The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Jamie Dingman and his investor group are no longer operating Sandyport’s beach restaurant, Tribune Business can reveal, just months after the highly-touted signing of their lease.

Garth Buckner, Sandyport Development Company’s president, yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that it was seeking a new tenant to operate/manage the former Beach Cafe, although he declined to offer further detail.

“The restaurant is available for rent, and we’re speaking to several interested parties,” Mr Buckner said. “The place is available for rent, and we’d be happy to speak to anyone else.”

He gave no reason for the seemingly abrupt departure of Mr Dingman and his group, although sources suggested differences had arisen with Sandyport Development Company over the lease terms and what type of business this allowed them to operate.

In an advertisement published in this newspaper yesterday, Sandyport Development Company said new tenants “must have previous experience in the restaurant business” and guarantee 
“a minimum investment of $100,000” in the project.

Mr Dingman did not respond to messages seeking comment, relayed to him via a third party, before press time yesterday.

However, Sandyport Development Company was promoting the benefits of its arrangement with Mr Dingman as recently as May this year.

Mr Buckner told Tribune Business then that the western Cable Beach development was hoping his arrival would “add another dimension”

Mr Dingman and his group had planned to rename the restaurant as the Beach House, and Mr Buckner added: “Having Jamie Dingman’s new restaurant at Sandyport will add another dimension to life in this community.

“They’re renting the restaurant. They’re renovating it now to open up as a new restaurant, and I think it’ll be a lovely addition to going out in the Cable Beach area. It’s a lovely site with one of the best views on the island.”

Mr Dingman, son of the renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor, Michael Dingman, who funded the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the College of the Bahamas (COB), expanded rapidly into the New Providence restaurant/eatery business via a series of acquisitions and investments that began in 2012.

He and his group took over, and re-opened in mid-2013, the iconic Traveller’s Restaurant in western New Providence after it was closed by the family of its former owners.

And they also set their sights on revitalising the downtown Nassau experience via the opening of Island Smokehouse in the Elizabeth on Bay Plaza off Bay Street.

Tribune Business revealed last year how Mr Dingman and his group had leased 25 per cent of the units in the shopping plaza, with plans to create a restaurant destination unmatched “except for Marina Village”.

“They have big plans for that,” one source said of the Elizabeth on Bay leases. “There’s a number of different things.”

But the status of Mr Dingman’s non-Sandyport restaurant assets is also uncertain, after Elizabeth on Bay principal, Charles Klonaris, confirmed that the Island Smokehouse was “temporarily closed”.

“Right now it’s temporarily closed, but he’s going to re-open,” Mr Klonaris told Tribune Business of Mr Dingman. “The closure wasn’t recent. It’s been on and off. He was closed, but he’s working to re-open it.”

This newspaper was told by sources close to the situation that Mr Klonaris and his brothers, who own Elizabeth on Bay together, are waiting for Mr Dingman to submit a new business plan to them.

The same uncertainty also surrounds Traveller’s Restaurant. The property’s phone number was disconnected, and out of service, when called by Tribune Business.

The two website domain names listed for the property are up for sale on the Internet, and Traveller’s Restaurant’s Facebook page appears not to have been active since August 2104.

Some of the final postings refer to a temporary closing for “minor renovations”, and urge patrons to be patient.