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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2025
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Atlantis’s $10m PI school set to boost ‘renaissance’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ATLANTIS’S bid to construct a $10m school on Paradise Island has been hailed by other developers and realtors alike for “feeding into the renaissance” of the destination and boosting its competitiveness. The mega resort’s plans to invest an eight-figure sum in developing a 61,000 square foot school at the 23-acre site Flamingo Lake site, located on Paradise Island Drive between Compass Suites and the Four Seasons Ocean Club, were unveiled on Friday ahead of the September 24, 2025, public consultation that is part of the process for obtaining the necessary environmental approvals. Atlantis, responding to Tribune Business inquiries, said there would be “no further comments” beyond what is detailed in the now-public Environmental Impact Assessment
t 8JMM DSFBUF AGVMM UJNF BOE DPOTUSVDUJPO KPCT t 'BDJMJUZ GPS TUVEFOUT JT IBJMFE BT NJTTJOH MJOL t /BUVSF SFTFSWF QBSLJOH MPU BMTP GPS 1* %SJWF TJUF (EIA), which said the project will create construction and full-time jobs “estimated at 50-100 people” and take two years to build. The school would cater to 150 students who are Paradise Island residents. The project, provided it obtains its certificate of environmental clearance (CEC) and other approvals and proceeds, would give Paradise Island one of the few remaining amenities
AML Foods holds to $250m sales target despite blaze By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net TOP AML Foods executives have pledged that the mid-April 2025 blaze which destroyed two stores “will not define us” with the company holding to its target of hitting $250m in annual sales by 2030. Both Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed food retail and franchise group’s chairman, and Gavin Watchorn, its president and chief executive, struck an upbeat tone in its just-released 2025 annual report with the former branding the loss
FRANKLYN BUTLER of its Solomon’s Old Trail and Cost Right stores “a temporary setback” and the latter revealing it plans to re-open at the same fire
FIRE - See Page B8
Developer eyes second $500m project approval in 6-7 months By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE developer behind the $200m Rosewood Exuma project is hoping to receive environmental approvals for its second $500m project within six to seven months. Felipe MacLean, principal of Miami-based Yntegra Group, conceded that its $500m Bvlgari Resort & Mansions development on Cave Cay is now running about 12 months behind its original schedule as it works to obtain a certificate
of environmental clearance from the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP). “Cave Cay is in the process of getting the certificate of environmental clearance. It’s run its process, and those processes take time, and hopefully that process could be ready, I would say, in the next six to seven months,” said Mr MacLean. “I will say that probably the Bvlgari project, it’s about 12 months behind, this project, but it’s moving forward and we’re very
PERMIT - See Page B11
that it now lacks. And, in so doing, realtors and developers forecast it will improve the destination’s attractiveness for investors and real estate purchasers - especially those who have children and want to live in The Bahamas full-time. Given that the quality and location of schools is a key consideration for most families, the Atlantis school project is likely to improve Paradise Island’s competitiveness when set against the likes of Albany, Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay - all of which are located in close proximity to what are considered New Providence’s top private, fee-paying schools. Several realtors pointed out that, once completed and operational, the Atlantis-developed project would ensure Paradise Island residents no longer have to brave New Providence’s “brutal” morning and afternoon rush-hour traffic to take their children to school in the island’s west or east. It would, in effect, be
EDUCATION - See Page B9
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‘It was a complete slam dunk case’ t (PW U GBJMT UP IBMU TFJ[FE WFTTFM T SFMFBTF t #BIBNJBO HFUT ATJMMZ UISFBUT PWFS IJT SPMF By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A CHARTER operator branded a judge’s refusal to halt the release of a foreign vessel, which he helped apprehend for alleged fisheries violations, “unfortunate” and blasted: “This was a complete slam dunk case.” Jeremy Wong, a 20-year industry veteran who operates Spanish Wells-based Black in Blue Charters, told Tribune Business it was “refreshing” that the Government had mounted an ultimately unsuccessful last-ditch appeal to prevent the release of Highly Migratory, a boat seized in an undercover operation, as
it showed it was taking the protection of The Bahamas’ resources and businesses seriously. However, he voiced fears that Justice Andrew Forbes’ decision not to halt the vessel’s release and return to its US owner will “send a message” to other potential violators of this country’s fisheries laws and regulations” that you can come to The Bahamas, blatantly break the laws and if you have a lawyer you’ll be fine”. Asserting that “we need to send a message once and for all to make people think twice”, Mr Wong revealed that since his involvement in Highly
FISHING - See Page B8