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MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2023
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Heroic $6.2m investment creates 70 concrete jobs
PI entrepreneur says new evidence found
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A GRAND Bahama businesswoman is investing $6.2m in a concrete plant operation that will create up to 70 jobs over the next 12 months as it “ramps up” to full operations following its April 22 ground-breaking. Glennett Fowler, also FowlCo’s president and chief executive, told Tribune Business that the newlyformed Heroic Group had spent significant time and money on staff training and technology to ensure the venture will be “working at a global standard, not a ‘Mom and Pop’ operation” once production begins from its location off Queen’s Highway. Disclosing that the operation, to be named Heroic Concrete and Concrete Products, will have the capacity to produce up to 1,700 concrete blocks daily and operate for 24 hours per day, she said it will provide a much-needed boost for Grand Bahama’s economy and job creation on the island.
• FowlCo chief unveils April 22 ground break • GB plant in rapid ‘ramp up’ for October close • RF raises $5m financing with more to come
GLENNETT FOWLER
With much of the plant’s infrastructure and equipment already on the island, and the remainder “in transit” from Europe, Mrs Fowler said Heroic had teamed with Nassaubased RF Bank & Trust to late last year raise $5m to finance the project through a preference share private placement. Acknowledging that concrete production is a “capital intensive” business, she added that Heroic is forecasting it will need additional financing - and be able to take on new shareholders - after three-five years as demand increases from real estate and foreign direct investment (FDI) projects. Heroic will be tapping into FowlCo’s maritime and logistics expertise, and its plant’s location near Freeport Harbour, to help export its products from Grand Bahama to construction projects on multiple other Bahamian islands. Besides ready mix and concrete blocks, it is also targeting specialised and custom-made concrete products as well as those that
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Pre-COVID ‘comeback’ still $3bn off GDP target By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE BAHAMAS must focus on “how we grow from here” because returning to pre-COVID’s $13bn economic output is “not sufficient to take the ship of state forward”, a governance reformer argued yesterday. Hubert Edwards, head of the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) economic development committee, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas’ “comeback” from the depths of the COVID pandemic in less than three years should not be diminished or ignored.
HUBERT EDWARDS But, speaking after the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) unveiled data showing 2022’s real gross domestic product (GDP) was slightly higher than that for the last COVID-free year of 2019,
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Ex-BNT chief fears PI dangerous precedent By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIANS “should be very concerned” that Royal Caribbean’s Paradise Island project sets a precedent that will allow other cruise lines to develop their own private destinations near Nassau, an exNational Trust chief warned yesterday. Eric Carey, the BNT’s former executive director, told Tribune Business that if the cruise giant’s $100m Royal Beach Club is ultimately given the go-ahead then it will pave the way for the likes of Carnival,
ERIC CAREY Disney and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to push for their own exclusive New Providence destinations on the likes of Athol Island and Rose Island.
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THE Bahamian entrepreneur battling to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse is seeking the Court of Appeal’s permission to introduce new evidence he says he has uncovered relating to his disputed Crown Land lease. Toby Smith, the Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club principal, in a statement issued yesterday to confirm his appeal’s filing said he has “not wavered” in his determination to see his ambitions become reality despite what he described as “4,008 days of trying” to obtain the necessary government permits and approvals. He spoke out after formally lodging a ‘Notice of Appeal’ motion with the Court of Appeal registry on March 30, which launches his bid to overturn the verdict by Sir Ian Winder, the chief justice,
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• Seeks permission to use in lease appeal • Now ‘4,008 days of trying’ for approvals
TOBY SMITH