The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor A WELL-KNOWN Bahamian businessman yesterday told Tribune Business he had closed "Freeport's favourite restaurant" because it had been losing between $6,000-$8,000 per month for the past two years, adding that rents levied by the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) were "double what they should be". Jeff Butler, who also owns the Butler's Food World supermarket, said he had closed Shenanigan's Irish Pub in the Port Lucaya Marketplace at the end of October, although minimal job losses had resulted, after he became "fed up" with recurring losses and no help from the GBPA. "It was the Freeport community's favourite restaurant," Mr Butler told Tribune Business, "but when the Port Authority put the rent up...... The rent in Port Lucaya is equivalent to South Beach. "I was the chairman of the Port Lucaya Marketplace Tenants Association, and told them: 'Look, the economy sucks, you need to cut the rent for everyone by between 25-40 per cent, but they wouldn't do it. The rent up there is double what it should be in these conditions." Mr Butler added that another problem at Port Lucaya Marketplace was the lack of parking spaces, saying the facility had only 200 when it required 600. As a result, most spots were taken by hotel workers and taxis, and customers struggled to park their vehicles. And he argued that Port Lucaya Marketplace was over-saturated with restaurants, some 29 all competing against each other for a market that has shrunk. "I got fed up with losing $6,000-$8,000 a month out of my own pocket, and said: 'To hell with it'. We closed it at the end of October," Mr Butler told Tribune Business of Shenanigan's. "Anybody in Grand Bahama will tell you it had the best food, friendly service at the best prices. How many persons do you know that lose $8,000 a month for two years and stay in business?" Some three-four workers laid-off had been absorbed at Butler's Food World, while many others also held other jobs, he added. Mr Butler also expressed frustration with the Grand Bahama Power Company's relatively high electricity costs, questioning how the monthly bill at Butler's Food World could be almost three times' higher than that for his food wholesale business, which had more compressors. "Our major problem on Grand Bahama is the Power Company," he told Tribune Business. "I don't know how they do their meters, but at the supermarket the bill is more than $35,000 a month. I have more compressors downtown at my wholesale place than here at the supermarket, and my bill there is $12,000. How do you go from $12,000 to $35,000. I'll close everything." Mr Butler added that the Government appeared to have a "hands-off attitude to Freeport" due to the GBPA and existence of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, but said the latter organisation had "not brought in one new investor in five years". "There's nothing here. There's no investors," he told Tribune Business.