

  3. Oh this is Funny says:

    I’m amazed that the OBA are pretending to be amazed when they know full well what happened.

    • campervan says:

      I’m amazed that you are amazed that the OBA are pretending to be amazed.
      Lets hope that a hotel project gets under way in SG soon. That would be ‘amazing”
      Maybe they could have a maze in the grounds?

      • Oh this is Funny says:

        If you don’t think Bazarians People told the OBA this happened before the election then I’d like your bank account number so that I can deposit 65 Million.

        • Rick Rock says:

          Furbert lied. LIED.

          Other than the fact that PLP people always lie every single time they open their mouths, how was anyone supposed to know the real truth?

          Oh this is funny, that’s true. How much Furbert lies is funny.

          • almostthere. says:

            It appears that Mr. Furbert didn’t lie–’expired’ and ‘terminated’ mean the same thing, the contract came to an end, the important thing is that it was not renegotiated and the oba should be well aware of that, why are they quibbling over something so obvious.

  4. OBA all the Way says:

    Dear PLP and Wayne Furbert

    We dont care what you think

    Vote OBA for progress

    • Oh this is Funny says:

      Dear OBA all the Way

      I don’t care what you think

      OBA = Plantation

  5. Mr Hollis is more interested in the fact that he is trying to make it out that we were misled by the P.L.P,when what he should be more concerned about is the fact that the O.B.A.government should now be pursuing legal action against Mr Bazarian.

    We the Bermuda public should be compensated for the lost of our golf course and club house,along with the beach facilities and beach house.
    If this government is so sure of themselves and are committed to making a difference,they should try by first not making so much of an issue to what was done but rather show us what they intend on doing to write the wrongs.

    If they keep up their present trend,we are sure to see them do no better then the previous government and maybe the predictions to outs them in 3 years will become true.

  6. Ask Kenny says:

    Didn’t Kenny Bascome have a meeting with these same people. Didn’t he say on the News he was confident in Mr Bazarian’s hotel. Kenny is the MP in St. Geo and his party the OBA is in charge now. You voted OBA now you have them, so suck on it until the next election.

  7. LaVerne Furbert says:

    Why is the Chairman, Thad Hollis, of the OBA commenting and not the Minister, Shawn Crockwell. Something smells fishy to me.

    • Come Correct says:

      Did you not read the previous article where a spokesperson for Mr. Crockwell said he hope to be briefed and brought up to date on all hotel progress in Bermuda, by today I believe it was? If something smells fishy to you about that I’d say Chris Furbert had fish last night. If Crockwell had made a statement you would be saying he hasn’t been briefed properly. I think what you know is right and don’t want to say is thay Wayne Furbert aka. Mr. Iamubp is an opportunistic liar. How long have the oba been in power? Less than a month. I’m pretty curious as to why we haven’t heard the Cannons boom in the last few weeks but even I’ll give it some time. I hope its because he’s busy.

    • Navin Johnson says:

      Everything smells fishy to you. Fact of the matter is Furbert lied he was not supposed to discuss the termination before the election….14 years of lies and they still go on……

    • Nuffin but de Truth! says:

      We dont care what you think and we dont have to explain ourselves to people who look like you!

      • OBA supporter says:

        Oh, come on. I had hoped that this low level of discourse was behind us. You voted for a change not the same from the other side.

      • Errin Butterfield says:

        Nuffin but de truth with regards to your comment”people who look like you” would you be so kind to explain yourself please? Even if you have to do it while hiding behind your pen name.

    • Argosy says:

      It’s coming from a container on the docks, Laverne!

    • Rockfish #1and#2 says:

      Why is the PLP Opposition leader not commenting on this blatant deception on the part of Wayne, a former Minister and current opposition MP.
      This smells to high heaven.

    • Soooooo says:

      LaVerne….Why do we always hear from the “nameless” PLP spokesman?

    • Rick Rock says:

      Because he’s the OBA Chairman, I’d guess, Lavvy.

      Why did Furbert lie and lie and lie again, Lavvy? Something smells fishy there to me.

    • Truth (Original) says:

      Really? Fishy huh?

      Nothing fishy about the BLDC side contract though?
      Or that land lease agreement that was awarded to Mr. Bean of the PLP?
      Or the 600M in unaudited govt funds?
      Or the planning approval that Mr. Roban pushed through planning for 2 of his fellow cabinet Ministers?
      He resigned and was then cycled back in a little while later. We never heard from Marc Bean on the matter either

      All of that is cool but THIS smells fishy to you?

      Wow.

  8. Bermudian boy says:

    That fishy swell is you LaVerne Furbert.

  9. poochie says:

    christ furbert is a —- , he is goin to do whatever he can to make OBA look bad like he said this just the tip of ice berd. I was a shop sturted on my job. i had something come up where i need someone from union com up to job and deal with something,20 months latter they tryed to deal with it but when the came i handled it. The men i was speakin asked that someone from the union be in the meetin. 20 months later they addressed me. i told then its been fixed and i told them 20 months is unacceptable an i resigned.
    they ant for the people. they DONT know no form of CHRIST. I wounder who they love

  10. Hmmmmm says:

    Hey Thad; the election campaign is over. The PLP are consigned to the Opposition benches which means what they say and do is pure talk. (remember those days?) So, get busy governing. If this rear view mirror style is to be how you all do it, then you will find an unforgving electorate next time around. Where dem 2000 jobs at ?

  11. Time Passages says:

    Fishy yes LV. WF lied to us all and you know it!!!!!!!!!! Now we all know it. The PLP deceived us YET AGAIN!!!! Thank goodness we had the sense to vote you people out. Good Riddance to you – and by the way, we don’t care what you think!!!

  12. tidbit says:

    Maybe LF’s cousin EB told WF to retract that statement since it would make EB and PLP look bad in the eyes of Bda ppl.

  13. Bobmarlin says:

    Do not believe anything the PLP says.This is just one example of the many lies that will come out!

  14. Itsaboutallofus says:

    It seems that Thad Hollis should have consulted with Minister Crockwell who just released a statement saying the contract was terminated in October. So there was no deception or lie by Mr Furbert or the PLP.

    • just a game says:

      people are a lot more educated these days,,they know when they have been lied to,,question is how many we dont know about,,,how many licks does it take to get to the end of a tottsie pop,,The World May Never Know !

  15. Xman says:

    All the nonsense Mr. Furbert done
    I’m not Surprised but I am amazed at all the stuff he managed to get away with.

  16. MAKE MY DAY says:

    Any surprises here….It’s Furbert and the PLP *spin team* trying to BS Bermudians once again!!!