Bahamas News

Lyford Cay resident and fashion mogul Peter Nygard is fighting a $16 million tax bill that authorities in Canada says he owes, claiming that he resides primarily in The Bahamas and does not live in Canada.

Mr. Nygard, well known for his fashion acumen, has a business empire in Canada and another in New York.

Although Mr. Nygard insists that he lives in The Bahamas, Canadian tax officials are countering that his ties to Canada are such that he should pay outstanding taxes on his thriving fashion business.

The federal government audited Mr. Nygard for 1995 and 1996 and concluded he “participated in many routine aspects of life in Canada” during the two years, which effectively made him a Canadian resident for tax purposes, says a Justice Department submission filed in the Tax Court of Canada, according to a report that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen.

The report added that in 1995 and 1996, Mr. Nygard divided his time almost equally between Canada, the United States and the Bahamas, where he moved in 1974 and subsequently built a sprawling estate called Nygard Cay, which he rents out for $245,000 a week when he isn’t there.

Court records stated that in the two years in question, Mr. Nygard spent 138 and 132 days in Canada, respectively, said the court submission.

In seeking to build their case, the Canadian Justice Department disclosed that Mr. Nygard uses legal and medical services in Canada, pays into the Canada Pension Plan, attends parties and charity events, belongs to corporate tennis clubs, and holds season tickets to sports games.

Mr. Nygard lives in an opulent home behind the exclusive Lyford Cay gated community called Nygard Cay and is well known for throwing lavish parties.

In a court document that was filed, the fashion mogul claimed that he owns several boats and maintains a home office in The Bahamas and even has a Bahamian driver’s license.

Although the federal Income Tax Act dictates that anyone who lives in Canada for at least six months of the year pays Canadian taxes, those who spend less than 183 days are not automatically absolved, with the test being their ties to Canada.

Under Canada tax laws, anyone who spends at least 183 days in the country must pay taxes. However, there have been exceptions made.

The parties are expected to appear in court next week in Montreal.

Source: Bahama Journal

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) has launched a new feature – international texting – as part of an expansion in cell phone services designed to keep up with customer expectations.

It means Bahamian cell phone users will be able to text persons on other networks such as DigiCell, Cable and Wireless, AT& T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile.

Marlon Johnson, Vice President of Marketing, Sales & Business Development, told the Bahama Journal the demand for new features is extremely high, both on the cell phone side and land-line services.

BTC did a soft launch on the new service on Wednesday, but Mr. Johnson explained that there would be a phased approach to full implementation.

He said the introductory rate for the new service will be 15 cents for this month only and then it will go up to 25 cents.

“The 25-cent rate is the standard rate across the region for texting customers in other jurisdictions. We felt necessary to add this feature as we are moving away from the TDMA system to the GSM system,” he said.

The complete crossover is expected to take place by the end of September.

“Eventually we hope to expand the service to include over 200 countries and more telephone networks but we just want to test it right now with those few networks,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson explained that once a person has text messaging on their cell phone they would automatically be able to access the service.

“We are trying to evolve as a company and need to be able to meet our customers needs,” he said. “In that effort we are about to launch some new features to provide better customer services.”

Mr. Johnson said BTC would be launching more of these new features this month pending approval from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

“We are trying to create new rates for late night talking and the like and also to give bonus minutes for persons who buy a certain denomination phone card,” he said.

“The higher the denomination of minutes you buy, we will give you an extra bucket of minutes because we are trying to do that to reward customers who have been very loyal to us.”

Mr. Johnson also told the Journal that the company is upgrading its voicemail platform services for cell phones and land line systems.

“We are asking customers to go through their voicemail systems and take out any important information they need because we are going to upgrade the system. What will happen is that messages more than seven days old will be automatically deleted,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson said he would advise customers to start looking at their voicemails as of Friday before the automatic deletion takes place in the company’s system.

He also said that passwords and access numbers would stay the same.

Source: Bahama Journal

Businessman Dionisio D’Aguilar has a simple solution to the illegality of Bahamians who are intent on flaunting the law and gambling: legalize it.

He advanced the position Monday that the government should remove the legal impediment to gambling for locals and accrue revenue through taxation.

“Let’s get on and get over this topic. It is so rife. It’s everywhere in this country. Everyone is gambling. Everyone sees it. It’s happening in the country and the government isn’t making one dollar off it,” said Mr. D’Aguilar on Monday while on the Issues of The Day talk show on radio Love 97.

“I don’t care what the churches say – and I may be controversial here. It’s happening and I don’t know where you live, but I live on this island. I see all the web shops.”

Mr. D’Aguilar, who is also the president of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber does not have an official position on gambling since it has not yet considered it.

Gambling has been a hot button topic in The Bahamas for many years with many Bahamians participating in the operation and the religious community blasting its very existence.

Although there is a level of taboo surrounding illegal numbers houses, they are well known, with some of the operators even heading well-organized Internet operations.

During a recent debate on crime in the House of Assembly, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham suggested that gambling for Bahamians should be legalized since it appears to be such a challenge to enforce the laws against it.

“The reality is that it is not an enforceable law and the society is doing it every day. There’s a web shop here and a web shop there, all over the island,” Mr. Ingraham said at the time.

“…There are web shops in Abaco, web shops in Bimini, web shops in Exuma. It’s nationwide.”

The prime minister also touched on the question of a national lottery. He said “…you might as well legalize the whole thing since you can’t enforce it.”

However, the Bahamas Christian Council responded promptly to the prime minister’s comments and its head Bishop John Humes insisted that the government should observe the laws of the land.

“To say that everyone is doing something, especially illegal, should be reason to legalize them, then God help us. If this is our rationale for operating our country, then what is next? I urge the prime minister to have the courage and will to do what is right in the sight of God and written in our constitution and laws.”

The bishop also called for legislation to be put in place to control the amount of web shops that are opening, adding that The Bahamas is currently under a strong attack of lawlessness.

But despite the objections, Mr. D’Aguilar expressed no reservations about legalizing gambling for Bahamians. The law allows for tourists to gamble.

“Everybody knows who’s doing it. Everybody knows what’s happening. Let’s figure out a way to regularize it and get some revenue out of it. I support it 100 percent. That’s my personal opinion and not the opinion of the chamber,” he said.

While he was chairman of the Gaming Board, former PLP MP Kenyatta Gibson reported that The Florida Lottery conservatively estimated that US$100 million is spent every year by Bahamians playing the Florida Lottery.

Mr. Gibson further suggested at the time that this money could be kept in The Bahamas.

One conservative estimate is that 29 web cafes in New Providence believed to be operating illegal numbers houses have business licenses.

Source: Bahama Journal

The Bahamas will give “the utmost consideration” to the United Mexican States candidature for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2009-2010, as both countries pledged renewed support on diplomatic levels, Governor General, His Excellency Arthur Hanna said Thursday.

The commitment was made as the Governor General accepted Letters of Credence presented by Her Excellency Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of the United Mexican States to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in a ceremony at Government House.

The Governor General expressed “warmest thanks” to Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa for renewing Mexico’s commitment to the further strengthening of relations between both countries.

“The establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries three decades ago was predicated upon our mutual desire to forge closer and friendlier ties and to uphold the principles of the United Nations Charter of the Organisation of American States,” the Governor General said. “This cooperation is a benchmark for developing and strengthening our bilateral relations.”

Mexico is being viewed as an emerging global power and in this vein; the Governor General said The Bahamas welcomes its awareness of the importance of multilaterism.

“We welcome especially, the call for the consolidation of multilaterism in objective institutions such as the United Nations,” he said. “This is significant because the United Nations deals with both issues of common international significance as well as threats to peaceful and progressive co-existence.”

The Governor General said of importance to The Bahamas is Mexico’s stated commitment as a member of the Organsiation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to ensuring that the OECD’s regulations follow principles in a “fair, just and equitable environment for all.”

He also relayed The Bahamas’ appreciation to Mexico for assistance in the educational, technical, scientific and cultural areas in collaboration with both the public and private sectors.

The Governor General told the Mexican Ambassador that given her background in international economic relations, her tenure will mark “a sound, expanded mutually beneficial partnership between both countries.”

Ambassador Rueda-Gutierrez, 52, is a career diplomat and has worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico since 1974. She is also the Ambassador of Mexico to Jamaica.

She said Mexico shares with The Bahamas the commitment to consolidate multilaterism and the United Nations organisation as the priviledged forum for the settlement of disputes, the promotion of cooperation and development to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for the joint solution to face the world and regional challenges.

“Promoting the common goals of peace, the values of democracy, respect for the rule of law, human rights and freedoms, international cooperation, the fight against poverty, the search of sustainable development as well as the regional integration are some of the important coincidences between our nations,” Ambassador Rueda-Gutierrez said.

She said that both countries could enhance their shared interest, dialogue and efforts in areas such as reform to the UN Security Council, climate change, and the fight against drugs. She also commended The Bahamas for ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-ban Treaty last November.

“My Government has instructed me to reiterate its readiness to meet cooperation requirements from the Government of the Bahamas, both in technical and scientific as well as in the cultural and educational levels,” Ambassador Rueda-Gutierrez said.

Source: Bahama Journal

A former Member of Parliament in the Progressive Liberal Party administration wished the government good luck in any attempt to legalize gambling in The Bahamas. George A. Smith, who once represented the Exuma constituency, said the Lynden Pindling-led PLP proposed similar legislation approximately two decades ago, but was forced to retract it in the midst of fierce criticism from religious leaders.

“Yeah, we tried that,” said Smith while on the Love 97 talk show ‘Jones and Company’ that aired yesterday. “There was a bill before Parliament, when Paul Adderley was Minister of Finance, to establish a board to legitimize the numbers business and the money had been earmarked to go into education, health services,
sporting and other social things.

The religious leaders objected to it and the bill was withdrawn by the then Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, because the principal spiritual leaders in this country felt uneasy about it. There has been no indication yet that they have withdrawn their objections.”

Smith was right on target with his prediction, because on the same day that the radio show was recorded, Thursday, The Bahamas Christian Council responded to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who told the House of Assembly the day before that he was considering legalizing gambling.

Ingraham argued last Wednesday that the existing anti-gambling law could not be enforced, and that it might be best if the government sought to regulate the business.

“I told the Commissioner of Police last week,” said Ingraham, “that it seems to me that we are unable to enforce that [illegal gambling] law and that I was going to give consideration to legalizing the numbers business.” The Prime Minister went on to say that there were web shops all over the islands.

But the Bahamas Christian Council quickly responded to the nation’s chief, saying it could not support legalized gambling for Bahamians. “We urge the Prime Minister and his government to reinforce the law as it stands on the operation of number houses, as they are illegal,” council president John Humes outlined in a statement last Thursday. “Furthermore, legislation should be put in place to control the amount of web shops that are opening.”

George Smith said he did not agree with the position of the religious leaders, adding that there was already gambling in The Bahamas - done everyday in the casinos. He pointed out that it was not justifiable for Bahamians to continue to face discrimination under the existing anti-gambling law, which strangely condones the “illegal” activity if the person taking part in it is a foreigner.

“The constitution of The Bahamas is one of the few constitutions in the world that permits discrimination against nationals in favor of foreigners by permitting foreigners to gamble at the casinos when Bahamians and residents of The Bahamas cannot,” said Smith.

“The great fear at the time, and I think it may have been displaced then and certainly is now, [was that] Bahamians don’t have sufficient discipline to control how much they will spend.”

Smith went on to say that the people should decide whether they want to legalize gambling. “If we are to permit gambling in the country, there has to be a tremendous debate and obviously it should be a matter that necessitates some referendum to determine where the money will go,” he explained. “If you legalize gambling for Bahamians and the money ends up in the public treasury, the consolidated fund, it then gets gobbled up by all these other things that governments can do to spend money.”

He suggested that the money be set aside for education and sporting initiatives, and to tackle the country’s social problems such as crime, homelessness and poverty.

Last October, The Guardian spoke to half a dozen operators of number houses who all agreed that only certain ‘webshops’ houses are raided. One of the most vocal operators, who called himself the Number King, said any attempt to crack down on numbers would be hypocritical and a “big joke”, as it was a well-known fact that police officers play numbers. He said, “Everybody dealing with numbers right now are paying for their window. Anything that you’re dealing with like this, you have to pay for your window. And when I say your window, I mean once you pay your people, nobody will bother you. Most of my customers are police. All the big money making from numbers is from police, big-time politicians and government workers. Everyone else is only be giving us a quarter, 50 cents or a dollar.”

Two years ago, the them tourism minister Obie Wilchcombe told Parliament that there were at least 45 illegal gambling houses in New Providence and 12 in Grand Bahama. He estimated that 60 percent of the population were playing the lottery.

Source: Nassau Guardian

The Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU) is rejecting a proposal by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company to cut 23 benefits that existed under the previous industrial agreement BTC had with its workers.

Scores of disgruntled workers demonstrated their frustrations during their lunch hour on Thursday at the company’s John F. Kennedy Drive headquarters.

The company is apparently attempting to remove temporary employees; two weeks’ pay in lieu of notice of termination for those individuals who are on probation; accrued benefits paid upon termination; written notice of why an increment is denied following a performance review and time without pay granted for up to four months to complete a degree programme.

The company is also proposing to end the time back granted while on vacation for the death of a loved one; a lump sum payment for full time union officers; payment for vacation days; shift privilege after 20 years of service and travel allowances.

BCPOU President Robert Farquharson said the union refuses to accept those conditions on behalf of the 1,400 union members of BTC.

“We want to send a very strong message: The first message goes to [BTC] President Leon Williams; the same goes to Chairman of BTC Julian Francis and the same message goes to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. The message is that the BCPOU will not be moved and we will not yield one article,” he said.

The previous industrial agreement ended last September. Mr. Farquharson said the union has been trying to start negotiations with the company since then.

“We have not began contract negotiations as yet and we anticipate that those negotiations will come in a couple of weeks,” he said.

“This is no longer a joke. We want to demonstrate what we do with garbage.”

In a dramatic move, the president shredded the proposed industrial agreement, loaded it in a Depends diaper and placed it in an envelope to be forwarded to Mr. Francis.

“We want them to know that we will fight to the death for the rights of those workers,” he said.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ingraham announced that the government was in negotiations with Blue Waters Communications, a US-based company, to privatize BTC.

He said there will be a 15-day discussion period between the government and the company this month.

On Thursday, Mr. Farquharson said while privatization is in the best interest of the company it cannot happen while the workers of BTC are at a disadvantage.

“We need to speak with the investors and we need to let them know that they cannot come in this country to try to take over this company while the workers are at a disadvantage,” he said. “So whoever is thinking of buying BTC, they need to sit down and talk to us.”

The Bahama Journal attempted to contact the executives at BTC, but was told that they were in a management meeting.

Source: Bahama Journal

Bahamas Telecommunications Company [BTC] officials spent the better part of Tuesday crediting $5 worth of airtime to the accounts of hundreds of thousands of cellular telephone customers in a symbolic gesture designed to smooth the waters after a systems failure last week left those customers without the crucial service.

The move amounted to a roughly $1 million loss for the company, as there are some 200,000 active customers on the pre-paid network. The remainder of the company’s 260,000 customers uses the post-paid system.

Last Tuesday, BTC’s pre-paid cellular system went down for seven hours, reportedly the result of a power surge. The surge caused a failure in the company’s pre-paid platform, which affected the backup and redundancy, supplies.

According to Marlon Johnson, BTC’s vice president in charge of marketing, the aim of the credit is essentially to keep customers happy.

“We are demonstrating that we are putting our money where our mouth is as a token for the inconvenience that occurred and what better way to do that than [through this?].

“It will cost us thousands of dollars but we want to be customer-centric,” he told the Bahama Journal.

The company began running advertisements in local newspapers and on the airwaves informing its customers of the move.

Early indications were that BTC consumers were happy about the decision.

“People are ecstatic,” said Mr. Johnson, who claimed that his phone has been ringing for most of the day. “People actually want more.”

The company started crediting customers’ accounts by mid-morning Tuesday and continued throughout the day, he said.

“We recognized that this was significant enough for us to do something and offer a token and we looked at a figure [for the credit],” Mr. Johnson said.

The government intends to spend an estimated $40 million to upgrade the GSM system in The Bahamas, officials have said.

BTC officials are currently working on upgrading the GSM system and have set a target of year’s end for an improvement of all cell phone service.

The company has placed substantial emphasis on its cellular telephone service, launching a host of new offerings within the last few years.

BTC is set for a big change sometime this year as Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has already announced his intention to have the company privatized by the end of the year.

The process of privatization began over five years ago under the first Ingraham administration.

It continued under the Christie Administration, which announced that it had shaved the list of prospective buyers down to three, but in the end the administration decided that none of the offers was satisfactory.

Offers were reviewed by the BTC Tenders Commission comprising officials of the Ministry of Finance, Office of the Attorney General, Central Bank, representatives of the BTC Board, management and unions of BTC and the private sector.

At the end of 2003, the first attempt at privatizing BTC came to an end, but former prime minister Perry Christie assured that his government was still committed to privatization.

He explained that the offers had involved complex financial transactions under which the investors would recover their investment by using BTC to borrow funds to repay them, and by extracting maximum dividends from BTC.

Last week Mr. Ingraham said the company would be privatized by the end of 2008.

Source: Bahama Journal

The statutory Copyright Royalty Tribunal, a critical tool in The Bahamas’ intellectual property (IP) regime according to State Minister for Legal Affairs Desmond Bannister, has a new chairman.

Mr. Bannister pointed to the increasing importance being placed on intellectual property in the global arena, with some countries doing what amounts to blacklisting other countries with poor or undeveloped intellectual property regimes.

The state minister told the Journal he didn’t think The Bahamas is not in any danger of that sort of reputation.

“I don’t believe there is any possibility that we will be blacklisted, because we have done our work, and we are continuing to do our work and cooperate internationally. I want to make that very clear,” he said. “What there is, however, is there are a number of countries that continue to infringe international copyright principles and guidelines.”

“The Bahamas has to ensure that we don’t do that type of thing,” Mr. Bannister said. “To do that, we have to have organizations like this tribunal that look out for the better interests of those copyright owners and persons who ought to be protected by the copyright laws.”

The statutory Copyright Royalty Tribunal, constituted under the Copyright Act, is responsible for royalties that are collected with respect to copyright works.

The tribunal has a statutory duty to collect those royalties and account for them to government, and to assess any claims that are made in respect to copyrights.

Kirkwood Seymour was recently appointed chairman of the body, which also includes accountant James Gomez and architect Stan Burnside.

“This royalty tribunal is critical because they have to collect royalties under the law, they have to maintain those royalties, and where there are appropriate claims they have to review those claims and make the appropriate payments.”

Mr. Bannister said he suspected that Bahamian artists will begin making royalty claims at some point, which claims would have to be appropriately assessed prior to payment.

“Right now there are issues where a number of artists have been concerned about how their material is being played and broadcast, issues of consent. These are legal issues that will come to the forefront more and more as we move on.”

Mr. Bannister noted that outgoing chairman Lowell Mortimer had done “an amazing amount of work to bring about awareness of our responsibilities in this area (IP).”

The minister reiterated that there are a number of issues The Bahamas has that raise concerns internationally,

“We have a number of issues with respect to Cable Bahamas,” he said. “We have a number of issues with respect to Bahamian performers who would wish to seek royalties at some stage. Whatever royalties are owed to them have to be assessed and determined and paid.”

“So these are critical issues that have to be addressed by this tribunal.”

Mr. Bannister explained that there has to be an IP regime that protects the interests of creators of intellectual property, and also knows what the international standards are and complies with them.

“Our Caribbean area has had some real issues to deal with, with respect to broadcasting of major television programmes by various cable providers within the region. There’s a breakthrough in Trinidad recently but there are still some serious issues that we as a country, and the other countries in the region, have to consider.”

Source: Bahama Journal

The Central Bank of The Bahamas might have to consider the option of reducing the prime lending rate of 5.50 percent as a means of keeping the Bahamian economy, if the global economic situation continues to deteriorate in the midst of what some have referred to as an ominous economic outlook for 2008.

The recommendation came from Raymond Winder, a leading Bahamian accountant who is also managing partner of Deloitte and Touche.

Following strong growth through the third quarter of 2007, the global economic expansion has begun to moderate in response to continuing financial turbulence, the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday in its new World Economic Outlook update.

Global growth is projected to decelerate from 4.9 percent in 2007 to 4.1 percent in 2008 and downside risks remain.

Mr. Winder proposed a reduction in the prime rate as a critical move to stimulate and encourage economic activity in The Bahamas.

“The Central Bank may have to, depending on how bad things get, reduce the interest rate to ensure that individuals will continue to build houses and businesses and borrow money because then the rates would be a little bit lower,” he said.

Calls to Central Bank Governor Wendy Craigg for a response to the suggestion were not returned up to press time. In her last comments on the economy featured earlier this month at the Bahamas Business Outlook seminar, Ms. Craigg offered a glimmer of hope in her economic outlook.

“I do believe that the prospect for the Bahamian economy for 2008 is, on balance, positive and this is because of the numerous foreign investment projects that are slated to commence during the course of this year,” she said at the time.

However, international ratings agency Standard and Poor’s this week made a starkly different point: while analysts were encouraged by commitments for mega projects in The Bahamas, they projected a slowing of their implementation given the uncertainties of the global environment. Officials stated that this, in turn, would likely pressure the government’s fiscal and external positions.

“The foreign exchange reserve position is, and will remain tight,” the S&P report said.

Mr. Winder stressed that the Central Bank has to be very careful in its monetary policy considering the current realities and projections.

For instance, he said, urging commercial banks to tighten the reins on lending, should not be an option.

“Clearly, for those commercial projects that are still viable those banks should still be lending those enterprises the necessary funds because by doing that those enterprises can then do the necessary developments and whatever projects they are doing that would help to circulate funds in the country and also help to ensure that we have a certain amount of jobs,” he said.

“So we don’t want to be tightening that rein at this particular point in time because by tightening it we will cause the problem to become even worse than it is, but clearly the Central Bank would have to be watching to see what happens.”

The IMF projects that economies in the western hemisphere will grow by 4.3 percent this year and Standard and Poor’s predicts a three percent rate of growth for The Bahamas, down from the four percent that had been forecast.

Another revision downward for global economic growth, growing commotion in the US market and worldwide financial turbulence have countries around the world scrambling to cushion their economies as best they can from the potential fallout.

Economic growth in the United States appears to have slowed notably in the fourth quarter of 2007, with recent indicators showing weakening of manufacturing and housing sector activity, employment, and consumption.

The IMF projects U.S. growth will slow to 1.5 percent this year, down from 2.2 percent last year, reflecting a carryover from 2007.

The risk that continues to generate concern is that the ongoing turmoil in financial markets would further reduce domestic demand in the advanced economies with more significant spillovers into emerging market and developing countries.

In terms of monetary policies the difficult challenge becomes balancing the risks of higher inflation and slower economic activity while there is a possibility of softening oil prices moderating inflation pressures.

The Caribbean Development Bank has already predicted economic fallout for countries in this region from a very likely recession in the U.S. economy this year and urged jurisdictions to prepare for it.

Source: Bahama Journal

If you travel out to the roundabout at Coral Harbor, you would see that acres of pine forest have been cleared away and construction is in the works. Trees are piled around the perimeter and concrete blocks have begun to sprout up in columns where they once stood.

The site is surrounded by protected lands owned by the Water and Sewerage Corporation.

The surrounding forest is part of the National Forest and Southwest Forest Reserve that is protected by the Ministry of Lands and Local Government and is mainly used by the Corporation to handle water runoff.

The clearing is for the first phase of a planned 30,000 square foot facility that will provide amenities to the Adelaide and Coral Harbor area, according to Tony Joudi, head of Fast Track Development, which is building the project.

“It is all privately held land that has been properly conveyed through the proper government channels,” he said.

“It is about eight acres and the surrounding land on the left and the right is protected, but the land we are building on is all private land.”

Mr. Joudi said the facility will provide the basic necessities that are lacking for area residents.

“Nothing is in that area for miles. The population is growing and along with that population growth, people are going to need the basics,” he said.

Mr. Joudi added that the planned facility will include a laundromat, a grocery store, Mail Boxes Etc., a pharmacy, a liquor store and several restaurants.

The project is expected to be completed in the next 18 months, according to Mr. Joudi.

Source: Bahama Journal