Luke Espat & Mike Feinstein Seal Cruise Tourism Deal

It's a deal that's been percolating for months and tonight we can report that the Stake Bank/Belize Cruise Terminal conflict has been settled: Luke Espat's Belize Cruise Terminal Ltd. has partially bought out Mike Feinstein's Stake Bank Project. We couldn't get any of the principals to confirm this, but 7NEWS has been informed that they yesterday evening the documents were signed at the Ministry of Finance. According to our sources the deal is that Stake Bank will still be developed, but only as a destination, not as a port. So that means Belize will have only one cruise terminal, one port where cruise ships can dock and it will be at Luke Espat's Belize Cruise Terminal in Port Loyola. So what did it cost Espat to get Feinstein to back down from his project which proposed to build a cruise terminal at Stake Bank? Well our sources say Espat and his backers had to pay US$4.5 million for 50% ownership of Stake Bank - which will now be developed as an offshore destination for cruise visitors. But that settles it, for the time being at least. Belize will have one cruise terminal which - according to the plan - will have at least one Genesis class dock for the new type of Royal Caribbean ships and another regular dock for the Carnival ships. All the major lines, including Norwegian are expected to use this facility.