The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Kings Real Estate’s principal obtained $9.365 million in credit from Bank of the Bahamas that is at least partially secured on Ocean Club Estates real estate transferred to the taxpayer-owned ‘bad bank’ that is Bahamas Resolve.

Documents obtained by Tribune Business from the Registrar General’s Department show that, as a result of the $100 million Bank of the Bahamas ‘bail out’ last October, the Bahamian taxpayer now has the liability of collecting/realising on a wide range of real estate assets.

Their locations, according to this newspaper’s analysis, stretch from Paradise Island and Port New Providence in the east to Lyford Cay in the west, extending even to Andros and inner-city Freeport properties.

The sums involved, though, appear slightly short of the purported ‘$45.4 million’ face value attributed to the ‘bad’ loans that the Government replaced on Bank of the Bahamas’ balance sheet with a $100 million promissory note (government paper).

A rough Tribune Business calculation showed that the collective value of the past due principal, based on the documents obtained, amounts to just over $31 million.

The difference could be because these values do not include the past due interest and penalties that were owed to Bank of the Bahamas, while Bahamas Resolve may not have been provided with all the necessary documentation yet.

In the case of Kingsley Edgecombe Jr, the King’s Realty principal who helped develop gated communities such as Serenity, Saffron Hills, Indigo and West Winds, Bank of the Bahamas mortgages worth $1.265 million and $1.98 million were secured on his two Ocean Club Estate lots.

These were taken out in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and the latter, attached to lot 72, was increased by “further charges” to $2.5 million and then to $3.248 million.

The final Edgecombe-related security transferred to Bahamas Resolve, as part of the arrangement to remove ‘toxic’ loan assets from Bank of the Bahamas’ balance sheet, was a ‘mortgage upstamping’ dated March 22, 2011.

This added another $81,000 to the sum covered by the Ocean Club Estates mortgages, which documents filed with the Registrar General’s Department describe as security for “advances up to $9.365 million”.

That is the largest sum referred to in the documents detailing the 64 securities, mortgages, debentures and assorted charges that support the 13 borrowers transferred to Bahamas Resolve, the so-called ‘bad bank’ that will be responsible for collecting and realising those debts on the Bahamian people’s behalf.

Elsewhere, the documents reveal that some $2.56 million, which was extended to former Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission chief, Dr Donald Cooper, and his company DLC Investments, is secured on a Shirley Street-based gasoline station.

Another $400,000 advance was secured on lot 18 in the Port New Providence gated community in eastern New Providence, meaning that almost that there is almost $3 million worth of credit extended to Dr Cooper that Bahamas Resolve must recover.

It has also inherited the ‘assignment’ that DLC Investments made in favour of Bank of the Bahamas, granting it further security over the service station and coffee shop rent.

Tribune Business has seen most, though, not all of the documents relating to the 64 ‘securities’ inherited by Bahamas Resolve. Although the Government created it as a special purpose (SPV) or off-balance sheet vehicle, its liabilities belong to the Bahamian people.

In the case of Philip Lightbourne and Premium Food Services, the documents this newspaper was able to obtain show that Bank of the Bahamas advanced at least $2 million to that was secured on the company’s real estate and other assets.

Bahamas Resolve also appears to have inherited a mortgage covering residential real estate owned by Mr Lightbourne in Freeport’s Lincoln Green subdivision, and a $1.5 million advance made to H&B Investments - a company for which Mr Lightbourne is named as president.

The latter advance is secured, according to the documents, on 2.362 acres at Love Estates in western New Providence.

Bahamas Resolve has also inherited $2.5 million in advances to John H. Bain and Idena C. Bain, and their company, Bain Investments and Development, which were secured on real estate lots in Freeport’s Emerald Bay and Lincoln Park subdivisions.

And $2.25 million worth of advances to Franklyn Morley and Longside Investments Ltd are secured on a 1.197 acre tract of land located just south of Carmichael Road. Bank of the Bahamas has also been relieved of the assignment of all rents stemming from that property - that is now owned by Bahamas Resolve.

The papers show that at least $2.28 million worth of credit was extended to Kendal Williams Construction Company, secured on a variety of real estate assets in Freeport’s Lucaya Ridge and Bahamian Marina subdivisions, plus a 13.56-acre tract at Polaris Drive.

Bahamas Resolve may even have inherited a whole subdivision, since the documents Tribune Business has obtained describe the collateral as including a plethora of lots in the Britannia Estates Subdivision.

Some $1.4 million worth of advances to Landstar Concrete Products are secured on its business assets and property located on a one-acre site known as ‘Block Y’ in Freeport’s Civic Industrial area.

And the $1.537 million that was lent to Ruiz Munnings and his businesses by June 2007 is secured on apartment units in the Blake Road area of western New Providence.

Also out west is a property in the No. 1 Lyford Cay subdivision that was used as collateral for a $1.834 million loan by Bank of the Bahamas to Lock Resorts Ltd and the Lockharts.

Documents speak to a $225,000 advance to Lock Resorts that was secured on 1.245 acres near Gambier Village, and a $460,269 mortgage ‘upstamping’ that took their total credit facilities to $2.294 million.

Campbell’s Electric Company and Stanley Gustavious Campbell obtained $1.53 million from Bank of the Bahamas, records show, which was secured on real estate in Shirley Heights, Klonaris Acres, Pyfrom Subdivision and Carey’s Subdivision.

Bank of the Bahamas extended $1.4 million in credit to Philip Lundy and East Street Investment Company, while the security for the loans to Anthony Erasto Albury and Anthony Edward Albury includes a two-storey commercial building housing shops in Shirley Heights.