The Tribune

• Last Compass Point owner eyes sale close before end-2023

• Labels buyer a ‘solid person’ and hands building’s control over

• Suffered challenges from vagrants, vandalism and copper theft

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Compass Point’s last owner is voicing optimism that the sale of the former Robin Hood store on Prince Charles Drive will close before year-end after the property was plagued by vandalism, vagrants and copper theft.

Leigh Rodney, who closed the western New Providence resort following the 2021 general election, told Tribune Business he had received “a big enough down payment” to convince him that the prospective buyer should be given control of the 45,000 square foot property prior to the deal’s closure.

Declining to identify the purchaser, who he described as “a very solid person”, or the potential sales price, the US investor said he was “delighted to be rid” of a location he took possession of six-eight years ago given the constant security problems encountered.

The site, which was previously home to Pepsi-Cola’s Bahamas manufacturing facility, was acquired by retail entrepreneur, Sandy Schaefer, as part of his drive to expand the Robin Hood brand to eastern New Providence. Mr Rodney provided the financing, and ultimately took possession of the property after Mr Schaefer exited The Bahamas some six years ago in 2017.

“I have an agreement to sell the property and a substantial down payment,” Mr Rodney said in response to Tribune Business inquiries after this newspaper observed workers dismantling part of the building’s roof structure and performing other work. “I’ve kind of allowed them, even though we have not closed the transaction, to go ahead and do what they want on the property. Beyond that, I’d want to leave it to the person who’s buying it to say what they plan to do with it.”

Asked when the sale was due to close, Mr Rodney replied: “I would like to think this year. I had problems with vandalism going on, and people living in the building and coming and going, and I’m delighted to have someone come and put a down payment on it. They have given me a big enough down payment where I know they will go through with the deal, so I gave them access to the property.

“They’re kind of responsible for the property now, and have given me a substantial down payment. I’m delighted to be rid of it. I think it’s in good hands now with a very solid person, and whatever they do I hope they do it very successfully.”

Mr Rodney said he had converted his lien, and loan security, into actual title ownership of the former Robin Hood property, which now counts the second Quality Home Centre among its new neighbours, aided by his attorney, Paul King. “It was moved to my ownership six to eight years ago,” he added. “It is not a lien. The lien was converted to my ownership. Everything was cleared by Paul King so that I can sell it.”

Detailing the constant challenges experienced in securing the property, Mr Rodney said these involved vandalism, graffiti and “keeping the property under control” as persons repeatedly broke into the building. Suggesting this was no different from the challenges faced by abandoned and unoccupied buildings throughout the world, he added: “The copper has all been stolen out of the building, the doors were repeatedly broken down. It was not a very good experience.”

The former Compass Point owner told Tribune Business he would pass this newspaper’s contact details on to the potential buyer, but no response has been received and subsequent inquiries have failed to identify who has acquired the former Robin Hood or their plans for a property that has a colourful past.

A Brooklyn-born entrepreneur, Mr Schaefer brought the Robin Hood format to New Providence in the late 1990s via a discount model that aimed to undercut the prices offered by established Bahamian retailers. The retailer moved from its original location on Soldier Road to larger premises at the Summerwinds Plaza on Tonique Williams Highway, with Mr Schaefer becoming a tenant of ex-Cabinet minister and MP, Leslie Miller.

Robin Hood was sold to the now-defunct BISX-listed company, Freeport Concrete, only for Mr Schaefer to ultimately buy the business back and run it himself once again. The retailer expanded into food, and grew to two stores in late 2010/early 2011 when it opened on Prince Charles Drive in the home of the former Pepsi-Cola bottling plant. At that point, it employed several hundred Bahamians.

However, the business became over-extended, and Mr Schaefer in early 2011 became embroiled in a personal row with then-prime minister, Hubert Ingraham, after he criticised the New Providence Road Improvement Project’s impact on his and other Prince Charles-based businesses. He was ultimately unable to save Robin Hood’s floundering business despite an increasingly desperate search for new capital and investors.

Mr Schaefer eventually alighted on the late ‘con man’, Hubert Pinder, who used a company supposedly capitalised by $83.345m worth of “precious gem investments” to both buy into Bahamian retailer, Robin Hood, and then solicit investors to pump up to $20m into the venture. Their arrangement broke down in acrimony and threats of litigation.

Mr Schaefer, though, suddenly re-emerged two-and-a-half years after Robin Hood’s 2012 demise with Everything Must Go - a new retail concept that he said would cut operating costs by 60-65 per cent. The format, which used only part of Robin Hood’s former Prince Charles store, was founded on being open just three days a week, thereby enabling him to better control key costs - labour and utilities - and minimise inventory shrinkage and theft.

To create the ‘buy now’ impulse, the store, after opening on Thursdays, dropped its prices by 10-15 per cent on Friday and then, on Saturday, dropped throughout the day until inventory was completely clear. However, Everything Must Go held its final liquidation sale in June 2017 less than three years after opening, with Mr Schaefer saying: “I just want to leave this place in peace. I’m done.”

Mr Rodney, too, has experienced the ‘ups and downs’ of doing business in The Bahamas. He closed Compass Point following the September 2021 general election after the former Minnis administration failed to address concerns he raised over the regulatory regime for hotels, particularly the licensing process, viewing it as unnecessarily bureaucratic and costly.

He even had a sign posted outside the former Compass Point resort blaming Dionisio D’Aguilar, former minister of tourism and aviation, for the closure. Mr Rodney subsequently unveiled plans for the property to become “residential”. While he would not rent or sell the resort component, he received proposals to lease the restaurant space. His ultimate goal is to reinvest in the resort site to convert it into residential units.