Neil Hartnell

A FREEPORT tourism investor says the Government has done “nothing” to justify or deserve taking over the city’s governance as he described its reform package as akin to “a hostile takeover” of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement.

THE GOVERNMENT’S ‘Green Paper’ on reforming governance in Freeport and Grand Bahama says increasing stopover visitors and their spending is critical to the island’s tourism prospects after air arrivals rose by 3 percent for the first five months of 2026.

GRAND Bahama concrete suppliers yesterday demanded an “urgent” probe into their claims of unfair market competition and predatory pricing by a US-owned rival that threatens to “smash us to pieces”.

THE ABSENCE of “super volatile” signals bodes well for Bahamian real estate’s 2027 outlook, it was argued yesterday, even though homes sales “slowed in most areas” during the three months to end-September.

THE GOVERNMENT has branded Freeport’s founding treaty, and the division of regulatory and governance responsibilities between itself and the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), as a “convoluted framework” that needs to be overhauled.

THE WARRING parties at the Old Bahama Bay resort yesterday renewed battle over its ousted management company’s demand that the hotel’s proprietor stop trying to entice condo owners to join its unit rental offering.

AN EXPLORER owned by the billionaire proprietor of Walker’s Cay wrongly withheld a contractor’s 25-30 percent share of sunken treasure in Bahamian waters valued at billions of dollars, a US court has ruled.

MOODY’S yesterday asserted that “durable” revenue gains, rather than June’s one-off spikes, are vital to The Bahamas achieving sustained annual Budget surpluses together with greater corporate income tax collections and “spending restraint”.

AN UNDERWATER explorer owned by Walker’s Cay’s proprietor saw its multi-billion treasure hunting “trade secrets” misappropriated by a former contractor although it failed to show it suffered harm from more lurid and “scandalous” accusations.

THE GOVERNMENT, in a shot at Freeport’s founding treaty, is pledging that the replacement Grand Bahama Development Act will face a legally-required review every five years so as not to become a governance framework that “no longer serves” the island.