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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
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Abaco partners offer $4m Dorian memorial By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ABACO’S local government and non-profit groups are offering to partner in creating a near-$4m memorial to Hurricane Dorian victims that will also give Marsh Harbour’s shipping port room for much-needed expansion. Roscoe Thompson, head of the Marsh Harbour/ Spring City Township, told Tribune Business that body had teamed with the One Abaco Foundation and Guy Harvey Foundation to propose “a vibrant community space” that could create more than 100 jobs where the former 23-acre Mudd community once stood. Disclosing that the proposal was submitted to the former Minnis
• NGOs and local Gov’t team on Mudd proposal • Say plan will also aid shipping port’s expansion • Be self-financing, sustaining and create 110 jobs
RENDERINGS OF THE SPRING CITY TOWNSHIP
administration, and subsequently to Cabinet ministers in the new government as well as the current Port Department board, he explained that the partners were proposing to set aside six acres for a new administration and Customs warehouse building for Marsh Harbour’s commercial shipping port. Mr Thompson, explaining that this would facilitate greater container storage space and potential expansion whenever the port is rebuilt, told this newspaper that the remainder of the former Mudd site would be dedicated to remembering the hundreds who lost their lives in Dorian as well as providing facilities and a gathering space for Abaconians.
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Law firm-bashing investors win Cay By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FOREIGN investors, who launched a full-blooded online assault against a top Bahamian commercial law firm after their ownership of an Exuma cay was challenged, have triumphed in their dispute before the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Ian Winder, in a September 15, 2022, verdict found that Ocean Point Estates has “the better documentary title” to Polly Cay than their rival Bahamian claimant, Iva Dean (nee Strachan). And he also rejected her claim to a possessory title, finding there was no evidence that Ms Dean had been in possession of the island for 12
years or longer as required by law. Barring an appeal, the Chief Justice’s ruling resolves a decade-long dispute that prompted a savage attack on Ocean Point Estates’ first attorneys, Graham, Thompson & Company, via a website that still remains accessible to this day although Tribune Business is not providing the address for legal reasons.
Ocean Point, whose principals are Efraim Sade and Eyal Ben Zvi Sasson (also known as Eyal Waters), asserted that Graham, Thompson & Co botched the Polly Cay title search by failing to detect Ms Dean’s rival ownership claim, thus exposing them to significant potential loss on their $500,000 purchase. And, to add insult
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Family Island hotels targeting Doctors is ‘coming in 90% pre-COVID room nights hot’ on bed shortage By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
FAMILY Island hotels can hit 90 percent of preCOVID room nights sold with a strong over 2022’s final quarter, a senior tourism is predicting, voicing optimism the sector will “get closer” to its targets. Kerry Fountain, the Bahamas Out Island Promotions Board’s
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KERRY FOUNTAIN
DOCTORS Hospital is “coming in hot” with a multi-million dollar investment in upgrading its healthcare infrastructure that aims to narrow The Bahamas’ bed shortage compared to global benchmarks. Kendra Sturrup, the BISX-listed healthcare
provider’s Grand Bahama director of finance and operations, told the Abaco Business Outlook that it was aiming to close the gap to the World Health Organisation;s (WHO) recommended five inpatient hospital beds per 1,000 persons standard. Disclosing that Nassau stands at just 1.82 hospital beds per 1,000 population, with 402 at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH)
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GRAND LUCAYAN
Gov’t told: ‘Come clean’ on Grand Lucayan sale By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Grand Lucayan chairman has urged the Davis administration to “come clean” with the Bahamian people over its efforts to sell the resort after it last week granted a third extension to the buyer’s due diligence time. Michael Scott KC told Tribune Business “the boot is on the other foot” after he, the Board that he chaired and the former Minnis administration had to face “scathing criticism” from members of the now-current government over both the Grand Lucayan’s September 2018 purchase and subsequent failed efforts to sell the property to the ITM Group/Royal Caribbean consortium. Speaking after the present Grand Lucayan Board late on Thursday night confirmed that Electra America Hospitality Group had been
granted another seven-day due diligence period extension, taking both sides to a new Thursday deadline fort the buyer to pay the required $5m deposit, Mr Scott would not be drawn on whether he thought the proposed sale was in trouble. However, he reiterated his belief that no potential Grand Lucayan purchaser - Electra or otherwise would close a deal without an “ironclad, bullet-proof assurance” that the Government will redevelop Grand Bahama International Airport in accordance with the standard and timeline required to facilitate a return on hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. “The Board of Lucayan Renewal Holdings has been asked by the attorneys for Electra America Hospitality Group for a further sevenday extension to consider outstanding matters related
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