business@tribunemedia.net
MONDAY, MAY 27, 2024
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MARIO CAREY
DAVID MORLEY
Developer to unleash $1bn in properties over 5-6 years By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN developer is aiming to unleash $1bn in new real estate within the next five to six years as it likened this nation’s high-end property market to Long Island’s upscale Hamptons community. Matthew Marco, marketing director and licensed realtor at Bond Bahamas, told Tribune Business it is “very bullish” on the country’s real estate prospects given that he had “never received more responses to an e-mail blast in my 20 years in real estate” than the recent launch of the final unsold 14 lots at Balmoral. Jason Kinsale, Bond Bahamas president, was Balmoral’s original developer through his Aristo Development firm, which is affiliated with the realtor. Mr Marco revealed
• Says: ‘Bahamas booming for foreseeable future’ • Eyeing $250m Love Beach launch for late 2024 • Balmoral lot reveal: ‘Most responses in 20 years’ that they plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in not just completing the Aqualina development at Cable Beach but other upcoming projects at Love Beach and Goodman’s Bay. He disclosed to this newspaper that some $250m will be invested in constructing Amaya, a Love Beach development featuring 40 residences priced between $4m and $12m, which is likely to launch towards the end of
2024 and target residents from high-end New Providence communities such as Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay who are seeking to downsize. And Mr Marco also confirmed that Mr Kinsale has acquired the Fairview property at Goodman’s Bay - a deal first revealed by Tribune Business last year. The property is currently being “land banked” with its value expected to appreciate further as a result of a GoldWynn
$256m FTX properties to ‘hit market within 30 days’ JASON KINSALE penthouses project that is viewed as driving real estate values in the area even higher. “We’re very bullish. We have about $1bn in inventory from our projects over the next five to six years,” he told Tribune Business. “Between Love Beach, Goodman’s Bay and Cable Beach, there’s a lot of good things happening. There’s just no more land left in New Providence.
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Gov’t may give up ‘bit’ of taxes for gas margin rise By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association’s (BPRA) vice-president yesterday revealed the Government may give up “a bit” of its gasoline tax revenues to facilitate a margin increase for dealers. Vasco Bastian told Tribune Business that he is presently “the happiest I’ve ever been” over the 27-month negotiations with the Davis administration after Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, disclosed on Friday that the Government was “tweaking
some proposals” in a hope to resolve the situation “within the next couple of weeks”. Describing the potential resolution as a “two-for-one deal”, where the interests of motorists, business and gas station entrepreneurs were protected, the Association vice-president explained that it would result in a “small but significant” margin increase that dealers have been clamouring for as critical to their survival. Mr Bastian, asserting that the industry can now “see some light at the end of the tunnel”,
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Pintard: ‘Moment of truth’ on new FTX accusations By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s leader last night warned that The Bahamas’ reputation as an international financial and business centre is in danger if the latest FTX claims are not investigated as “a matter of urgency”. Michael Pintard, demanding that the Prime Minister launch a “thorough” probe into accusations that the collapsed crypto exchange and its jailed founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, paid a total $675,000 to “entities affiliated with high-ranking Bahamian government officials and their families”, argued that failing to respond could see this nation “squander” multiple
MICHAEL PINTARD economic diversification opportunities. The emergence of these allegations, in a report by Robert Cleary, appointed by the US Department of Justice trustee to examine FTX’s collapse, is especially timed from The
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FTX’s $256m Bahamian property empire is set to “hit the market within the next 30 days” after five to seven local realtors were selected to handle their disposal. Realtors spoken to by Tribune Business said the high-end international market for Bahamian real estate is more than capable of absorbing the one-time influx of 34 properties purchased by the collapsed crypto exchange, one going so far as to describe their impending listing-for-sale as a “drop in the bucket”.
All confirmed that FTX’s Bahamian liquidators, chiefly the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo of Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, have recently started issuing confirmations to the Bahamian realtors selected to list, market and sell properties that represent a significant source of recovery for investors and creditors. This newspaper understands that the high-end residential and commercial properties have been splitup between as many as five to seven realtors as the Bahamian liquidators seek
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