The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Agricultural & Industrial Corporation (BAIC) said yesterday that it has sees an improvement in rental payments by tenants at its Soldier Road Industrial Park, reducing the burden for some by dividing the space they are letting.

BAIC currently has 19 tenants, and that number is growing, Arnold Forbes, its executive chairman, said yesterday. While unable to say give an exact figure on how much its tenants owe, Mr Forbes said the Corporation was working with them.

“It has gotten a lot better. What is happening now is that we have combined certain buildings. We don’t want to kick anyone out of the park,” Mr Forbes said.

“What we have done is if certain buildings are too big for their operations, we split them in half and put two tenants together so that the rent is cheaper and they can continue to produce.

“We hope to bring new tenants in who can support the other buildings that are vacant. There are some people who we just could not work with and they just had to leave. We have put in place business plans for them so they can operate on solid business principles. We are working with these people. We are not a bank but we are here to help Bahamians.”

Speaking st the opening of BAIC’s new head office, which will be primarily solar powered, Mr Forbes said: “We had budgeted around $2.6 million to build the facility. We are now probably at about $2.3 million, so we are really under budget; we are well within the budget that we set to build this building.

“It’s proof that if you manage a project properly and you are involved in the entire process, you can save money and build within budget in the Bahamas.

“It is a model for government buildings in the future. It is the first government building in this country to operate mainly off of solar power. This building is also fully LED. Every light fixture is LED, so it consumes less energy. It’s a smart building, totally interconnected. We have an entire IT area set up just for interconnection. All of the windows and doors are energy efficient.”

Mr Forbes added: “Our energy costs will probably, out of the gate, be probably be about reduced by 35-40 per cent. When we really enhance the system and get it up to full operation, we will be around 60 per cent.”