The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Exuma’s iconic Club Peace & Plenty must continue as a boutique resort, the island’s Chamber of Commerce president yesterday describing the property - now formally up for sale - as “a piece of us”.

Pedro Rolle, speaking after the Benjamin family began the search for buyers, told Tribune Business it would be “terrible” for Exuma and Georgetown if the property either closed or underwent a change in use.

And he urged Bahamians to seize the moment and purchase “part of the heritage in our own land”, arguing that the Club Peace & Plenty’s likely purchase price was not out of reach for investor groups.

Tribune Business was told that the Benjamin family was seeking a $6 million purchase price for the 32-room property, which sits at Georgetown’s heart.

Colin Lightbourn, president of Bahamas Waterfront Properties, the realtor that has the exclusive listing, described that figure as “close” when contacted by Tribune Business yesterday, but declined to reveal the true price.

Mr Rolle, meanwhile, said the family and its patriarch, Stan Benjamin, who acquired Club Peace & Plenty in the early 1970s, had been “kind of intimating and going back and forth for quite a while now” on a decision to sell the resort.

“Peace & Plenty is an institution in Georgetown, Exuma,” Mr Rolle told Tribune Business. “It seems as if it’s always been there, a piece of us. It will be missing if it’s no longer there.”

Effectively delivering the message that Club Peace & Plenty must be acquired by the ‘right buyer’, Mr Rolle added: “It depends on what happens. Are they going to sell it, and the buyers operate it as a nice, boutique hotel?

“That would be a nice, good thing, but if it closes it would be a terrible thing. It’s become a part of life in Exuma, and so have the Benjamins. They’re the only owners I know.

“Because they have been part of Exuma themselves, even if they have new people coming in, there’s no guarantee they will be a part of Exuma life as the Benjamins have been. Hopefully, any new owners taking over will be a part of the community and live among us as the Benjamins have.”

Calling on Bahamians to take advantage of ownership opportunities in their own economy, Mr Rolle suggested that the likely acquisition price for the Club Peace & Plenty was well within the capacity of local investor groups.

“When these opportunities come up, efforts ought to be made by Bahamians who can take over,” he told Tribune Business.

“These are opportunities for us to have part of the heritage in our own land.....It’s not out of the realms of Bahamians. It doesn’t have to be someone foreign. They [Bahamians] have to see the vision.”

The Benjamin family has effectively been downsizing and selling its Exuma assets for some time, in what appears to be an estate planning move. The former Peace & Plenty Beach Inn is now Augusta Bay, while Venezuelan buyers purchases its bonefish lodge that is now known as Turquoise Cay.

“It’s been for sale unofficially for some time, like a lot of these properties in the Out Islands,” Mr Lightbourn, the realtor, told Tribune Business of Club Peace & Plenty.

“I think it’s a very attractive property, particularly with the ability to put a marina out front. It’s also compact, with 32 rooms.”

Mr Lightbourn said the hotel had already been shown “to another significant developer” on Exuma who was “very keen” on a potential purchase, with both sides now working to determine what needs to be done in terms of getting the necessary development approvals “to do what is required”.

With additional buyer interest expected now that the sale has gone public, Mr Lightbourn added: “The Peace & Plenty name is known all over the place. People feel there’s a lot of value in that name. It’s got that historic significance.”

For that reason, he suggested that no buyer was likely to mess with the Peace & Plenty ‘brand’, although a resort operator’s name may be added to it.

The real estate for sale includes land that stretches to Georgetown’s pond, containing an office building, plus laundry, back of house and maintenance facilities.

Mr Lightbourn said increased investment and a rise in the number of development projects, plus a growing ‘second home’ market, made Exuma-based acquisitions attractive. Visitor numbers to the island rose by 15 per cent year-over-year in 2014.

The realtor said in a statement: “Club Peace & Plenty has been central to the lifestyle of the island for many years, and right now it has the potential to appeal to a new generation of visitors and property owners through the development of multiple profit centres on the site.

“These could include the hotel rooms, the restaurant, special functions, amenity services, and the launching of a marina which would tap into the southern Bahamas’ charter market.

“Other than perhaps the Abaco Cays, Exuma is growing faster than any of the other Bahamian Out Islands over the past five years. The club has all the potential to be a central hub for visitors and locals alike, and a launching pad for visitors who want to explore Exuma and beyond.”

The Club Peace & Plenty was opened by Lawrence Lewis, heir to the Henry Flagler railroad fortune, on January 14, 1958. The main building was originally a sponge warehouse and the bar a cookhouse dating back several hundred years to the Loyalist cotton plantation days.

Lewis sold the resort to the trio of Paul Swetland, Armand Angelone and Charlie Pflueger in 1969. That same year, Stan Benjamin, a Cleveland industrialist, first vacationed on Exuma and bought the Club Peace & Plenty several years later.

The resort lists its famous visitors as including Jimmy Buffet; Prince Phillip of England; actors Robert Mitchum, Sam Elliott, Gene Hackman, Johnny Depp; Hume Cronyn and wife Jessica Tandy; Ester Rolle; Al Roker; Jackie Kennedy Onassis; baseball greats Mickey Mantle, Dusty Baker and Davey Johnson; golfers Jack Nicklaus, Ray Floyd, Greg Norman and Tom Weiskof; footballer Joe Namath and coach Don Shula.