• Community ‘soured’ by 50% security fee hike row

• And now sliced in two by access gate’s closure

• Fears access and waterway rights trampled on

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

One of western New Providence’s most upscale communities is being “torn” apart through an escalating dispute triggered by demands that homeowners finance a 50 percent increase in security costs.

Multiple homeowners in the subdivisions that comprise Old Fort Bay, in interviews with Tribune Business, said they and their neighbours have steadily become more “soured and depressed” during a year which has literally seen the high-end community split in two.

They revealed that the disagreement over security fees has morphed into the closure of a gate that now prevents residents from roaming freely throughout their community, with one 30-year western New Providence homeowner and Old Fort Bay dweller saying: “In all my years I have never seen anything like this ever. It’s really sad. Sad. Just sad.”

Old Fort Bay is effectively a collection of several subdivisions. Besides Old Fort Bay itself, there is also the Islands of Old Fort that was developed by Orjan Lindroth, plus Lester Smith’s Bay Creek section. After the Islands and Bay Creek homeowners declined to pay their share of the increased security fees, on the basis that the 50 percent hike had not been justified, the Old Fort Bay Property Owners Association’s Board ultimately reacted by closing the middle access gate.

This means that, for several months, Old Fort Bay residents have been unable to cross over into the Islands and Bay Creek sections and vice versa. Homeowners in Islands and Bay Creek now have to jump in their vehicles and drive to Old Fort Bay’s main entrance to visit the development’s club, for example, while their Old Fort Bay counterparts must do likewise to visit their sections via the access gate on Western Road.

Edward Chemaly, a Bay Creek homeowner, told Tribune Business the growing divisions “exploded” in early September after an Association Board member threatened to block the boating access he and other residents enjoy to the community’s canal and waterway on the basis that they had not contributed to dredging and security costs.

While the Association subsequently clarified it was not seeking to cut-off boating access, the episode has added to the growing tensions and deepened Old Fort Bay’s divide. Mr Chemaly, and others, have alleged that the Association’s Board has been “hijacked” - all used this word - by a minority of directors who have adopted a “take or leave it attitude” to the changes being forced through and imposed on residents.

There are fears that the dispute is now starting to undermine real estate values in Old Fort Bay, with potential buyers looking to Albany and rival western New Providence high-end communities as details of the community’s divisions start to leak out into the market.

One Bahamian realtor who regularly handles Old Fort Bay property sales, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper: “This is not good in any way, shape or form for values of the entire community. I’ve had Swiss bankers say they’ve gone over to Albany because of the discord and fractious nature of this community. Word is getting out. It’s having a really negative effect.”

Tribune Business sent a detailed list of written questions to both Sean Andrews, the Old Fort Bay Property Owners Association’s chairman, and Bert Krista, another Board member, earlier this week in a bid to give the Association an opportunity to respond to the concerns, allegations and criticism levied against it.

However, no reply was received from the Board or either man before press time last night. Phone calls and e-mails to Vanessa Carlino, of Carlino & Company, an attorney who represents the Association’s Board, were also not answered prior to deadline.

Several homeowners, though, have voiced suspicion that the Association’s actions may be rooted in its ongoing nine-year legal battle with Old Fort Bay’s developer, New Providence Development Company, which has now reached the Court of Appeal.

They say the Association began asking Islands and Bay Creek to close their access gate to Lyford Cay residents early in the New Year, which coincided with when Justice Indra Charles ruled that New Providence Development Company - and not the Association - is the true and lawful owner of the Old Fort Bay Club and the development’s marina.

Many Lyford Cay residents are also members of the Old Fort Bay Club, and the homeowners believe the closure request - and now the middle access gate closure - are designed to get back at New Providence Development Company and its principal, Terry White. They also feel that, rather than finance security, the fees increase was instead designed to fund the Association’s legal costs and the addition of new amenities at Old Fort Bay.

While neither assertion can be confirmed, Tribune Business sources have verified that the Old Fort Bay Club, and New Providence Development Company, have initiated another legal action against the Association to prevent access by club members from being blocked or restricted.

One, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the closure of Old Fort Bay’s “middle gate” is trampling across “rights of way” and access that all homeowners have by virtue of being community residents. “The Old Fort Bay Property Owners Association have closed one of the gates that run across a road that joins the two communities, there are people that have rights of way over that road that the Association is not respecting,” they said.

“For example, the Old Fort Bay Club. Its members have a right to go to and fro across that road from their properties to the Old Fort Bay Club. It’s a way for them to get to the Club without driving on the main road. The Association have taken it upon themselves to determine who can cross that road, and they don’t have the right to do that.

“The legal title to that road is not vested in them. When that road was built, people were given rights of way over that road. Each property owner has a right of way over that road. The Association doesn’t have the right to block anybody.”

Islands and Bay Creek homeowners have informed this newspaper that the middle access gate has been closed for between one-and-a-half to four months. They argue that if the Association has security concerns, it could simply issue transponders to all 265 home and lot owners within the entire development to facilitate remote-controlled access.

And they suggested that the closure is potentially “dangerous” to the Association’s own members in Old Fort Bay proper. Now unable to access Western Road via the Islands/Bay Creek gate to take their children to Lyford Cay school by golf cart, those parents now face having to exit via the congested main gate and roundabout, and deal with heavy traffic - something that will almost certainly force them to travel by car.

The Islands’ own property owners association detailed its concerns in a May 5, 2022, letter to their fellow homeowners in Old Fort Bay proper. In particular, they noted how - despite repeated requests - the Association’s Board had failed to provide the supporting documentation to justify the surge in security costs from $1.587m per year to $2.375m, especially when a contract at the former figure had been signed just over one year previously.

“We find it extremely unsettling that your Board seems determined to physically divide our community, and want to share what we know about the situation so that each of you can be fully informed and perhaps question the wisdom of [the Association’s] actions,” Old Fort Bay property owners were told.

“As you know, this issue emerged out of the blue (without any prior discussion) in late March when the Association threatened to close the ‘middle gate’, blocking access for Islands residents into Old Fort Bay and vice versa. Several reasons surfaced for this action. One was because Islands had not paid for security, which was a false claim that was quickly discredited and disappeared from the discussion.

“Other reasons included blocking access to Old Fort Bay property owners association amenities or simply an attempt to extract a higher than the recently-agreed fee for security services. Increasing security fees now appears to be the primary motive, and we have recently been presented with a 50 percent price increase and a reduction in services without supporting details.”

The increase would have resulted in all homeowners, including in Islands and Bay Creek, paying an average of $9,000 per homeowner per year for security based on 265 total lots. Islands and Bay Creek together account for 80 lots, and the letter pointed out that this represented a 50 percent increase to the price that was agreed with the Old Fort Bay Association’s Board as recently as January 2021.

“Given that this rate is a huge increase compared to the agreed amount one year ago, we would like to see the justification for the increase and guess that you would like to see the same,” the Islands homeowners wrote. “This massive increase comes with a reduction in services in the form of no access to the service gate. This adds additional cost to Islands and Gruntsfield (Bay Creek) from having to build and staff a new service gate.

“We are shocked that such an increase with reduced services is warranted, despite current inflation rates. We guess that you may be surprised too. Many of you are successful businesspeople, so we think you would agree that it is unreasonable for a supplier to present a customer or a joint venture partner to present another partner with a 50 percent cost increase in a year and a reduction in services without explanation......

“Islands and Gruntsfield/Bay Creek would very much like for the status quo to remain in our community. We are sure most of you will agree that it is a great benefit to all to be able to move freely through the entire community to commute safely to school and work by golf cart, to visit friends and exercise without going on to the main Western Road. We are prepared to take reasonable steps and have reasonable discussions to achieve this.”

Mr Chemaly told Tribune Business that the gate closure has “severed ties” that bound Old Fort Bay together as one community. Islands and Bay Creek are presently paying for their own security, in the absence of an agreement with the Association, and he added: “The atmosphere is terrible. A lot of people are bitter. A lot of people have said how sad it is, putting up walls and barriers.... It’s a take it or leave it attitude. It’s just not right the way it is.”

Another homeowner, speaking on condition of anonymity, added: “Honestly I think it’s really soured and depressed the entire environment in here. My children used to ride their bikes throughout the community. Now it’s not a community. It’s two communities the way they have it set up. They have really killed what was a family community. It feels like a torn community in my opinion. Our side is completely in agreement with opening that gate.”

And an Islands resident, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Old Fort Bay, Islands and Bay Creek were designed to have a symbiotic relationship, not to have this separation.... It’s such a shame for the whole western community. Some of our members are members at Lyford Cay, and vice versa.

“This is ruining the club, ruining the community, dividing the community. It’s just plain sad for families in Old Fort Bay, Islands and Bay Creek. It’s just sad for everybody. It’s very upsetting, it’s not neighbourly and not what you would expect of a Property Owners Association Board today. It’s not community-minded.”