The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

A HIGH-RANKING representative of the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board said the board welcomes all businesses to Paradise Island, especially those partnered with the entity.

Joy Jibrilu, CEO of the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board, spoke yesterday after Tribune Business last month revealed that Atlantis had teamed up with other Paradise Island hotels and developers to thwart Aetos Holdings’ plans to convert the former Scotiabank site into a fast-food destination for its Wendy’s and Marco’s Pizza brands. The bank is at the junction of Harbour Drive and Paradise Beach Drive.

At the time, Vaughn Roberts, senior vice president for Atlantis, said the resort does not believe a Wendy’s on Paradise Island would be stiff competition for its restaurants, insisting Atlantis merely believes the franchise doesn’t fit the ethos and aesthetics of Paradise Island.

When asked by reporters on the sidelines of an event at the University of The Bahamas yesterday, Ms Jibrilu said: “We have a very specific mandate and that mandate is to market and promote our member property hotels, so that is anyone who is a member of the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board.

“In addition, we promote and we market our destination so whoever is at that table no matter where they are if they fall within Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board, it’s our role to showcase them in the best possible way, but primarily our member property hotels who support us and support us financially, we are charged to get out there and let the world know about them. That is our primary focus.”

The Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board CEO is the latest to comment on the dispute between Paradise Island hotels in an effort to bar the fast-food franchise from developing in the community.

Last month, the mega resort presented a bid to overturn the permission granted by the Town Planning Committee for Aetos Holdings to “change the use” of the former Scotiabank site to that for fast-food restaurants. However, the “restrictive covenants” governing how the location is to be used do not appear to provide an iron-clad case by themselves for that decision to be overturned.

However, the “restrictive covenants” governing how the location is to be used show the site acquired by the Wendy’s and Marco’s Pizza franchise owner was limited to use as a bank branch and related offices for only a five-year period. The original conveyance of the property is dated November 9, 1970, which means the restriction expired more than 47 years ago at the end of 1975.