The Tribune

• Mulls ‘permanent’ shuttering by year-end

• Tells staff: ‘My brain says yes, but heart no’

• Blames govt stand-off, COVID measures

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

COMPASS Point’s owner has warned staff he is torn over whether to close the resort “permanently” by year-end 2020 due to his ongoing stand-off with the government and COVID-19’s fall-out.

Leigh Rodney told his 50-plus workforce in a recent employee message, which has been seen by Tribune Business, that while his brain was urging him to shutter the iconic West Bay Street property his heart was telling him “no” due to the impact this would have on workers.

Acknowledging that COVID-19 was set to remain a threat through summer 2021, Mr Rodney added that the “arbitrary” measures employed by the Minnis administration to contain it - including lockdowns, travel restrictions and curfews - meant it would be “impossible” for Compass Point’s hotel operations to make a profit.

And, having already threatened to close the resort come the likely 2022 general election unless the government addresses his concerns over hotel industry regulation, he warned that it “seemed pointless” to continue incurring losses until that point due to the pandemic’s impact on business volumes.

“The virus is likely going to continue through next summer,” Mr Rodney told staff. “Since a politician, and certainly Bahamian politicians, are never wrong, your government will continue their arbitrary restrictions of some sort or another that make it impossible for our hotel to make a profit and tough for our restaurant to make a profit.

“This is going to continue for the foreseeable future. To re-open the hotel finally next summer, suffer through the slow months of 2021, and then close on election day 2022 seems pointless.

“For this reason, I wanted to convey that I have had the first thought towards closing permanently, perhaps by the end of this year. I have my heart committed to keeping Compass Point open. My brain is telling me to close. As I hope you have already observed, I have consideration for you very much on my mind and will continue to think of you as I wrestle with this decision.”

Mr Rodney said he hoped staff felt he had “done much” to support them through the COVID-19 crisis, adding: “I did not do this as a charitable act. I did this because I recognise that our employees are what makes Compass Point a great property.

“I wanted to preserve this chemistry for when The Bahamas re-opened. As you have seen, we continue to make improvements to the property to make us better then ever in the future. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking towards the closure that I stated would occur by election day if the leader of your tourism industry did not discuss with me eliminating some regulations of hotels.

“He has not spoken to me. Obviously the draconian regulation of your lives the FNM has imposed since the virus crisis started is huge compared to my relatively minor issues, but I am committed to keeping my promise to close in two years even if the FNM keeps none of their promises.”

The tourism industry “leader” referred to by Mr Rodney is Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation. He declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business and informed about the content of the Compass Point owner’s message to staff.

The duo have been involved in a stand-off over the Compass Point owner’s demand that they meet to discuss reforming how the hotel industry is regulated. Mr Rodney had previously threatened not to renew his hotel licence for 2020 unless the government had agreed to examine his concerns.

He has frequently asserted that the Hotel Licensing Board’s annual inspections are “pointless”, and a “waste of Compass Point’s time”, asserting that a “hotel licence” did not exist in three US states he had studied, namely Michigan, Nevada and California, although aspects of resort operations were subject to health, sanitation, environmental and safety checks by state, local and federal regulators.

Mr D’Aguilar, though, has steadfastly refused to intervene, arguing that he needed to address his grievances to the Hotel Licensing Board. The minister also suggested Mr Rodney’s concerns need to be properly analysed and consulted on with the wider resort industry before any changes are considered.

One well-placed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, previously gave an insight into Mr Rodney’s grievances by revealing: “They [the Hotel Licensing Board] tried to shut him down because a single tile was missing in the bathroom when Compass Point was doing renovations. They also forced him to place a ‘no lifeguard on duty’ sign on the beach.”

The Hotel Licensing Board, meanwhile, has now become the regulatory authority for certifying that Bahamas-based hotels are in compliance with all necessary COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and awarding the Clean & Pristine certification, creating potential new ground for a cash with Mr Rodney.

The Compass Point owner, when contacted by Tribune Business over the holiday weekend, lashed out at the government’s COVID-19 restrictions for deterring tourists from coming to The Bahamas and making it “nearly impossible” to run a profitable business.

“Obviously the draconian policies inflicted on the Bahamian people at the beginning of the virus crisis in March were totally incorrect measures to take,” Mr Rodney told this newspaper. “With virus cases today at levels well above March, the government does not acknowledge their past errors, but continues their past mistakes by inflicting arbitrary, unpredictable, partial regulations/ restrictions that still make tourists coming to the Bahamas unlikely, and doing business profitably nearly impossible.

“Unless some miracle vaccine is invented, the virus will continue at high levels in the US indefinitely, well into at least the summer of next year, because an increasing number of people in the US are simply ignoring their government’s edicts, and getting on with their lives, accepting the small risk that the virus poses to most of the population.”

Referring to Compass Point, he added: “If this wasn’t my expensive hobby I’d have closed up a long time ago like many Bahamian businesses.” Mr Rodney, while declining to directly address his message to staff, said the resort and its restaurant enjoyed “two of our busiest nights” last Thursday and Friday as Bahamians and residents sought to enjoy themselves ahead of the holiday weekend lockdown.

Mr Rodney said Compass Point’s management staff had been paid their full salaries since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, with one-third of employees working full-time despite their being little tourist and/ or restaurant business. Even housekeeping staff had been placed on a rotation where they each received five to ten hours per week.

Tribune Business understands from well-placed sources that Compass Point’s payroll as a single line item has exceeded total revenues in 12 of the last 16 weeks, although Mr Rodney did not confirm this. The workforce’s size is thought to have dipped slightly from 60 to around 52 due to a combination of COVID-19 attrition and redundancies.

Mr Rodney acquired Compass Point in 2006. The property’s purchase from Island Outpost ended its two-year post-Hurricane Frances closure, although the iconic Compass Point Recording Studios were not included in the deal.

He is president of Detroit Forming Inc, a Detroit-based designer and manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging, a family-owned business that was started by his father in 1962.

Mr Rodney told this newspaper in 2006 that he had been visiting the Bahamas for 20-30 years, having first come here in the 1970s and visited this nation once a year since then. He also owned a residential property at Love Beach, which helped him become familiar with Compass Point.

Mr Rodney has also been attempting to sell the former Robin Hood retail store on Prince Charles Drive, which is located on the site of the former Pepsi-Cola bottling plant. The Compass Point owner holds a mortgage lien on the property as security for the monies he advanced to finance the eastern expansion of the retailer’s owner, Sandy Schaefer.