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Albany Development Company Offers Landowners 30% Above Appraisal Value To Secure Land For New Highway, And Clear The Way For Its $1.4-Billion Mixed-use Development Project To Go Full Steam Ahead
Related to country: Bahamas

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Albany-Landowners offered 30% above appraisals:
By VERNON CLEMENT JONES,Senior Business Reporter,
Nassau, Bahamas:
EXCLUSIVE



About 30 percent extra. That appears to be the final offer for land appropriated to build a public road, replacing the one Albany will soon swallow up.

"They (the landowners) have been offered about 30 percent above the average appraised value of the land," said Christopher Anand, managing partner for the $1.4-billion mixed-use development project. "That's our ceiling.

"We expect final arrangements will be completed by the end of the month, and as soon as this is resolved you will see Albany going full steam ahead."

If Anand's reading of the tea leaves is correct, the last obstacle standing in the way of his development will have been removed. It wouldn't have happened overnight.

This fly has been stuck in the ointment since late last spring when the government decided it would appropriate each of those individual lots, arguing the move in the public interest.

The 565-acre Albany project is set to employ a 1,000 workers in the construction phase alone, but hinges on relocating a portion of Southwest Bay Street.

Integral to that plan is paving a new stretch of road on the appropriated land, said Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham last year.

"The projects require the relocation of a portion of Southwest Bay Street," he said. "The Heads of Agreement with Park Ridge Securities Corp (official name of the Albany development company) commits the government to acquire private land upon which a replacement road is to be constructed by the developers.

While his government was prepared to direct landowners to sell their property, it decided to leave open to negotiation the question of a purchase price. Those on-going talks have failed to end in a meeting of the minds, however. Until now that is, according to Anand, who said that final arrangements are likely before the end of the month.

He asserts that the current offer, calculated on the basis of two independent appraisals commissioned by the government, represent the best and fairest offer those landowners will get. Technically speaking, they'll collect that money from the government, although Albany will pick up the tab.

That technicality has likely done little to keep those landowners from holding out for the very best offer they can get, especially given the highly publicized deep pockets of Albany's investors.

Chief among them is Lyford Cay billionaire Joe Lewis, whose recent billion-dollar acquisition of a 10 percent stake in New York investment house Bear Stearns has made headlines around the world.

Tiger Woods, set to become his sports first billionaire, is Lewis's partner with millionaire Ernie Els rounding out the well-heeled investment team.

Those Albany backers may have been victims of their own success with Bahamian landowners deciding to pass up earlier offers in hopes to claiming a bigger piece of the pie.

Anand is now suggesting their slices won't get any bigger than "30 percent above the average appraised value."

January 10, 2008 | 10:57 AM Comments  0 comments

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