The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Key parties in the battle over the Oceania Heights development yesterday resolved “how to settle the major issues”, the Exuma Chamber of Commerce’s president describing that outcome as “significant”.

Pedro Rolle, speaking to Tribune Business after a meeting at Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis’s office, involving both developers and homeowners at the controversy-torn real estate project, said agreement had been reached on who would pay outstanding Stamp Duty and real property taxes.

He added that the various players had also agreed Oceania Heights should be transferred to a Homeowners Association, which would manage the development moving forward.

Suggesting that the main issue would now become all parties living up to what has been agreed, Mr Rolle, who has played a key role in mediating/brokering a solution to the Oceania Heights dispute, acknowledged that several matters still remained outstanding.

These included who would be responsible for completing roads and other infrastructural works at Oceania, plus alleged debts owed to non-homeowner third parties by the developers.

Still, Mr Rolle said the ownership of more than 90 per cent of Oceania’s lots had been determined, with legal title documents now made available to many purchasers for the first time.

“I think we came to resolution on some of the major points,” the Exuma Chamber chief told Tribune Business.

“The first issue had to do with the payment of real property tax on some of these lots. It was agreed who would pay for them, and in what timeframe.”

A major complaint from many Oceania homeowners is that they previously paid Stamp Duty to the developers when they bought their properties, but there is no record of these monies - collectively totalling a six-figure sum - being passed on to the Treasury, and the conveyances stamped and recorded.

“At least it’s agreed between the various parties who’s responsible,” Mr Rolle said on the tax issue. “There’s very little question as to who’s responsible.

“Most of those things were given a 10-day window to have some of the funds paid.”

Oceania Heights’ developers are Bahamian attorney, Anthony Thompson, and Canadian citizen, Howard Obront, who has maintained he was responsible for just the international sales and marketing effort.

The bitter, long-running dispute appears to be inching towards resolution, and the effort will have gained further evidence from the presence in Nassau of Canada’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Diane Ablonczy. She said at the weekend that she would attend yesterday’s meeting at the Deputy Prime Minister’s office.

Mr Rolle, meanwhile, said agreement was also reached on the formation of an Oceania Heights’ Homeowners Association - a development previously revealed by Tribune Business.

“There’ll be forming an Association, assets and amenities will be transferred to that Association, and they will manage Oceania going forward,” he explained. “That is significant.

“There are just a couple of sticking points. There are certain things, such as who will be responsible for the roads that need to be fixed. We’re trying to find out who’s going to pay for this, who will complete the infrastructural development. That has to be resolved.”

Mr Rolle added that other issues concerned monies allegedly owed by Oceania’s developers to contractors, and situations where persons were claiming to have been overcharged.

“These things are unresolved, still on the table,” he said. “The overarching thing is this: I think we have reached resolution in terms of how we settle the major issues.

“The ownership of the properties, we’ve settled who owns 90 per cent of them. It’s a matter of ensuring what was agreed is lived up to, and I’m pretty confident it’s going to happen.”

Mr Rolle told Tribune Business that resolution of the Oceania Heights dispute was “hugely important” for Exuma and its economy, given that the negative publicity surrounding it had potentially driven investors and second home buyers away.

“We need every help we can get in terms of driving investment into Exuma, and that negative publicity was just not good,” he added.

The main complaints of Oceania Heights homeowners are that they have been unable to obtain title/conveyancing documents to the properties they have bought; there are questions whether more than $880,000 in Stamp Tax they paid has been passed on to the Treasury; Mr Thompson failed to disclose he was also a beneficial owner of Oceania Heights when acting for the buyers in their purchases; the same lots have been sold to different buyers; and the hotel and other promised amenities have not been constructed.

Messrs Thompson and Obront have consistently, and vehemently, denied all the allegations against them.