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Friday, December 12, 2025
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Briland operator ‘crippled’ from court Order breaches By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BRILAND tourism operator is predicting a “significant reduction in revenue” because its estranged US business partner has “crippled” its operations by allegedly failing to comply with a Bahamian Supreme Court order. Julian ‘Shaq’ Gibson, Conch & Cocout’s Bahamian principal, is asserting that Pablo Conde is continuing to interfere with the tour and destination management operator by refusing to provide access to its website, online booking portals and other social media-related customer acquisition platforms in defiance of Justice Simone Fitzcharles’ November 14, 2025, injunction. Arguing that this has caused a sharp reduction in future bookings going into 2026, he claimed that the inability “to communicate with customers” is causing “serious financial loss, reputational harm and affecting our business credibility” while also creating challenges to “sustain” Conch & Coconut’s 12 to 16 employees.
• Conch & Coconut faces ‘serious financial loss’, booking fall • Alleges estranged US partner seeking new Bahamian front • Local attorneys reject Shaq’s Supreme Court defiance claim And Mr Gibson discloses that the negative fall-out from the acrimonious break-up of his business partnership with Mr Conde, which is now playing out via courtroom battles in both
The Bahamas and south Florida (see other article on Page 1B), has spread beyond Conch & Coconut to also undermine his Briland real estate business.
Ex-partner: Data covering 15% of revenues ‘misappropriated’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BRILAND tourism operator’s estranged US partner is alleging it “misappropriated” the data for customers accounting for
almost 15 percent of its total revenues while asserting that his trademark violation complaint cannot be heard by the Bahamian courts. Pablo Conde, who was Julian ‘Shaq’ Gibson’s partner in the Conch & Coconut tour and
He alleged that fellow realtors have warned that potential clients are refusing to do business with him because of the increasingly bitter legal battle with Mr Conde, which has generated admissions of ‘fronting’ by a Bahamian on behalf of a foreigner; unpaid VAT and Business Licence fees said to still exceed $800,000; claims of a ‘forged’ Business Licence; and threats of winding-up petitions. Mr Gibson also claimed that Robert Arthur, owner of Harbour Island’s Arthur’s Bakery and a licensed realtor
BATTLE - See Page B5 destination management business prior to the May 2025 implosion of their business relationship, also used his December 10, 2025, legal filings with the south Florida federal court to argue that the US legal system has jurisdiction over a leading Bahamian real estate brokerage. Corcoran CA Christie Bahamas, along with other
PATENT - See Page B4
Top doctor’s hospital part of four-phase development By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net A PROMINENT Bahamian doctor last night unveiled a four-phase development at the junction of Collins Avenue and Sixth Terrace that will include a 125-bed hospital spread over six storeys with 297 parking spaces and ambulance entrances/exits. Dr Conville Brown, speaking at a public hearing held by the Department of Physical Planning, said he plans to expand his current three-story commercial complex with the hospital forming the next phase. Further phases, in what as planned as a 17-storey development, will include additional parking and potentially 65 condominiums, spread between floors 12 and 16 with 13 units per
floor, plus roof-top amenities such as a spa and gymnasium. “The first phase actually is in existence already, and that is the three-storey commercial complex that is there,” he said. “And so we're going to be actually changing this function to that of our conversion to hospital. And that's what will be in phase two, where we convert it to a six-storey and an expanded facility that goes from 72,000 square feet up to 300,000 square feet.” “On your first floor, we would have management, which is where the bank (Royal Bank of Canada) would have been originally. So you have hospital management and administration. All of the imaging services, CT, MRI and so on
BUILD - See Page B6
Rosewood Exuma developer faces second legal challenge By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE developer behind the $200m Rosewood Exuma last night disclosed it plans to file a revised site plan with the planning authorities in the coming days after it emerged that the project’s environmental approvals face a second Judicial Review challenge. Romauld Ferreira, former minister of the environment who has returned to practicing as a private attorney, confirmed to Tribune Business that his client Over Yonder Holdings, developer of Over Yonder Cay, had been granted permission by the Supreme Court to proceed with its bid to overturn the East Sampson Cay project’s certificate of environmental clearance (CEC). He added that Supreme Court justice Leif Farquharson, in giving the go-ahead
for Over Yonder Holdings to proceed, had also agreed to Turtlegrass Resort joining the same action as a party pursuing the Judicial Review. Turtlegrass and its principal, Bob Coughlin, have filed their own separate Judicial Review challenge to the same CEC permit after becoming one of the leading opponents to the Rosewood project and its developer, Miami-based Yntegra Group. Yntegra, in a statement issued to Tribune Business, reiterated that - as with Turtlegrass’ own Judicial Review - it had not opposed the application and described the grant of permission as a “procedural” step. It pledged that environmental protection has “guided every major design” decision with the Rosewood Exuma project, and voiced confidence that its environmental permits CONSERVATION - See Page B7
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Bahamians gain opportunity to invest in $45m energy project By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIANS will be given the opportunity to invest in $40m-$45m worth of renewable and microgrid energy projects being developed in Cat Island, Long Island and San Salvador, it was revealed yesterday. The consortium behind the project told a media briefing at the Prime Minister’s Office that the capital raise involving Bahamian investors will take place in the New Year and be facilitated by Leno Bahamas, the local financial services provider. Besides Bahamian-led Renugen Pro, which was the successful bidder on the independent power producer (IPP) tender for Cat Island, Long Island and San Salvador, the consortium features Wilkem Tech and Canada’s Roswall Development. Dan Roscoe, Roswall Development’s president and chief executive, said the group has been working on the projects for more than two years, and will now proceed with geotechnical works while also seeking to raise the required financing. “We are engaged in interconnection studies and finalising the engineering and design that will go into these projects,” Mr Roscoe said. “Concurrently, we are raising the investment that's needed to execute these projects. “And then, once those two things are done, we will start ordering equipment and, later in 2026, we will be active on building the foundations, the roads, the work that's needed to put these projects together and equipment will start to arrive. And we should be completed on all three islands in 2027.” Noting that the financing will be facilitated by Leno Bahamas, Mr Roscoe added: “It's a founding principle of both the Government and Renugen Pro to have local ownership of these projects”. He pledged that Bahamians will have an opportunity to invest in them. “Community engagement will continue throughout the life of the project, and Renugen Pro will not only be involved in the front-end of these projects, but the ongoing operation on an ongoing basis,” he added. “The financing, as I mentioned, is well underway. It's being facilitated by Leno Bahamas, and early in the New Year, the opportunity to invest in these projects will be made public. “As we said, it's a founding principle of both the Government and of Renugen Pro to have
RENEWABLE - See Page B4