The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The former Sawyer’s Fresh Market and Saveco property in Nassau Village is up for sale with buyers actively being sought, Tribune Business confirmed last night.

Ruby-Lee Sweeting, a sales associate with Darville-Wong Realty, told this newspaper that the realtor had just begun to actively market the 4.426-acre site situated directly behind Lowe’s Pharmacy’s Soldier Road warehouse complex.

“It is on the market for sale,” Ms Sweeting said. “We were asking people to express an interest, and depending on the level of interest, we will provide figures [and the seller’s asking price] for them. We don’t want to be dealing with everybody.”

The 35,000 square foot building includes an administrative area that features general offices, checkouts, a loading and storage section, restrooms and customer service section. It also comes complete with a parking lot.

“It’s still set up the way it was for Sawyers,” Ms Sweeting added.

Sawyer’s Fresh Market pulled its food retail operation from the Taylor Street store last summer, and the property has been vacant ever since. The retailer was said then to be looking for another New Providence site, plus focus on its Grand Bahama business.

Sources suggested at the time that the old Saveco building was not attractive to customers because Nassau Village was perceived as a ‘high crime area’ where few outsiders dared to tread.

“With the Nassau Village store it’s basically geography. Being in an area where there is a gang war has customers concerned. They call in and say they love the store, but the location is an issue,” one source said.

Another retail industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There’s no money in Nassau Village, and no one with money is going into Nassau Village. It’s too big of a building for the location, and it’s the wrong location.”

Sawyer’s Fresh Market in 2012 hosted two job fairs, which saw massive turnouts for the 100 or so available positions at the Nassau Village store.

Tribune Business reported then that after Saveco closed its doors, the landlord engaged a real estate firm to market the Taylor Street property to potential buyers. No deal was said to have been forthcoming, hence the lease tie-up with Sawyer’s Fresh Market.

Now, a potential sale appears on the cards again.