By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A top Briland hotel yesterday affirmed “it will never be our intent” to put a popular horse riding venture out of business as it described its $912,500 legal demand as “the last resort”.

Andreas Ioannou, president and director of PS Ltd, the Pink Sands resort’s immediate owner, told Tribune Business that the property had been left with “no choice” but to prepare for legal action after the failure of multiple attempts - dating back at least six years - to reach a compromise with Byron Bullard, principal of B&B Horseback Riding, over the location of his stables.

Confirming that Pink Sands had even offered to finance and construct new stables, with running water and all other necessary amenities, at its expense at a location just 25 feet south-east of the present site, he added that all proposals have been rejected by Mr Bullard.

As a result, Mr Ioannou told this newspaper that Pink Sands is “losing a lot of money” through its inability to rent high-end cottages out to guests due to “the smell” and other issues associated with Mr Bullard’s horse staging area, fence and shed being based just 20 feet away from the resort’s property on Crown Land.

With the Ministry of Works’ legal action against Mr Bullard, for allegedly constructing the horse shed and fence without permission, seemingly “stalled” in the magistrate’s court and no intervention by the Government to secure a compromise or take regulatory action, the Pink Sands chief said the resort feels it has no option but to move towards legal proceedings of its own.

He added that it was “very disappointing for me” that the Government had not seen fit to get involved, even though its Crown Land assets are a key feature in the battle, despite reaching out to the Prime Minister’s Office; Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation; Sylvanus Petty, the North Eleuthera MP; and central and local government officials since at least 2022.

Noting that the impasse dates back to at least 2018, when he became personally involved in discussions with Mr Bullard, Mr Ioannou told Tribune Business: “Our intent and our objective was for the business of Mr Bullard to stay alive in Harbour Island. We feel that is vital for his business, tourists and the local community.”

Mr Bullard, upon receiving Pink Sands’ legal demand at the weekend, had told this newspaper that he believed Pink Sands appeared determined to force him and his business off the beach through aggressive legal tactics. “They don’t want me on the beach, period. That’s what they’re trying to do,” he said.

This, though, was vehemently denied by Mr Ioannou, who told this newspaper that the resort was even prepared “to promote” B&B Horseback Riding to its guests and others if the impasse over its location can be resolved.

“He’s a business operator. We want him to well,” he added of Mr Bullard. “We want to promote his business if he does the right thing and it is from the right location. It’s never our intent to get anyone out of business if they’re doing something that’s good for the community, the island and the visitors.

“We’d love him to reach out and make a proposal to us. If we can help him, by all means we will help him. If he needs to get an approval from the Government, we would be more than happy to speak in his favour and build a decent facility for the horses.

“We want to support the community. We are part of the fabric of the community. We’ve been owners for ten years. We live in the community. I checked with the general manager yesterday and we have 75 Bahamian employees. We’re building villas. We’re adding more. The construction workers, we have 35-40 of them, building the villas.”

The legal demand seen by Tribune Business shows Pink Sands is demanding the $912,500, calculated at the rate of $500 per day, as compensation for Mr Bullard and his business having allegedly “unlawfully occupied” the south-east corner of the resort’s property between 2018 and 2022 until they moved to Crown Land immediately adjacent to their former location. 

The resort is also demanding that Mr Bullard “within the next ten days” remove the fence and horse stable, and discontinue operating B&B Horseback Riding from its present location. Otherwise, Pink Sands will initiate Supreme Court action seeking orders and injunctions to achieve these objectives, as well as a claim for “nuisance” and trespass damages. 

Mr Ioannou yesterday said the legal demand is the only recourse open to Pink Sands after exhausting all other options for resolution. “That was the last resort,” he told Tribune Business. “A lot of our advisers were telling us to take legal action. We have been resisting it. As a group we said we want to find a a solution that’s reasonable where his stables are at another location.

“But we now have no choice. I wish we can solve this and, at the end of the day, we’d like to be friends with Byron and everyone on the island. We help a lot of people, individuals and groups, where we are. We want to help him as much as we can.

“The objective is not to get him out of business from riding the horses. That has never been the objective, and will never be our objective. We need to resolve this.” Mr Ioannou said the situation threatens to set “a bad precedent” for Harbour Island’s high-end tourist destination with other resorts now becoming worried that they may encounter similar situations with persons setting up immediately in front of their property.

Pink Sands is asserting that it has lost revenue “in the region of $1m” because guests cannot use its high-end cottages with Mr Bullard’s stables “not even 20 feet away”. Mr Ioannou added: “It’s affecting what we have done. We’re losing a lot of money. We cannot rent any of those cottages. It’s not right. It is impossible.. the smell, the conditions, the eye sore.”

He said the resort simply cannot market the cottages as “oceanfront” with the stables and fences blocking such a view. “Even to this day we are willing to have a discussion with him and see if we can help him in any way,” the Pink Sands chief said. “The only goal is he has to move from in front of Pink Sands. It’s setting a bad precedent. The other hotel owners are worried anyone could block their ocean view.”

Tribune Business has seen correspondence suggesting that, as far back as 2020, Pink Sands was offering to finance and build new horse stables and amenities for Mr Bullard if he agreed to relocate to an alternative site that did not impact the resort.

“We proposed to build a stables for him in a different location at our own expense,” Mr Ioannou said. “We proposed him a shed, running water and all those things for the horses to be treated the right way.” He added that all relevant local government officials, including the chief councillor and police chief, were present at a meeting where this was proposed to Mr Bullard.

“They knew what we were trying to do. We were trying to avoid legal action,” Mr Ioannou said. “Our group was going to pay for the stables to be built. It was going to be professionally done, and all he [Mr Bullard] had to do was get the permit for the Crown Land.

“We would have invested the money. The chief engineer and construction team told me it would cost $10,000-$15,000 to construct a place for the horses. We even submitted a drawing to him to look at. We exhausted every ounce of effort and professional care.” He added, though, that Mr Bullard ultimately rejected the proposal.

Frustrated that the Ministry of Works has failed to progress its legal action, Mr Ioannou said: “It has stalled from what our attorney tells us. It has not progressed at all. We don’t know why. He’s trying to see where it’s stalled but we don’t have any answers unfortunately. It’s wasting a lot of time and energy. We have to look out for the benefit of Harbour Island. It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth.”

Mr Bullard’s case is that the horse riding business, which he has owned and operated since the late 1980s, has occupied its present site “for more than 60 years” dating back to the 1950s when it was under other ownership. As a result, Mr Bullard is arguing that - through more than 36 years of “undisturbed possession” - he has met the 30-year legal minimum to be declared owner of the property.

However, Pink Sands is challenging this on the grounds that Mr Bullard’s business was on its property when the present ownership acquired the resort in 2014 and only moved to its present Crown Land location some two years ago in 2022.

“This flies in the face of any claims for ‘undisturbed possession’ by Mr Bullard whether it is against the Crown or the resort,” Pink Sands said in a statement. “The crux of the resort’s issue is that it cannot enjoy the lawful use of its property because of the interference/disruption caused by Mr Bullard’s horse riding business on the adjacent Crown Land and the Government is doing absolutely nothing about it.”