Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with a great deal of personal delight and pleasure that I join in with the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Tourism, my parliamentary colleagues and the straw and craft vendors of the world famous Bay Street Straw Market, and well wishes for the contract signing to construct a brand new state of the art straw market that our detractors said, would never be built.

The fact of the matter is that the FNM administration sought to place the straw vendors in an old warehouse on Prince George Dock at a refurbishment cost of $3,030,000.00.  Perry Christie’s PLP Government will place the vendors in a $22 Million construction cost building on Bay Street.  It is clear as day that the FNM administration did not want the straw and craft vendors to return to Bay Street.

Ladies and Gentlemen, to retain the culture and history of the Straw Market one must understand the Craft and what it has meant to so many Bahamians over the years. Many families can boast that it was their work in the market that assisted in the quality of their lives. Secondly, Market Street has a significant relation, in that it was the path that the farmers took from Grants Town and beyond to go to market to sell their produce at the  exchange as it was called back then at the North end of  Market & Bay Streets. The Path took the Marketers along Market St. through the St. Gregory’s Arch which was a line  that separated the common man from Bay Street.  The Straw Market’s history is a colorful one, but filled with challenges. In the 1940’s through 1960’s the straw Market was situated in Rawson Square. It was moved to the burnt out site after the Produce & Fish Exchange which was built in 1910, and occupied the site.   A new Straw Market was constructed on the site in the 1970’s and the vendors at Rawson Square were relocated there. This structure was  destroyed by fire on September 4, 2001.

Culturally the Market surged at the advent of the tourism industry. It became the number one location to buy a souvenir of the Bahamas. On display was the craft being made and artists carvings, paintings  and native songs humming somewhere and about. The call to market was usually made on ship days when the thunderous horn of a cruise ship’s steamer notified the arrival of the tourist dollar.

For the third time in our history a major fire raged in the downtown area of our city. We will all remember the afternoon of September 4, 2001. This fire destroyed our internationally renowned Straw Market. By the mercy of God, no lives were lost, but an important element of our tourism product was brought to ashes.

A tent was secured to provide temporary shelter for straw vendors which still remain.  The former administration in October 2001 agreed the proposal for the renovation of the old Customs Warehouse located on Prince George Dock and to   negotiate a design and construction contract to allow the project to be expedited quickly with Osprey Developers at a cost not to exceed $3,030,000.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you will recall that some time in July/August of 2002 the then US Ambassador raised serious concerns, of his Government, regarding possible terrorist activities  in that area as a result of the close proximity of cruise ships to the Prince George Wharf warehouse.  $2.3 Million was spent at the time the contract was terminated and the estimated cost to complete the works was $1.4 Million.

In the summer of 2002, with resolve, Perry Christie’s Government initiated a National Competition to build a new edifice and we invited all local Architects to produce designs to be judged by a panel of international and local judges. The competition was held, and was won by a local Bahamian Architect, Mr. Michael Foster.

Over the following months we reviewed the winning design to assure that all the needs were addressed and we set out to construct the new straw market.

But in the way there were obstacles.

First we discovered that the substructure of the old building was buried below the site, and working around it or excavating it would  create a development nightmare. So we chose to investigate it's reuse and this meant, that we had to test over 200 existing drilled piles to assure their strength and worthiness.

Assuring that the substructure was worthy, the new design had to be altered to delineate itself with the existing substructure grid. This exercise required the excavation presently seen on site. In the exercise we uncovered deterioration of the sub terrain as the old straw market had been built on old conch shells and over the years the compactness had been eaten away.

This site investigation work revealed that we would have to spend more money than was expected.

I wish to note, that at this time there were so many other important matters including recovery from devastating hurricanes that required immediate budgetary attention. Pressures on the budget required that we needed to resuscitate the education and social programs, and salaries for Civil Servants.

However, Prime Minister Christie reinforced, that we were committed to "Our Plan" in our promise to the Bahamian people, despite the state of the economy that we were left to manage after May 2002. Our commitment was to stop the decaying quality of the Bahamian standard, and uplift the underprivileged, and the downtrodden in our urban areas for a true "better" Bahamas.

Straw and craft vendors, these were the challenges we met and we apologize for the hardships you have endured in that uncomfortable and cramped tent.  In our planning, we sought out strategies of alternative financing. We received interests of financing from a number of sources both locally and international. At different times all of the interests wavered, after coming to understand the peculiarities of the project.

Many of the interests had a difficulty with the manner in which the former Straw Market operated in the past,  and they questioned how it would operate efficiently in the future. The primary question however was how the Government of the Bahamas would seek to invest such a large sum of money in such a project with very little if any financial profit. We firmly told them that our investment was in the tourism product and our people.

We accepted that this setback was only a measure of time as the Government of the Bahamas has kept its promise despite the challenges.

Today, I am happy to inform you that the New Straw Market will be constructed on three levels and will house approximately 600 vendors. The Third level referred to as the roof deck level will have a space for 5,000 square feet on the Bay Street side for some business venture and a 5000 square foot Restaurant on the harbor side.

The Straw Market at its center will have a 100 foot observation tower accessed by elevator for an exciting panoramic experience of the city and harbor. The Restaurant, another business and the Tower will be the major elements for revenue generation.

The vendors on levels one and two, will be grouped in quaint clapboard villages. The Market Overall Theme is to create an interior village concept where each stall in effect would be a clapboard façade of a house with a porch where craft-work is displayed. The vendor stalls shall be an average of 32 Square feet per stall, each exposed to eight foot wide street isles. Each stall will be secure and have a contained storage space. Each stall will be equipped with power and Intelligent Technology Services for internet access and credit card transactions.

Each village will have an indigenous Bahamian name, like Grants Town, Fox Hill, Bain Town or the names of former giants who worked in the straw market for many years.  Planter boxes with native vegetation, old town electrical lamps, brick laid floors and street signs will add an old town flavor to create the environment. Additionally off the main floor, there will be a space for the vendors to eat and a space for additional bin storage for stock which we anticipate will reduce the everyday toting of wares from their homes to the market.

The Straw Market will also have a confectionery village, a multi-purpose room and wide perimeter verandahs for artists on easels. The Straw Market will have a total of 36 individual toilets available to the public and the staff. The Straw Market will be 100 percent handicap friendly and will be 100 % sprinkled within a state of the art fire fighting system. The structure will have five elevators, one dedicated for service, two for lift up the roof deck and tower and two for lift up to the roof deck only.

So, in fulfilling our promise, Perry Christie’s Government initiates today, the construction of the New Straw Market with the signing of a contract for a sum of 23 Million Dollars.

The Contractor selected from a Tender of five, is the Woselee Construction Company headed by a young highly qualified, successful Bahamian Contractor, Mr. Ashley Glinton, whose roots go deep in Bain and Grants Town. And we anticipate that the construction will be completed by August 2008.

In closing, I wish to say to the vendors that we had hoped that this project would have been constructed sooner than later. To this day, this commitment will be the largest sum of money ever committed to any government constructed building funded by the Government of the Bahamas. It's position will be third in a short time however as we intend to commit in the future, much larger sums to the construction of the New Sir Lynden Airport and the New Princess Margaret Hospital.

The Prime Minister will  declare that the New Straw Market officially kicks off the Redevelopment of Downtown. Once the Market is finished we will commence works to construct the extension of The Pompey Museum. We will commence the Construction of the New Parliamentary Center, a new judicial complex and cause the development of a new port in southwest New Providence.

Perry Christie’s Government is proud herald today that the Bay Street revival has begun.

God bless the straw vendors and their families; God bless the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.