The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Ocean Club’s owner last night said it had closed a popular access route to Paradise Island’s Cabbage Beach out of “safety concerns” as it prepares to begin construction on a $250m condominium-hotel project.

Access Industries, in an e-mailed response to Tribune Business after its decision to fence of the access route provoked fury among Cabbage Beach vendors, gave no timeframe for how long it will be blocked or, indeed, if it will ever re-open.

“Clearing work on the privately-owned, vacant tract has begun for a condominium-hotel development. The Paradise Island project is expected to generate more than $250m in investment and economic activity for The Bahamas, including new jobs in construction, tourism and related industries. Due to safety concerns during the work phase, the path that runs over the private tract to the beach will be closed,” it said.

“Unauthorised items that had been left on the private property have been carefully collected, and security will have them available for pick-up through Friday. The public still can readily access the beach at Beach Club Drive, off Paradise Island Drive, or consider Junkanoo Beach or Montagu Beach in Nassau.

“This new development will be an appealing addition to the amenities on the island, designed as an area of pride that will embrace and feature the local community. Developers are keen to ensure continued local participation, featuring Bahamian workers, artisans and others. The development also plans to include restaurants and retail that will be open to the public.” 

No details on the number of jobs that will be created for Bahamians, or the economic benefits that will flow from the $250m condo project, were provided in the Access Industries statement. Previous Supreme Court rulings have established that the Ocean Club owner has the legal right to do this, since it is a ‘private access way’ that lies over land it owns.

Maria Daxon, lawyer for the Cabbage Beach Business Owners Association (CBBOA), which represents the beach vendors who have been displaced, told Tribune Business that the fence blocking access appeared to have been erected at night when nobody was around.

She said: “Nobody seems to know who put the fence up. So what we did is we went and removed the fence, and we went on the beach and told the vendors who had their items on the beach to put it back on the beach.

“The beach belongs to them. I spoke to the police officer who came to investigate yesterday, and he told me that this had to happen after 12am in the morning during curfew when nobody was supposed to be out and moving about. We are looking to sue whoever it is as these people have lost their personal and business items they left on the beach.”

Ishmael Sutherland, a vendor, speaking out in a video that went viral on social media, said more than half his beach chairs had gone. “I had 90 chairs, and only 42 I could find. Some of them are still broken. The umbrellas, I had 60 of them, and only 20-something of them I could find and all of them are broken.”

Mr Sutherland said he found all of his chairs, tables and other items were pushed to one side of the beach. The situation is a tricky development for the Prime Minister and the Government, given that they gained much political capital when in Opposition by supporting protests that tore down similar access-blocking fencing at the same site.

In 2014, ownership of the Cabbage Beach property was transferred from Atlantis – owned by Brookfield Asset Management – to a subsidiary of Access Industries, namely the Ocean Club. Prior to the sale of the property, Atlantis had allowed access to the beach via an easement through their private property. However, the company had petitioned the Government on several occasions to address the vendor operation at the beach.

In December 2015, the vendors’ association filed an injunction in the Supreme Court to prevent Access Industries from restricting access by way of the path. Subsequently, a 30-day injunction was put in place. Further applications were made to get that injunction extended, but this was denied. This allowed Access Industries the leeway to erect a fence to restrict access to the beach atop its property. The day after some vendors protested the fence was taken down.