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Wednesday, July 1, 2026
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College fund’s $20m financed housing linked to drug suspect !"#%&('#7$3+%&'' +,-./01#!/2-0122#&9-65, nhartnell@ tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN parents saving for their child’s college education supplied the original $20m financing for the Government’s flagship Carmichael Village affordable housing project being built by a contractor linked to an accused drug trafficker. Corporate documents seen and obtained by Tribune Business reveal that the funding came from an investment fund called the Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan, whose website describes it as a “cooperative education savings plan” that pools contributions from parents, grandparents, guardians and others towards covering the cost of a child’s university and college education. Heritage’s role is disclosed in a so-called
* Heritage Scholarship Plan supplied Carmichael Village funds * 2024 accounts reveal ‘senior unsecured loan’ to project’s SPV * Bahamas parents fund project built by Gardiner-tied contractor “promissory note”, filed and recorded with the Registrar General’s Department’s deeds and documents section on August 8, 2022. This guarantees the obligation of Carmichael Village Project Development Company, the Government special purpose vehicle (SPV) responsible for overseeing the affordable housing project, to repay the $20m advance. Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan, and the foundation of the same name, are clearly identified as the “lender” by the document. In it, Carmichael Village Project Development Company
Minister: Jobs market’s on ‘more stable footing’ !"#%&('#7$3+%&'' +,-./01#!/2-0122#&9-65, nhartnell@ tribunemedia.net A CABINET minister last night hailed 2025 second half workforce data as showing “the labour market has found a more stable footing” with the economy expanding fast enough “to absorb virtually everyone looking for work”. But Pia Glover-Rolle, minister of labour and the public service, told Tribune Business that - while the 8.8 percent and 8.7 percent national unemployment rates for the 2025 third and fourth quarters were among the lowest in Bahamian history - “more progress can
be made” to drive the jobless rate even lower. She added that the second Davis administration is basing its strategy to expand employment opportunities further on “three pillars” - increased training and education, so that workers gain more skills to boost their income-earning capacity; job creation through local and foreign direct investment (FDI), accompanied by a crackdown on work permits where Bahamians are qualified and available to do the job; and increased opportunities for Family Island residents. Meanwhile Kwasi Thompson, the Opposition’s finance spokesman,
“unconditionally promises” to repay Heritage “the principal sum of $20m in immediately available funds” and interest on the dates set out by the schedule in an underlying credit agreement. The latter document was not attached to the filings with the Registrar General’s Department. Payments from the affordable housing SPV were to be made to Heritage’s bank account at Royal Bank of Canada’s Bay Street branch, and the promissory note was signed by the late Antoinette Thompson, permanent secretary in the then-Ministry of Housing and Transport,
>'*?&3@3*''& told this newspaper that while the increase in the number of employed Bahamians - from 222,575 in the 2025 third quarter to 226,025 just three months later - was positive he also had concerns about the more than 26,000 deemed to be under-employed. Pointing out that simply having a job is sometimes not enough, especially amid the ongoing cost of living crisis, he called on the Government to bring major investment projects out of the pipeline to “shovel ready” status much more quickly. And the east Grand Bahama MP added that extra focus needs to be
SEE EMPLOYED, Page 5
who was named as Carmichael Village Project Development Company’s president and director. The promissory note’s authenticity is confirmed by Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan’s audited 2024 financial statements, produced by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting firm, which specifically note and break out the Renaissance at Carmichael Village advance among the fund’s Bahamian dollar investments. The accounts for the year to end-December 2024 describe this as “a senior unsecured loan
A BAHAMIAN Senator yesterday revealed she was forced to pay rent on an unopened business, postpone hiring staff and ultimately lost a key employee after her latest restaurant venture was delayed as she acknowledged the need for streamlined regulatory approvals. D’Asante Small, also owner of Da Bush Cook, Oasis Bar & Bistro and the Palmdale Pub, agreed that inefficient government processes remain one of the biggest barriers to business expansion despite increasing public investment in small business grants and loans. "It's not legislation," Ms Small said "I think it's
a lot of our processes that are hindering some business advancement and growth. So the Business Licence process is very long, unnecessarily. As a small business that owns a bar now, or have to go through the new liquor licence process, it's like extra steps." Ms Small said policymakers must do more to consult small business operators before implementing regulatory changes. "We have to stop making decisions at a government level without ensuring that small businesses are in the room and able to advise," she said. Describing her own experience, she said regulatory delays postponed the opening of Palmdale Pub. "For me, for example, we would have invested in our new space, Palmdale Pub, from
SEE DELAYED, Page 5
!"#%&('#7$3+%&'' 809#:$;#<(==*%< +,-./01#!/2-0122# 3145,61,2 THE parties warring over the $200m Rosewood Exuma project yesterday resumed battle with a dispute over whether new environmental evidence can be presented at an appeal hearing challenging the development’s preliminary site plan approval. The procedural showdown before the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB) resulted in the neighbouring Turtlegrass Resort & Island Club project receiving permission to proceed with submittting six expert reports in its challenge to Rosewood Exuma’s planning related approvals. However, the
and a February 5, 1992, agreement with the Central Bank of The Bahamas. What all this means is that, in effect, funds invested by Bahamians seeking to save for and finance their child’s later-life tertiary education have been used to kick-start a project being constructed by a contractor owned by Top Notch Builders - a company linked to Jonathan ‘Eric’ Gardiner, also known as ‘Player’, who has been arrested and charged with drug smuggling by US authorities following his arrest in the aftermath of the May 12
SEE HOUSING, Page 3
‘Anarchy’ fear as near one in five under-employed or fully jobless !"#%&('#7$3+%&'' +,-./01#!/2-0122#&9-65, nhartnell@ tribunemedia.net
* Over 26,000 Bahamians not working and earning enough * Further 21,500 seeking employment but cannot find work * Union chief: Figures ‘ridiculous’; no ‘one man band’ cure
A UNION leader yesterday asserted it was “ridiculous” that almost 48,000 Bahamian workers, or nearly one in every five members of the labour force, are either unemployed or under-employed and warned that “anarchy” will result if persons cannot feed their families. Obie Ferguson KC, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, voiced concern to Tribune Business that The Bahamas will face “serious, serious problems” if the relatively low national jobless rate
of 8.7 percent fails to translate into equitable benefits spread more evenly throughout the workforce. While the Labour Force Survey for the 2025 third and fourth quarters contained encouraging signs, with the national unemployment rate stable at below 9 percent for last year’s second half despite the annual influx of several thousand school leavers into the workforce over the summer, some data also signalled continued inequality among working
Senator reveals restaurant Exuma resort dispute’s delayed by regulatory woe battle on new evidence !"#$%%&'($#%()*% +,-./01#!/2-0122# 3145,61, !"#$%"&'(#)*"+,+-#!."+'
- Carmichael Village Development Project” with both its amortised cost and fair value stated to be $10m. This meant the affordable housing credit facility accounted for 29.5 percent, or close to one-third, of Heritage’s $33.939m Bahamian dollar-denominated investments at year-end 2024. Heritage’s financial statements confirm that “investments denominated in Bahamian dollars relate to interests held in the plan by Bahamian subscribers” as their contributions are restricted to investments in this nation only under the exchange control regime
latter’s developer, Miamibased Yntegra Group, will be given the chance to respond to this new evidence before the appeal proceeds to a substantive hearing. Both sides were quick to provide their views on yesterday’s developments, with a Turtlegrass spokesman accusing the Rosewood Exuma developer and its Delaney Partners attorneys of “attempting to gag us” by filing submissions with the Board just 24 hours prior to the hearing arguing that no fresh evidence was admissible or can be presented. Yntegra, though, countered that its major opponent was seeking to misleadingly present “a procedural matter as a
SEE DEVELOP, Page 4
Bahamians when it comes to hours, salaries and employment quality. While the increase in employment slightly outpaced the labour force’s expansion during the 2025 second half, a deeper dive into the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) reveals that more than 50,000 Bahamian workers are struggling in some form when the 2,640 discouraged persons - those who have given up seeking jobs because they believe
SEE JOBLESS, Page 2