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TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2023
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Love Beach is not feeling the Passion By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net LOVE Beach residents have united in opposition to a prominent Bahamian developer’s condominium project amid fears it will “bulldoze” the area’s property values and deter further investor interest. Multiple homeowners, including Sir Baltron Bethel, former senior policy adviser to thenprime minister Perry Christie, are appealing the Town Planning Committee’s decision to give “preliminary approval” to the Passion Point development proposed by Jason Kinsale, the Aristo Development chief behind projects such as Balmoral on Sandford Drive;
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Central Bank warned over Gov’t lending limits breach By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Central Bank was advised it could breach its legal lending limits to the Government through the latter’s use of $232.3m in IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) without reforms to its governing Act. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government and Central Bank, which facilitated the transaction, shows the alarm was raised by the latter’s external legal advisers to such an extent that the Central Bank Act had to be amended “out of an abundance of caution” over the SDR deal. The MoU, which was signed by Prime Minister Philip Davis KC in his capacity as minister of finance, and Central Bank governor, John Rolle, on November 29, 2022, makes clear that the transaction was instigated by the Government via the Ministry
t -BX IBE UP CF DIBOHFE GPS N *.' 4%3T of Finance. However, the Central Bank seemingly felt it necessary to obtain a written agreement from the Government that it would amend its governing to ensure the regulator remained in compliance with the law. “The Ministry has recommended, with the [Central] Bank’s endorsement, a conversion of the 2021 SDR allocation into US dollars to undertake debt management operations to repay external debt, help stabilise The Bahamas’ US dollar bond debt obligations, and to lock in significant savings on the debt, with the cost and replenishment or reconstitution obligations around use of the balances
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total - will completely alter Love Beach’s character for the worse by increasing traffic congestion and raising “huge environmental concerns”. Peter Whitehead, a Love Beach resident, in a January 17, 2023, missive to the planning authorities
titled: ‘How is seven storeys not illegal’, wrote: “The ares we have out here is a beautiful residential community, one of the nicest in Nassau. “In most of the places I’ve seen around the world, where there are nice residential communities that end up having high valuations, you cannot simply come in and build a building that has nothing to do with the zoning or aesthetics of the area. Think of any area where land values go up, and have enduring value. You can’t simply walk into a single storey or two storey area of residential homes and build seven storeys. It just doesn’t happen.
VILLAGE Road businesses yesterday blasted the Government’s efforts to repair business premises, residences and driveways/ parking lots damaged by the area’s 15-month roadworks as “haphazard” and lacking “structure”.
Michael Fields, president and chief executive of Four Walls Squash and Social Club, who also heads the Village Road Business Collective, in an open letter to Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, said it was “impossible to reconcile” the latter’s suggestions that promised repairs are now underway with the on-ground reality. Voicing surprise at the minister’s assertions,
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FORMER Cabinet minister Dionisio D’Aguilar at Lighthouse Point, Paradise Island.
especially given the Village Road business community’s alleged lack of communication with the Ministry of Works and Utilities, he also urged the Government to get the traffic lights at the Shirley Street junction operational following “another” threecar accident last week. “Is the Government going to wait for someone to be severely injured or killed?” Mr Fields asked.
He wrote in his letter: “It is difficult to understand why the Ministry of Works refuses to engage in an open and transparent dialogue with the business community, and why our discussions with the Ministry of Finance seem to be an excuse for avoiding answering any questions or providing any official updates on a project that is
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EX-PM demands Central Bank HQ deal explanation By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A FORMER prime minister yesterday demanded an explanation for why the Central Bank’s proposed new headquarters building at Royal Victoria Gardens in downtown Nassau was “terminated’. Dr Hubert Minnis, speaking in the House of
Assembly on the Central Bank of The Bahamas Act amendments, questioned whether a Cabinet decision was behind the move given that Parliament had already approved the land transfer from the Government to the financial services industry regulator. Noting that the project had started under the last Christie administration, and carried on through his own, he suggested that
SIR BALTRON BETHEL
Former minister: Give Toby ‘some preference’ over PI
Village Road companies slam ‘haphazard’ damage repairs By NEIL HARTNELL and YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporters
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JASON KINSALE
millions of dollars - up to $12m - could be wasted if the project does not proceed. “Parliament approved the transfer of Crown Land to the Central Bank. Why was the decision made not to go ahead with this major project? Was this a Cabinet decision,” Dr Minnis asked. “The cancellation of the new headquarters at that
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DR HUBERT MINNIS
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Cabinet minister yesterday said the Bahamian entrepreneur battling to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse should be given “some preference” now that his project can easily “co-exist” with Royal Caribbean’s. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation in the Minnis administration, told Tribune Business there was now “sufficient real estate” for both Toby Smith’s Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club venture and the cruise giant’s destination to proceed given that the latter has cut its Crown Land demands. Disclosing that this was a solution he had pushed when in office, he argued that Mr Smith should receive some reward for 12 years’ “in the trenches” through being awarded all the necessary approvals to proceed with plans
to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse and develop his own ‘beach break’ destination for guests. Voicing optimism that any “bad blood” between Mr Smith and Royal Caribbean over their Crown Land fight will “heal over time”, Mr D’Aguilar told this newspaper: “I was supportive of both of them. It’s good that they could both co-exist, and it seems as if Royal Caribbean, which initially asked for seven Crown Land acres, has reduced their requirements down to four. “That leaves a position for Toby’s project to move forward if they can both coexist, and it seems a happy medium has now been reached.... There may be bad blood between them, but there’s sufficient real estate for both projects to co-exist, and I’m sure the bad blood will heal over time and they will happily co-exist next to each other. “They certainly have the real estate now, and the
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