• New facility to reuse old structures, avoiding new construction
• $25m facility to include fitness, wellness, and recovery zones
• Town Planning Committee rezones site for Champion Spirit Country Club

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A developer has received preliminary approval from the Department of Town Planning to construct a $20m-$25m outdoor sporting facility.

The Town Planning Committee has agreed to rezone ten acres near the western side of South Ocean Boulevard from “residential” to “commercial” to facilitate the development of the Champion Spirit Country Club, a fitness/wellness facility.

The preliminary approval was granted under the conditions that the site is exclusively used as an outdoor sports facility and any changes would require further committee consent.

The Town Planning Committee also requires that the on-site drainage must meet Ministry of Works standard, a two-storey maximum building height and parking with a minimum of one space per 300 sq ft of all buildings.

Thai boxing world champion Abdoulaye Fadiga, president of Rose In Atlas Ltd, is willing to invest $20m to $25m to develop the Champion Spirit Country Club.

Andretti Bain, former Bahamian Olympic athlete and head coach for Champion Spirit, said the facility will include a high-intensity performance area catering to professional athletes and create job opportunities for local sports professionals.

Mr Bain said the proposed facility will include a recovery zone providing various treatments and serve as a “hub” for health education by providing workshops on healthy lifestyles. He added: “We’re looking to incorporate saunas, cold plunging, massage, treatments... anything that’s going to help health.

In addition to a 50-metre outdoor pool the outdoor fitness facility will feature a boxing pavilion, pickleball, sand volleyball, tennis, padel and racquet courts. There will also be a gymnastics centre with Svetlana Mustafaeva, former head coach of the French Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team, serving as gymnastics advisor, indoor dojo, yoga and meditation pavilions, Pilates studio and a bouldering wall.

He said the facility aims to bridge the gap between high-level elite athletes and the local economy by providing the facilities and services they need to further their careers locally.

Documents filed with the Town Planning Committee revealed there was an “initial confusion” as to the zoning of the $5.6m site as Mr Fadiga was initially informed by both the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) and the Department of Inland Revenue, as well as his attorneys and the vendor, that it was zoned for commercial use only to discover this was not the reality.

The project plans to make use of the existing building on the property, which was previously a horse ranch, instead of constructing new ones.

Mr Fadiga said once the necessary approvals have been granted the facility should take about two years to construct using a phased approach.