By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Island Luck’s co-founder is leasing the site of the former failed Blackbeard’s Cay dolphin encounter for part of the $300m Cable Beach resort development he unveiled yesterday.
Adrian Fox, principal of the Fox Group of Companies, confirmed he has secured a 21-year lease from the Government for a portion of Balmoral Island which is situated off New Providence’s north coast immediately opposite Sandals Royal Bahamian. It will also lie offshore in close proximity to the other part of Mr Fox’s mixed-use resort and residential project at the former Cable Beach Manor site.
“The island is a lease from the Government for 21 years. And we haven’t decided exactly what phase we’re going to start with first, and that could be about a $30m to $40m investment over there,” Mr Fox said during the Heads of Agreement signing with the Davis administration.
His group is aiming to break ground on Balmoral Island within four months by summer 2025, with plans to construct three clubhouses each seating up to 500 guests; 23 land and over water cottages; a 100-slip marina; three pools; a performance area and entertainment stage; and a helipad and seaplane docking facilities.
Balmoral Island is 100 percent Crown Land that is owned by the Government. Around half the property is used by Sandals Royal Bahamian, with the other half that has now been leased to Mr Fox once the site of the infamous attraction where eight dolphins died after the operator, Blue Illusions, and its principals ran into severe financial difficulties post-COVID.
Tribune Business reported last year how Damian Gomez KC, former minister of state for legal affairs, had taken possession of the 50 percent Blue Illusions interest formerly held by one of its principals, Samir Andrawos, to settle $1.25m in unpaid legal fees. Mr Gomez blamed the bankruptcy trustees for Mr Andrawos and his business partner, Victoria Iglesias, for failing to take care of the dolphins.
It is unclear whether the Government cancelled the lease held by Blue Illusions, or if Mr Gomez sold the rights to it to help recover what he was owed. Regardless, Mr Fox’s project will now likely be used to help banish memories of what occurred before at the property.
The former Blackbeard’s Cay dolphin encounter and marine park, designed as an attraction and excursion primarily targeted at cruise passengers, was developed by Blue Illusions whose ownership was split 50/50 between Mr Andrawos and Ms Iglesias.
However, Blue Illusions was almost immediately hit with a Judicial Review action by environmentalist Sam Duncombe and her reEarth group, challenging the permits and approvals granted for the project. Then-Supreme Court justice, Stephen Isaacs, ruled in the activists’ favour by ordering that Blackbeard’s Cay effectively be shut down.
He overruled the dolphin import licences, ordering that the mammals be moved to a suitable location and also quashed the development’s Town Planning Committee approval and ordered that the site be restored to its previous use.
However, Blackbeard’s Cay and its dolphin attraction remained in business for six further years with no enforcement action taken by the authorities to enforce its shut down until the COVID-19 forced all activities to cease. The financial impact from the pandemic-enforced closure ultimately proved an insurmountable obstacle for Blue Illusions to climb.
Both Mr Andrawos and Ms Iglesias have been embroiled in personal bankruptcy proceedings before separate US courts in Maryland and southern Florida, respectively. Each had a bankruptcy trustee appointed over their financial affairs following legal actions initiated by Blue Illusions’ main creditor, SuttonGate Holdings.
Court filings obtained by Tribune Business reveal that Mr Andrawos’ creditors viewed Blackbeard’s Cay as their best source of debt recovery. They allege that financial records show the dolphin attraction and other amenities were generating $7m per year in annual revenue, or a collective $49m over seven years, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The situation, though, was complicated by the fact Mr Andrawos’ 50 percent equity ownership interest in Blue Illusions was claimed by Mr Gomez via Bahamian legal proceedings in a bid to recover $1.25m in outstanding legal fees allegedly owed to him by the Blackbeard’s Cay developer.
Comments
ExposedU2C 1 month, 1 week ago
Many Bahamians have become real victims of scum bags like Adrian Fox, Sebas Bastian, Craig Flowers, and their public relations agents. These numbers bosses have derived and continue to derive the vast amount of their wealth from the enormous criminal empires they have been able to build thanks in large part to Vomit Christie and Slo Mo Sears going against the will of the Bahamian people as expressed in a duly held national referendum many years ago.
All of Fox's, Bastian's and Flowers' real estate and other investments are money laundering activities for the purpose of getting their ill-gotten proceeds from crime into the global banking system. And these are criminal empires that corrupt Davis, Always Angry Simon Wilson and Dumbo Halkitis will never go after to pay any where near the level of taxes they should be paying on their huge revenues and gains that constitute the proceeds of crime. In fact, most of our corrupt political leaders, whether they be of the PLP or FNM variety, get bank rolled in one way or another by these criminal numbers bosses who control the 'illegal' gaming industry in our country.
Vomit and Slo Mo didn't like the fact that the majority of Bahamians voting in the referendum were dead set against 'legalising' the criminal activities of the numbers bosses and their illicit gaming shops. So Vomit and Slo Mo simply ignored the outcome of the duly held national referendum and claimed the whole process to be an unbinding national survey. Talk about corruption on a massive scale overriding democracy!
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