The Tribune

By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

Recently, much ado has been made over the government-owned, once majestic home located right beside the Goodman’s Bay recreation area. The grubby fingers of politicians are being pointed across the Parliamentary floor casting sarcastic remarks as to what the building is for, all the while totally missing how much tremendous wastage it represents. A whopping $3.5m’s worth of wastage.

“La Playa”, the property left to rot next to a public beach, recently made headlines while Parliament debated a resolution brought to the House of Assembly by Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis which is set to afford young, Bahamian professionals a chance at homeownership in an upscale area in Western New Providence.

Dr Minnis said next to the 83 acres set for the housing scheme, is a plot of land set aside for the official residence of the Prime Minister.

The row in Parliament started when the Prime Minister said “La Playa” was acquired by the Progressive Liberal Party who “frivolously” spent some $10m to buy and renovate the building which would be used to “entertain” the Prime Minister and whomever else he wants there.

The figures from the Prime Minister were confusing, as he first said the property was purchased for $4m and up to $3m added to it for renovations which when added together equals $7m.

Opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis was not happy with the flippant remarks from the PM and told House Speaker, Halston Moultrie the PLP government never spent $10m and that it was not purchased for the personal use or entertainment of the Prime Minister as Dr. Minnis claimed. Mr Davis asked for the remarks to be withdrawn saying they were a mischaracterisation of the investment.

According to a well-placed Tribune source, the last Christie administration purchased the building for $3.5m, using funds from the National Insurance Board. The source also gave the “important reason” for the Christie administration purchasing the house.

“This information from the Prime Minister is all wrong,” the source said. “This was not about entertaining any Ministers or the Prime Minister’s guests. That is foolishness! Mr Christie sought the government to buy that house to stop Baha Mar from taking over that area and closing off public access to the beach. That was the owner’s plan. All that property along that beach was to be acquired by Baha Mar and Mr Christie was not going to allow that. He took this on personally!

“So an agreement was made and he had NIB purchase the house to use as a protocol house when dealing with foreign dignitaries. It was never designed for a Prime Minister’s house. It was to be used by the government for foreign delegates. Many countries around the region have these protocol houses. This is nothing new!”

The Tribune’s source went on to say that this was not the only land that the Christie administration, “rescued and kept for the Bahamian people”.

“The Bahamas National Trust sold a lot of beach front land in Harbour Island that Bahamians would have had no access to anymore,” the source continued. “Mr Christie took that on too and the government purchased that land and it is now in the government’s treasury. It now belongs to the people of The Bahamas!”

The Tribune further investigated this and can confirm that the land in Harbour Island was in fact sold by the trust to investors and then purchased by the Christie administration.

During the first two terms of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, he often spoke of building an official Prime Minister’s residence as other countries do. However, during his terms in office there was no action taken to achieve this.

When this was mentioned to the Tribune’s source, he said Mr Ingraham was in fact not the first to suggest this, but instead the country’s first Prime Minister, Sir Lynden Pindling.

“Sir Lynden brought that to Parliament from the 1980s,” the source said. “In fact he had a designated area near to Boozie Rolle’s house allotted for it. The same area the Prime Minister is boasting in Parliament that he identified for young professionals to build on and the Prime Minister’s residence to be built is the same land Sir Lynden had for a Prime Minister’s residence.

“I agree with you, Mr Ingraham mentioned it a few times, but it was Sir Lynden who initiated those talks and made a major attempt to bring it to fruition.”

Tribune research found Sir Lynden spoke to constructing a Prime Minister’s residence several times in parliament, but it was not supported by MPs.

According to the government’s Budget of 1980, estimates submitted to the House of Assembly in late November 1979 by then Finance Minister Arthur Hanna, said $450,000 was set aside for the building of a Prime Minister’s residence.

It was not said where the residence would be built, but there were reports at that time, that it would be on the banks of Lake Cunningham near Prospect Ridge.

For the remainder of the Pindling administration, no more was heard about the official residence since that budget debate of 1980 when the project was severely criticised by then High Rock MP Maurice Moore.

On September 11, 1980, Mr. Moore said the following in Parliament: “It can’t be a priority in this nation,” said Mr Moore. “Perhaps the next step will be providing housing for Ministers. This is not the way to reduce the distance between the distance between the haves and the have nots. You are lengthening it. The people of this nation deserve better than what the Government is giving them.”

Mr Moore also told House members at the time that he was not against the concept of building an official residence for the Prime Minister, but questioned its importance at that time when the country was not doing well.

Sir Lynden went quiet about this matter and then suddenly a house was erected in the Prospect Ridge area that made the public feel he took the government’s money and constructed a home for himself since he could not bring life to an official Prime Minister’s residence.

It was confirmed by The Tribune that the house was privately built and paid for by Sir Lynden. It was built for half a million dollars by B&A Construction Co. Ltd, owned by now deceased contractor Arnold Cargill with architectural drawings done by Henry Melich.

After all that history is relived, the matter at hand regarding “La Playa” is still one of extreme wastage. The Tribune’s source continued with the tale of the hapless property which now stands at Goodman’s Bay, lifeless having lost its prestige and dignity.

“Just before being voted out in 2012, Christie was in the process of making an arrangement with the Wynn Group which is now building that resort in front of the Prime Minister’s Office on West Bay Street,” said source. “The government was to lease the property to Paul Wynn of the Wynn Group to house its high end guests and also make the house available to the government for its protocol needs for foreign delegates.

“The Wynn group was also to buy the properties beside ‘La Playa’ as well which includes ‘Fairview’ and so on. So Wynn would have leased this place, making itself responsible for fully refurbishing that property and the maintenance. It was a very good deal for The Bahamas in regards to revenue. Bahamians would still have owned the property. I don’t know why this current administration didn’t continue that agreement.”

The building, which from the outside seems to be in a state of disrepair, is said to be palatial inside; displaying marble tiles and mahogany fittings. Clearly, a place where the rich and famous lived, the building is said to have about eight or nine bedrooms.

The Tribune sought counsel from another source on the history of “La Playa’s” ownership. It seemed to have been in the hands of quite a few, before finally belonging to the government. A once beautiful building, such as this one, deserves better treatment than to lay dormant with its gate’s rotting.

The building was constructed in the 1950s by very wealthy American owners and then later purchased from them by British millionaire, Peter de Savary who owned it for some time and then sold it to Sir Nicolas Nuttall and his wife Lady Eugenie Nuttall. Sir Nicolas was a Baron.

The Nuttalls sold the home to Swedish couple, Lars and Karen Wisen who later sold it to a wealthy Canadian who made the purchase as a wedding gift for his son. He was later disappointed when his son told him he had no intention of coming to The Bahamas.

“The Christie government did not start the renovations that can be seen on the property,” The Tribune’s second source said. “It was the Canadian owner who was tweaking the exterior for his son. He later started to negotiate a sale with Baha Mar to get the property off his hands, but the government of that day attempted to block it to preserve beaches for the Bahamian people.

“Furious by the government’s actions, the Canadian threatened to sue the Christie administration and the government’s legal advisor told Mr Christie to settle the case by purchasing the property. He took the advice and that is how the government acquired the property. It’s a shame to see it just sitting there deteriorating. It was magnificently built! These fellas need to stop playing politics with these things.”

The GoldWynn project is the brainchild of Paul Wynn of the Wynn Group of Companies which is an investment and development firm. GoldWynn, valued at $120m, includes a mix of private residences and a condo-hotel, with amenities like a beachfront infinity pool, seaside dining, a theatre, a spa, a tennis club, a “social house and gallery” and a rooftop terrace and pool.

Regardless of who paid what and what the building is for and the state of building, “La Playa” cost some $3.5m which was coughed up from the public purse. Agreed, this is not a matter to play politics with, but instead a matter of national importance as the state of economic affairs in this country calls for not one, red cent to be wasted.

Instead of parliamentarians making a mockery of the purchase of the home and using the entire matter to gain brownie points with the public, its future should be decided upon. But until then, as its name in English suggests, “La Playa” will remain sitting idly on the beach with the sea breeze and the whispering pine trees as its only company.