The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The developer behind an ambitious $6.5bn proposal for the former Ginn project yesterday branded the Supreme Court Order affirming the Government’s “undertaking” not to proceed with selling 59 percent of that property as “a small speed bump”, while asserting that a rival ownership claimant “doesn’t have a leg to stand on”.

John McDonald, vice-president of Coakley International, told Tribune Business that LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, the two companies that hold the combined 1,931 acres that comprise the failed Ginn development in Grand Bahama’s West End, have failed to pay a cent towards the near-$10m real property tax arrears alleged to be owed to the Public Treasury on that land.

With a portion of that sum said to have been outstanding for decades, he questioned how the rival ownership claimants could justify asserting “they want” to retain this real estate when the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) has now accepted the $26m offer by Coakley International’s affiliate, Bristol Pointe Ltd, to purchase 1,143 acres.

However, the sales process has - at least temporarily - been halted a Supreme Court Order, signed by Justice Franklyn Williams on March 12, 2026. This stipulates the Department of Inland Revenue and the Bahamas Treasurer take no further steps to close the deal with Coakley International, which is pledging to unleash a development creating 2,800 construction jobs and 6,000 permanent posts for Bahamians, until the challenge LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings are mounting over the unpaid tax is resolved.

The Order, which has been seen by this newspaper, mandates that the Department of Inland Revenue and Treasurer “do respectfully undertake not to complete the sale of the property…. until after the completion of the appeal proceedings lodged” by the two rival ownership claimants and their managing agent, Reunion Cay Island Resort LLC, with the Tax Appeal Commission.

Tribune Business had previously revealed that Justice Williams refused to grant LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings permission to proceed with their Judicial Review challenge to the sale, but only on the basis that the Attorney General’s Office had agreed to give an undertaking that the Coakley International deal would halt and not proceed to closing. This was affirmed by the March 12 Order, which described the Judicial Review as “dismissed”, but also gave permission for this to be appealed to the Court of Appeal.

LRA-OBB, which stands for Lubert Adler-Old Bahama Bay, and Resorts Holdings are challenging the Department of Inland Revenue’s valuation of what the former Ginn project properties are worth. They are arguing, before the Tax Appeal Commission, that the DIR has significantly over-priced the land’s value, and that this has resulted in them being over-charged “by more than 75 percent-plus” in real property tax billings since the so-called “great recession” of 2008-2009.

Any hold-up to the sale and property’s purchase will inevitably cost Coakley International both time and money - the two things investors and developers can most ill-afford to lose. It has already paid a $2.6m deposit but both Mr McDonald and Shane Coakley, Coakley International’s Bahamian principal, yesterday downplayed the negative impacts associated with the real property tax challenge, even though any Commission decision could be appealed through the judicial and court system.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a huge delay,” Mr McDonald told this newspaper on the impact of the Supreme Court’s Order. “I believe that it’s the 26th or some time this month that the [Tax Appeals Commission] hearing is coming up. The worst case is that there is going to be a couple of weeks or days’ delay. We’re moving forward as normal.

“We’re waiting for the BIA (Bahamas Investment Authority) approval. As soon as we get that, which should be any day now, we’ll be closing. By the time all our paperwork is done, and all our approvals are done, that case will be long gone, the Tax Appeal Commission case. The timing is going to work out perfectly. No, we don’t have any concerns.

“If it goes to the Court of Appeal that will be a whole different thing. I honestly don’t think they have a leg to stand on. The Government seems to have dotted the ‘i’s’ and crossed the ‘t’s’. They [LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings] are claiming that they want it, they want it, but have not even make a $1m, $1,000 or $200,000 attempt to pay the Government,” Mr McDonald added.

“They never tried to pay it. They’ve known what they owe. What we’re hoping is that this is a small speed bump and that’s it. We’ll see what happens.” Mr Coakley, who confirmed that he has met with officials over the LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings tax challenge and the Supreme Court Order, said he had been informed that the Government was allowing the appeal process to proceed as it was confident it will be successful, thus allowing the Bristol Pointe deal to proceed.

“They feel that in the next couple of weeks they’ll be denied,” Mr Coakley told Tribune Business of the Government’s stance. “They want to make sure that they go through every process, but they feel they’ve given this group more than enough time to pay the tax; they gave them all the time to pay. They want to go through the process so that these guys don’t come back again.

“They [LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings] say it’s not worth $36m, but we did an appraisal and the property came up to $800m. They’re saying it’s not worth $36m, but the marina was appraised for us at $140m when completed.” These valuations, though, may reflect differences between the current ‘as is’ worth of the former Ginn project and what its value may reach if ever developed as envisaged by Mr Coakley.

“We have money lined up and are just planning to close,” he added, “and get out of this stalling and tactics by these guys. There’s no legs to it. We want to do this thing properly so none of these guys comes back and halts this project again. I just hope that happens for the island. They laughed at me in the beginning, but I don’t think they are laughing any more.”

LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, in legal filings with the Supreme Court, accused the Department of Inland Revenue of a lack “of candour and good faith” by accepting the bid from Coakley International and Bristol Pointe on September 25, 2025 - some six weeks after they filed their Tax Appeals Commission - but failing to inform them or the Commission until challenged on the issue in January 2026.

Michael Scott KC, of Scott & Company, the attorney for LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, told the Tax Appeals Commission on January 9, 2026: “This represents the second occasion on which a property that is the subject of the pending appeal has been advertised for sale despite our prior objections having been clearly articulated. The repetition of this conduct is troubling and plainly prejudicial to our clients’ interests.

“For the avoidance of doubt, this property is plainly within the ambit of the pending appeal before the Tax Appeal Commission. Any steps taken to advertise, receive bids for or otherwise dispose of the said property while the appeal remains extant are wholly improper and prejudicial to our clients’ interests.”

Mr Scott and his law firm also sought to address the issue with Amanda Adimoolah, the Department of Inland Revenue’s legal consultant, in a series of letters and e-mails between January 15, 2026, and February 11, 2026. He wrote that seeking to sell the 1,143-acre parcel would force his clients to follow the recommendation from the Tax Appeal Commission’s chair and seek “urgent injunctive relief” from the Supreme Court.

And, on January 26, 2026, Mr Scott warned that any effort to sell the property, given that it was the subject of a Tax Appeal Commission hearing, “is wholly anathema and fundamentally inconsistent with the integrity of the appellate process and the rule of law. It is not conduct that any responsible government authority should allow or countenance where a taxpayer is legitimately exercising a lawful right available to him, her or it under the statue in question”.

Shunda Strachan-Missick, the Department of Inland Revenue’s controller and the chief valuation officer, finally in a February 17, 2026, letter set out the rationale for accepting Coakley International’s $26m bid despite the ongoing legal challenge before the Tax Appeal Commission. The two companies and Reunion Cay are arguing that the appeal’s existence should have acted as a ‘stay’ preventing any acceptance of the offer.

“During the period October 2024 to September 2025, although the assessed taxes remained due and owing by the property owner, no payment was made to the Department of Inland Revenue in an attempt to settle the tax liability,” Ms Strachan-Missick asserted.

“While your client has filed an appeal to the Tax Appeal Commission in respect of the captioned property and other properties, the captioned property was advertised via a public auction almost one year before your client’s appeal was filed on account of your client’s failure to pay the assessed tax and accrued surcharges.

“As you are aware, an application to strike out the appeal for want of jurisdiction in respect of the captioned property and others was filed on behalf of the chief valuation officer as your client and/or their agent failed and/or neglected to lodge an objection to the assessment on the captioned property within the prescribed time after notice of the assessment was served/deemed to have been served.”

The former Ginn project’s present owners are asserting their efforts to bridge a $21m valuation difference, which has resulted in them being over-charged real property tax by “more than 75 percent-plus”, have been met with a mix of “disengagement” and “abrupt hostility” by the tax authorities.

Daniel Baker, Reunion Cay’s authorised representative, in a December 17, 2025, affidavit lodged with the Tax Appeal Commission asserted that LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, the two entities that hold the 1,931 acres that comprised the former Ginn project, have been over-billed “by more than 57 percent” for 2024’s real property tax assessment based on the DIR’s inflated land valuations.

He alleged that appraisals conducted for Reunion Cay by the EY (Ernst & Young) accounting firm, plus Coldwell Banker Lightbourn Realty, show the true market value of the two companies’ ten collective West End land parcels is a combined $15m.

However, Mr Baker asserted that the Department of Inland Revenue is using $36m, a valuation more than double or some 140 percent higher, as the basis for calculating due real property tax which is causing the substantial over-billings.