No ‘PR stunt!’

Director of Vision Development Inc., Mark Maloney has dismissed the notion that yesterday’s information session at the site for the Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay hotel was a public relations (PR) exercise.

Rather, he said it “is something that was part of our overall plan for the project”. Maloney further said it was part of requirements of the development, adding that the concerns raised by persons “would always be taken on board”.

“We followed the process and procedure today … and have not circumvented any process. So it is not a PR stunt. It is a PR requirement of what we have been doing.”

He added, “Nothing that we are doing is going to be branded as a stunt or circumventing of process. Everything that we do is in keeping with the process and the requirements of us to do what we are required to do by the regulatory agencies and there is no way that a project of this size could get permission by circumventing any processes. We have done everything that we have been required to do and we will pass all questions to do with those requirements of us to the regulatory agencies who are the bodies responsible for giving permissions.”

Maloney also dismissed the idea that the day’s event was a Town Hall Meeting.

“It was never our intention to have this as a replacement for a Town Hall Meeting. This interactive session is something that we are going to be doing on an ongoing basis to invite the people from the surrounding areas, businesses and communities around to come and for us to share with them what we are going to be doing from the local, the cultural and every perspective and for us to hear from people how they feel. We may get ideas for things that we are going to do that may help us in enhancing the different ideas that we have.”

Among the attendees at yesterday’s session were Member of the Parliament for The City, Lieutenant Colonel, Jeffrey Bostic, Housing and Lands Minister, Dennis Kellman, Chairman of Needhams Point Holdings, Kenneth Gittens and Attorney-At- Law, Hal Gollop, QC.

During the event, Maloney and fellow Director James Edghill, as well as other members of their team, interacted one-on-one with attendees about the project. Persons also previewed a video showing the stage of design.

Edghill pointed out that some of the “issues raised were very valid issues to do with the treatment of sewage, to do with water usage [and] to do with traffic.”
He added, “All those issues we have carried out assessments for which have been submitted to planning as part of the planning process. So a lot of the issues raised we have taken into consideration and would have been dealt with appropriately.”(MG)