business@tribunemedia.net
Monday, March 9, 2026
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$6.5bn developer shrugs off Ginn sale roadblock BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AMBITIONS for a $6.5bn investment at the former Ginn project have hit a potential roadblock after a rival claimant to ownership of the property launched Supreme Court legal action seeking to block, and overturn, the West End site’s sale by the Government. LRA-OBB Ltd and Resorts Holdings, the two companies that hold the combined 1,931 acres that comprised the failed Ginn development, on February 23, 2026, initiated a Judicial Review action aiming to “quash” efforts by the Department of Inland Revenue and Bahamas Treasurer to sell to 59 percent of this land to Bristol Pointe Ltd, an affiliate of new developer, Coakley International. Tribune Business understands that, while Justice Franklyn Williams last week refused to grant the two companies permission to proceed with the Judicial Review challenge, he only did so on the basis that the Attorney General’s
Current owners in Supreme Court bid to block deal Coakley chief: ‘We’re moving ahead like it don’t exist’ Claims of ‘illegality’ around $10m unpaid tax challenge
Office had agreed to give an undertaking that the Treasurer and tax collection authority would not proceed with the sale until
the the current owners’ Tax Appeal Commission challenge is resolved. Resorts Holdings and LRA-OBB, which are
GBPA ‘value proposition’ clarified by tribunal ruling BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN businessman is asserting that the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) “value proposition” has been clarified by last week’s arbitration verdict with Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority reasserting that the city injects $200m in taxes annually into the Public Treasury. Sir Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, told Tribune Business that the outcome had created “a realistic pathway” for outside investors to potentially buy-out the Hayward
SIR FRANKLYN WILSON and St George families by providing a better idea of the purchase price they may have to pay and what they would actually be acquiring. Besides narrowing the GBPA’s true value through the rejection of its $1bn
REFORM - See Page B3
Ex-Princess Cays supervisor sees $24k award overturned BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER carpentry supervisor at Carnival and Princess Cruise Lines’ 40-acre Eleuthera private island has seen his $24,266 award for wrongful dismissal overturned by the Court of Appeal. The three-person court, in a unanimous March 3, 2026, verdict ruled that Rionda Godet, the Industrial Tribunal’s vice-president, had “misdirected” herself in awarding damages to Thomas Moxey by taking into account material that
was not before Princess Cays when it terminated him for removing copper from the company’s premises without authorisation. And the Court of Appeal also found that the Industrial Tribunal, in reaching its now-overturned verdict, had also strayed from the real issue - assessing whether, under the Employment Act’s section 33, that Princess Cays had conducted a thorough enough investigation and, based on the evidence before it, could form an “honest and reasonable”
VERDICT - See Page B4
represented by Michael Scott KC, and representatives from the Attorney General’s Office were understood to still be negotiating the undertaking’s terms as the week closed. Should the undertaking be given, it would largely achieve the same objective as the Judicial Review - to halt, and block, any sale until the Commission resolves the dispute over almost $10m in past due real property tax arrears - much of which alleged to have been outstanding for a decade or more. LRA-OBB, which stands for Lubert Adler-Old Bahama Bay, and Resorts Holdings are challenging UNDERTAKING - See Page B7
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‘Abrupt hostility’: Ginn project cites $21m gap on ‘75%-plus’ over-bill BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
SHANE COAKLEY
RENDERINGS of the hotel/casino and mega yacht marina for Coakley International’s proposed $6.4bn development of the former Ginn project’s site in Grand Bahama’s West End.
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THE former Ginn project’s present owners are asserting their efforts to bridge a $21m valuation difference, which has resulted in them being over-charged real property tax by “more than 75 percent-plus”, have been met with a mix of “disengagement” and “abrupt hostility” by the tax authorities. Legal documents obtained by Tribune Business detail allegations by Reunion Cay Island Resort LLC, the managing agent for LRA-OBB Ltd and Resorts Holdings, that repeated efforts “to resolve legacy tax matters” - including near-$10m in purportedly unpaid real property tax arrears, some of which have been outstanding for a decade or more - have failed to move the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) to settlement. Daniel Baker, Reunion Cay’s authorised representative, in a December
17, 2025, affidavit lodged with the Tax Appeal Commission asserted that LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, the two entities that hold the 1,931 acres that comprised the former Ginn project, have been over-billed “by more than 57 percent” for 2024’s real property tax assessment based on the DIR’s inflated land valuations. He alleged that appraisals conducted for Reunion Cay by the EY (Ernst & Young) accounting firm, plus Coldwell Banker Lightbourn Realty, show the true market value of the two companies’ ten collective West End land parcels is a combined $15m. However, Mr Baker asserted that the Department of Inland Revenue is using $36m, a valuation more than double or some 140 percent higher, as the basis for calculating due real property tax which is causing the substantial over-billings. Full details of the dispute, and outstanding tax arrears allegedly owed to
CHARGE - See Page B5