business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021
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‘This boom has legs’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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ALM Cay’s developer is planning to invest a further $100m in accelerating its buildout by exploiting surging real estate demand, its top executive saying yesterday: “This boom has got some legs.” Jack Hannaby, the eastern New Providence development’s managing director, told Tribune Business it is aiming to make its “leap” forward in half the time required to reach present build-out with real estate sales “a couple of hundred percent” above 2020 levels. With construction work underway, or about to begin, on three different real estate products at Palm Cay, he said the development’s ultimate “game plan” is to become a destination where residents do not have to leave the Yamacraw community for any services or amenities they need. A grocery store, cinema, communal work space, hair salon and larger spa are among the amenities that the Yamacraw-based development plans to add over the next two-three years,
• Palm Cay eyes further $100m investment • As real estate sales up ‘couple hundred percent’ • Aiming to ‘leap’ forward in half the time SCENES of Palm Cay.
with Mr Hannaby describing Palm Cay as having become “the main hub” for economic activity and job creation in eastern New Providence. “The end game for Palm Cay is that you won’t have to leave at all,” he told this newspaper. “We have a beach club, restaurant, cafe, spa, gym and tennis courts, and we’re doing a putting green (golf) right now. Within the next three years you really won’t have
Ice cream firm gets RBC/SBDC ‘Shiver’
By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN-made ice cream producer is accusing the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) of trying to “choke” it out of business amid COVID-related distress. Melissa Darville, coowner of Shiver, told Tribune Business that the SBDC had failed to support her during what she described as undue financial and operational difficulties caused by the pandemic’s economic stress. And she added that
operations had paused due to cash flow difficulties, which she blamed on RBC’s non-cooperation and the bank levying late fees for non-repayment and taking whatever money Shiver was making from its account to cover loan arrears. Ms Darville said: “What the SBDC is doing to me is beyond inhumane. It’s just beyond. If I were a lazy person then I would say this is why the business is failing, but it’s because of the obstacles put there apart from COVID-19. “Apart from me figuring
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Palm Cay developer’s $100m ‘Rise’ in west By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
PALM Cay’s developer yesterday said it was aiming to “Rise” in western New Providence by the 2022 second quarter with a $100m investment in its latest real estate project. Jack Hannaby, the eastern New Providence community’s managing director, told Tribune Business that surging real estate demand as well as progress on Palm Cay’s buildout had encouraged it to move forward with The Rise.
Revealing that the developer has owned the property, located between Sapodilla and Ocean Terraces, for as long as it has held Palm Cay, he added that the site has already been cleared for a construction start on what is currently projected to be a 100 unit condo/penthouse project spread over ten blocks with associated amenities. “We’re going to be starting construction in the second quarter next year,” Mr
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to leave at all. “There will be a cinema, work space, larger spa. In terms of boating, we already get a huge amount of traffic, with transient boaters coming in and out for the Exumas, as we’re a great stepping point for them. As we grow services there will be less requirement to leave, and Palm Cay will become a destination. “Palm Cay will turn from ‘Palm Cay, a nice place’, to ‘let’s go to Palm Cay
because of everything they have’. It will certainly be the place to go for the whole of the eastern region.” Palm Cay’s development to-date has been careful never to get ahead of market demand. With the fifth phase of its Anchorage condominiums now fully sold-out, and just two units left in its waterfront Starfish Isle residences, it is now poised to accelerate
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Don’t ‘hide behind letter of law’ over beneficial owners By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A PROMINENT banker yesterday criticised the government for “hiding behind the letter of the law” in not providing beneficial ownership details on COVID contract winners to the Auditor General. Gowon Bowe, pictured, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive and a member of the Fiscal Responsibility Council, told Tribune Business that if legal restrictions were a problem then the government should “embed” in the public procurement process a requirement that the winning bidder disclose who its beneficial owners are. His comments came as Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for finance, informed this newspaper that provisions in the new Public Procurement Act, which takes effect on September 1, address at least some of the concerns raised by the Office of the Auditor General as well as Mr Bowe.
Legal reforms allow some disclosure
He added that it “provides for the government’s ability to publish the names of beneficial owners for recipients of government contracts where funding was sourced from an international agreement or funding agency. The government will comply with the law”. While this would appear to clear the way for beneficial ownership disclosure on contracts awarded using the proceeds from last year’s “emergency” $250m International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, which was the subject of the Office of the
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