The Tribune

By NATARIO MCKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net NINETY-FIVE per cent of tenants at the Bahamas Agriculture and Industrial Corporation's (BAIC) Soldier Road Industrial Park are delinquent on rental payments, the park's manager has told Tribune Business, adding that this has hampered the facility's growth and development. Yelverton Cox said the Park was taking in nowhere near its expected $500,000 per year in rental income, and most of its existing 19 tenants were in default on their lease payments. An estimated $2 million, not $4 million as reported by other media outlets, is owed by current and former tenants. Mr Cox said: "It's roughly $2 million that's owed by former and current tenants. We have roughly 19 tenants in the Industrial Park, and of that 19 I would say 95 per cent are defaulting on their rent. That is a fact. "The Corporation wants to revitalise the industrial park to really make it look like a 21st century industrial park, but you really can't do that with these dead weights in the park that are hampering growth and development." Mr Cox added: "The Corporation tried to work with them, and these people are leasing at concessionary rates. They bring in their raw materials, machines and the like, but when it comes to paying BAIC they are unwilling to do it. "It is costing the Corporation a lot of money, even in insurance premiums on these buildings, but worst of all there are a long list of people who want to get in the Industrial Park, have the wherewithal to get started and want to put some people to work, but they can't when we have all these spaces taken with people who are not doing anything." Mr Cox said BAIC has initiated legal action against five tenants. "We have initiated court cases because we have now realised that that is the only way we can now deal with this thing," he added. "We have placed five tenants before the court, and the court ruled in early 2010 that they should be out of the park on or before April 31, 2010, but they appealed that ruling and so far that hasn't been heard as yet. In the meantime they are here," Mr Cox said. Mr Cox said the Soldier Road Industrial Park could bring in $500,000 a year in rent, but due to delinquency was nowhere near that. Mr Cox said BAIC was instead taking in about $270,000. Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) chairman, Winston Rolle, said the $2 million owed to BAIC could have been used to fund other entrepreneurs or businesses. Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: "I think you find that the system of checks and balances with regards to government entities are not always as tight as they should be. "We also cannot rule out the fact that there always seems to be some degree of political influence in some of the decision-making processes. That's $2 million that could have been loaned to some other entrepreneur or business entities that could have been producing, and providing gainful employment, so obviously that's a major concern."