The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Developers behind Abaco’s Schooner Bay community yesterday expressed confidence it would become “the hottest place to be in the Out Islands” within five years, telling Tribune Business all infrastructure/utilities work would be completed by December 2012.

James Malcolm, Schooner Bay’s sales and marketing director, said the developers were in “the final push” to turn the location into a true “destination”, and realise the original vision of its founder, Orjan Lindroth.

Speaking following his return from Brazil, where he had cultivated fresh sales contacts through the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) visit, Mr Malcolm said Schooner Bay was poised to become a community with close to 50 per cent of Phase I lots now sold.

He added that the Blackfly BoneFish Lodge, set to be centrepiece at Schooner Bay, was set for an April 2013 completion, and it was already “fully booked” for May-June next year,

“We’re in the final push right now, and it’s all about 2013 when Schooner Bay becomes a destination,” Mr Malcolm told Tribune Business. “Most of the heavy lifting is done.

“The Blackfly Bonefish Lodge, the most important civic building, and a high-end hotel and meeting place, will be open by April. It is fully booked for May and June, and business is brisk; they’ve been developing it from last year.”

The Blackfly Lodge will feature eight rooms, plus four two-bed anglers’ cottages. These effectively take its total accommodation to 16 rooms, and two of the four cottages have already been sold.

“The harbour is all dredged, and a number of docks are in,” Mr Malcolm added. “Another 30 slips are going in before the New Year, and fuel will be by then.

“2013 is going to be a great year for us. We have about 16 owners that own homes they are ready to take delivery of before the holidays.”

Schooner Bay has 60 property owners to-date, accounting for 48 per cent of the 125 lots that were put on the market in Phase I. The project, intended to be a model for sustainable development and living in the Bahamas, has 450 lots in total.

Likening Schooner Bay’s developer, Lindroth Development Company, to the pioneers of the US mid-west, Mr Malcolm acknowledged: “It’s been very difficult, but our developers and equity partners have never wavered.

“Sales have ben extremely difficult, because the economy and the crash in 2008. We came out of the gate in late 2008 at the worst possible time, but still held strong.”

To ensure Schooner Bay appeals to all price points and income levels, Mr Malcolm said it was now offering two products - the Sail Loft and Harbour Cottage - priced at $195,000 at the heart of the development. Prices ranged from this to a $2.5 million lot, on which a $2 million home could be built.

Some 20 homes at Schooner Bay have already been built, with another eight to start construction around the New Year period. Work on installing electricity, wastewater treatment, water and fibre-optic cable systems, plus a geothermal cooling system designed to reduce air conditioning energy demand by up to 50 per cent, is set to be completed by December.

“Orjan’s vision is now becoming reality,” Mr Malcolm told Tribune Business. “It’s taken six-plus years to get to this point, and is a huge accomplishment.

“There were a lot of people watching us through the years, a number sceptically, and many of them we hope will decide in the next year that Schooner Bay’s a place to invest in.

“Schooner Bay is going to be the place to be in five years from now. It will be the hottest place to be in the Out Islands.”

By Spring/Summer 2013, Mr Malcolm said Schooner Bay would likely have 12-15 homes in a rental programme.

He added that the developer was now employing a 100-strong staff, with an equal number working in construction on-site. At least four sub-contractors were present.

Among the small businesses operating at Schooner Bay are Abaco Nature Tours, Froggy’s Down Island Adventures, Islands By Design, Bahamas National Trust, Amanda Design, Lightbourn Family Farms, Flava Catering, Islander Home Services, Carib Procurement, Frederick’s Agency and Antonius Roberts Gallery.

The Cabana Beach Club is set to open soon, and Tracy Kelly, owner and operator of supply company, T’s Island Delivery, will own Schooner Bay’s Harbour General Store.

As well as the Bahamas and Florida, Mr Malcolm said Schooner Bay was also working the UK “very hard” for potential real estate buyers, having linked up with high-end British realtor, Savill’s.

Mr Malcolm added that by joining up with the BFSB trip, he was able to promote the benefits of Economic Permanent Residency in the Bahamas to Brazilian intermediaries, who advised that nation’s high net worth individuals, and how this could be “fast-tracked” if they acquired real estate worth $1.5 million or more.’

“There’s a little bit of a migration to the Bahamas,” Mr Malcolm said of Brazil. “They understand it, it’s good business for us, and I made some great contacts.....

“You don’t come back with sales in the pocket; you come back with great relationships to build on.”

He added that he also met a high-end Rio de Janeiro-based real estate firm, and said: “It was extremely productive and there was a lot of interest from them in sales.”