The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government's first Post Office partner yesterday revealed he has been left exposed to a near-$4m loss, and said: "I've never been in a situation like this before."

Scott Godet, who agreed a public-private partnership (PPP) with the former Christie administration to construct a new main Post Office at the Independence Drive Shopping Plaza, told Tribune Business "it's not right" that he has endured an 18-month wait for the Government to clarify how it intends to proceed with the deal.

Disclosing that the Minnis administration has yet to respond to the four options he presented it with on September 4, Mr Godet said he had been "unable to do anything with my property" during that period for fear he would breach the PPP's terms.

Besides sinking $3m into constructing a facility the Government has now seemingly abandoned, the Bahamian businessman said he had also lost about $800,000 in rental income up to end-August 2018 as a result of evicting other tenants to make way for the Post Office.

Mr Godet added that he also continues to incur mortgage and real property tax payments on a site he cannot use. Asked whether he was considering legal action to recover his construction outlay and loss of rental income, he described this as "a last resort" option and expressed hope that the Government will see this as "an expensive and unnecessary proposition".

"The PPP is just sitting there. They're not acting on it," Mr Godet told Tribune Business of his current impasse with the Government. "We're trying to figure out what their intentions are before we do anything.

"We have a binding contract, a PPP, so we're basically just waiting for them to come back. We're hoping they come back with an alternative purpose (usage) for the property."

The Minnis administration's decision to relocate the main Post Office to the Town Centre Mall, located on the opposite side of the roundabout from the Independence Drive Shopping Plaza, is another clear indication that it has dropped the original intent of the PPP with Mr Godet.

The Town Centre Mall move came after the Government dropped previous plans to relocate the Post Office to the former Phil's Food Services building on Gladstone Road, after discovering that the costs involved in renovating that property were more than the amount it had budgeted.

Mr Godet, the principal of Scottdale Bedding and National Fence Company, told Tribune Business he had presented the Minnis administration with four options for his property in a bid to break the deadlock.

Recalling his dealings with the Government since last May's general election, he added: "There was contact initially with the Ministry of Works, which wanted to get an understanding of where we were with the project. We met with the Ministry of Works, and then nothing happened."

Following "more than a year" without any communication, Mr Godet said he met "a month or two ago" with the Attorney General's Office before submitting his proposal on September 4.

"We thought we were at the point where we needed some kind of answer," he added. "We said to them: You can do one of four things. Continue with the PPP as written, or change the PPP to facilitate another ministry or department.

"The third option was for them to put the building back in order for me to continue with it as a shopping centre, and not worry about having that discussion over damages and loss of income, and the fourth was to buy the property as is.

"Do something with it; turn it into a park or bus stop. That would be the fourth option. Just compensate the company for the losses it incurred over the past couple of years. We had tenants we had to evict for this to happen," Mr Godet continued.

"That was sent to them on September 4, and I haven't had anything since. There's been no kind of communication to say they like it or don't like it, or have another option to go with, or anything like that."

Calculating his losses to-date, Mr Godet told Tribune Business: "As far as design, engineering and the work that has been done already, it's about $3m we've already put in.

"If the property had been rented by myself [to other tenants], not considering the Government, we'd have probably lost about $800,000 up to the end of August.

"In the meantime, the expenses of the building, including real property tax and the mortgage, are not stopping. These things are still going on."

Mr Godet said he had not explored alternative uses for the Independence Drive Shopping Plaza for fear he would breach the PPP's terms and lose what potential leverage he enjoys with the Government.

"If I do anything I'd be in breach," he added. "I can't do anything at this point; the onus is on them. If I even try to do anything with my property I'd be giving up on my rights under the PPP.

"I've been sitting and waiting. I'm in business to do business. I'm not in business to sit and wait. It's an odd feeling, not knowing and not getting any real answers. I've never been in a situation like this before.

"I just feel like it's not right. We all know it's not right. It just doesn't feel good to put so much into something and, for no good reason, it comes to a halt. There's no good reason."

Asked if he might have to seek redress through the Bahamian courts, Mr Godet replied: "I'm hoping I don't. That would be a last resort. I'm hoping, with the strength of the PPP, that the Government would realise that would be a more expensive proposition for them, an unnecessary proposition for them. It doesn't need to go that way."

Mr Godet is already a landlord to the Government, as he rents it the Public Treasury building on East Street through a lease that includes an option to buy. He explained that the Post Office PPP required him to finance and redevelop the shopping plaza, with the Government paying him back over an eight-year period before ownership of the property was transferred to it for $100.

"It was basically maintaining a lot of what was there," Mr Godet said of the construction project. "The footprint, some of the walls. The superstructure would have remained the same, but the changes would have been more internal with renovations, apart from two parts that would have had to be raised five feet to accommodate a second floor."

However, Mr Godet and his team ran into several unexpected obstacles. The Post Office PPP was initially placed on hold during the final months of the former Christie administration after residents in the adjacent Garden Hills community complained that the increased traffic flow generated by the facility's presence would disrupt the area's quality of life.

Mr Godet, though, suggested the complaints may have had more to do with construction work cutting off a short-cut that residents were taking through the Independence Drive Shopping Plaza to reach Blue Hill Road.

"We gave them what we thought was a good option," he explained. "There was a house for sale that connected a back to Blue Hill Road. We said we'd be prepared to acquire that property, demolish the house and put an entry and exit in the neighbourhood to Blue Hill Road, so residents having to go east did not have to drive all the way to the Government High roundabout and turn around.

"We thought that would be the fix to the problem, everyone would be happy and the Post Office completed by now. It was scheduled to be completed by December last year. We were eight months away from completion when this was stopped."

Then came the FNM's general election victory, and the new government's decision to place all PPPs entered into by its predecessor on hold pending a review. Mr Godet's was the only one which, at that stage, had already incurred significant expenditure and seen work performed.

The Ministry of Finance has subsequently issued a PPP policy document to provide guidelines for such projects in future.