business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2025
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‘I’ve seen nothing that alarms me’ t 1SPNJOFOU SFBMUPS TBZT OP ATMPXEPXO TJHOT t /BTTBV 1* IPNFT UBLJOH MFTT UJNF UP TFMM t %BUB AQSPWFT EZOBNJD NBSLFU BNJE UBSJGG XPFT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A PROMINENT Bahamian realtor yesterday disclosed he has “not seen anything that alarms me” with data “proving a dynamic market” driven by strong demand despite the Trump tariff uncertainty. David Morley, DAVID MORLEY Morley Realty’s broker/owner, told Tribune Business he has detected no signs of any “slowdown” across the main island markets of New Providence, Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma with his company’s analysis of 2025 first quarter industry data showing “homes continue to sell quickly” especially in the nation’s capital. Using figures derived from the Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) Multiple Listing System (MLS), which is estimated to capture 60 percent and more of industry sales and thus provide a good indicator of overall activity, Morley Realty’s report on the first three months for 2025 showed that the time existing New Providence homes spent on the market once listed has fallen to an average of three months or 90 days. That represents a 31.8 percent decline year-over-year, and 11.8 percent drip quarterover-quarter, which Mr Morley said “shows the demand is still there” to both support seller asking prices and close property deals relatively quickly. And, while the uncertainty and confusion caused by the US president’s tariff policies occurred after the first quarter closed, he told this newspaper there has been no real estate fall-out.
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CCA bids to block Sarkis ‘chaos’ peril By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHA Mar’s contractor is seeking to prevent Sarkis Izmirlian creating “a chaotic environment” by filing a rival plan to reorganise its US affiliate as it moves to appeal the latter’s $1.642bn damages award by May 8. CCA Construction Inc, one of the three entities liable to compensate Baha Mar’s original developer after two New York courts deemed it guilty of fraud and breach of contract, in multiple legal filings this week with the New Jersey federal bankruptcy court is requesting a 120-day extension to the “exclusivity period” where only itself can submit a plan for corporate reorganisation. Failure to obtain an extension, the Chinese state-owned contractor reveals, would pave the way for its creditors - the largest of which is
t 4FFLT FYUSB EBZT UP mMF $IBQUFS QMBO t 0S FMTF #BIB .BS EFWFMPQFS DBO TVCNJU IJT t 1MFEHFT OFX CO BQQFBM MBVODI CZ .BZ Mr Izmirlian and his BML Properties vehicle - to submit a rival, alternative plan to restructure and reorganise CCA Construction Inc under US Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws and regulations. Baha Mar’s original developer would almost certainly, if given the chance, propose a restructuring plan that ensures he receives the now
$1.7bn-plus damages award due to him that was upheld by a New York appeals court on April 8. And CCA’s filings suggest that the peril facing the US subsidiary is increasing given that its existing “exclusivity period” already expired on Monday, April 21 - the same date it sought an extension. And, with the New Jersey bankruptcy yet to rule on CCA’s bid to extend its “exclusivity period” by four months until August 19, 2025, the contractor has also subsequently filed for the court’s permission to join its two fellow Bahamian-domiciled subsidiaries, CCA (Bahamas) and CSCEC (Bahamas), in prosecuting yet another appeal seeking to overturn Mr Izmirlian’s damages award now upheld by two courts. Now blasting the New York State Supreme Court’s appeals division, first judicial department, for “fundamental errors of laws and fact” in
SARKIS IZMIRLIAN its April 8 ruling, CCA said it plans to take its final shot at overturning this verdict with a petition to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York that will be filed by May 8, 2025. Setting out its arguments for an exclusivity period extension, CCA Construction argued that this was warranted by the “complexity” of its situation and, in particular, the threat posed by Mr Izmirlian and his BML Properties vehicle filing an alternative Chapter 11 restructuring plan. It also pledged that it is working on a “flexible, parallel path structure” for reorganising the company and its operations - a thinly-veiled indication that it is working on multiple restructuring plan
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‘No way we could survive’ initial US China ship fee By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ELEUTHERA’S Chamber of Commerce president yesterday asserted “there was no way we could have survived” on the Family Islands if the US had implemented its $1m Chinese-made ship fee as originally proposed. Thomas Sands told Tribune Business he did “not know what we would have done” if
the Trump administration had not altered course given the “insurmountable” and “massive” cost hikes that would have resulted due to the Bahamian economy’s huge import dependence and reliance on products shipped from the US. Grateful that this nation and wider Caribbean have been totally exempted from the Chinese-made ship fees, which were forecast to produce a near-doubling of existing freight costs, he acknowledged
that it is effectively ‘one crisis down, another to go’ while describing the uncertainty created by Donald Trump’s constantly-changing trade and tariff policies as “insane”. Mr Sands said the resulting confusion, and fall-out for consumer and business confidence, is crippling for commerce because “no one knows what’s coming around the corner”. Businesses in Eleuthera and
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THOMAS SANDS
Doctor couple ‘obstructed’ UK contractor family’s sale By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN doctor couple disrupted efforts by a family that founded a UK-headquartered global construction giant to sell a Camperdown property via “significant and unlawful obstruction” of a right of way. Senior justice Deborah Fraser, in an April 17, 2025, verdict ordered Dr Valentine Grimes and Dr Indira Grimes, and their company Indyval Investments, to within 90 days remove a “chicken coop”, plants, fence and gate blocking a 20-foot wide easement that the estate of Sir (Thomas) Malcolm McAlpine wished
to include as part of a wider land transaction. The late Sir Malcolm is one of three sons of Sir Robert McAlpine, founder of the well-known construction and engineering giant that bears the latter’s name. His estate was represented in the trial by Sir Malcolm’s grandson, James, who had replaced his own late father, Kenneth. The McAlpine estate initiated Supreme Court legal action in September 13, 2022, alleging that the doctors - through Indyval Investments - had “unlawfully obstructed” a right of way that had been granted to it through a November 7, 1985, conveyance. The
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Complaints increase over ‘minimum’ card purchase By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Consumer Protection Commission’s chairman yesterday said thre has been an increase in complaints about businesses requiring consumers to buy a minimum amount on credit and debit card purchases Senator Randy Rolle told Tribune Business that the watchdog is investigating these complaints as the practice violates the merchant services agreement these companies have signed with card-issuing companies and financial services providers.
“We’ve seen an increase in complaints about the cosmetic and beauty supply stores. And then we have also been seeing an increase in businesses telling customers that they have to have a minimum amount to purchase on credit cards,” said Mr Rolle. “The merchant services agreement for using a credit card stipulates that you’re not supposed to have a minimum purchase, and you’re not supposed to be charging a convenience fee to use a credit or debit card.” Bahamians have been voicing complaints about ‘minimum purchase’ requirements frequently and for some years
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