By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The principals behind a group taking over February Point’s management yesterday said their ambition is to make it “the crown jewel of Exuma that it deserves to be”.

Eric Kim told Tribune Business that the group, which includes R. Harvey Sasso, president and founder of Florida-based Coastal Systems, a construction, engineering and marina development firm, have been brought in by the troubled community’s existing owners on a consulting basis to “get the development back in line” so that it can finally move forward.

Asserting that they will also seek to “change the narrative”, and escape the negativity that has surrounded the development for many years, he added that improving relations with the Government as well as existing home owners will be a key focus.

Mr Kim, though, was coy when asked by this newspaper whether the management/consulting arrangement with February Point was merely a first step towards he and Mr Sasso acquiring the development and its remaining unsold lots, as he replied: “You’re a good reporter. That’s something I cannot comment on right now. I would love to but I just can’t comment.”

Homeowners at February Point, which Tribune Business reported in 2024 has “stagnated” over the past decade and failed to live up to its promise, were alerted to the new managers by messages summoning them to a May 3, 2025, meeting with Mr Kim and his team. He has also promised to meet them individually beforehand to discuss any particular or private concerns they may have.

“I apologise that we have not communicated for several months as there has not been a lot of definitive news to share. However, there has been positive activity and progress over the past many months to bring a renewed focus to February Point and a long-awaited positive direction for the homeowners,” the latter were informed.

“I am very happy to relay to all that a new operating group has been working tirelessly for months and are now in control of February Point. There is a planned homeowners’ meeting for anyone interested in attending on Saturday May 3, 2025. Main agenda is a presentation of the proposed changes and the future plans of February Point.”

And a subsequent message, also obtained by Tribune Business, added: “It has come to the attention of the new development team that a few homeowners have requested to meet in person one-on-one prior to the general meeting on Saturday, May 3.

“The new development group headed by Eric Kim has asked me to inform everyone of his in-person availability to discuss homeowners questions. If there are any homeowners in February Point that would like to meet in person one-on-one, he is happy to meet Wednesday, April 30 through Friday, May 2, before the general meeting on Saturday, May 3 2025.”

Mr Kim, though, told this newspaper: “Takeover is the wrong term. What a homeowner is hoping will happen, and what the reality is, can be two different interpretations. Basically, the correct arrangement is we were brought in by the current ownership group at February Point on a consulting basis to hopefully, with the history of February Point, get the development back in line and current in all aspects.

“The history here, there’s just been no activity to try and get the development moving forward. The current ownership group and the process, it’s not achieving the goals to get the development current in all aspects. We’ve really been tasked to get the development current, to a place where it can move forward. That’s in all aspects with everything from government relations.”

Hopes were high when Florida-based investor, John McGarvey, teamed with a group of existing homeowners to acquire February Point from the Hart family for $8.2m in 2014. The new owners, in their application for Bahamas Investment Authority approval, pledged to make a $40m capital investment and “immediately create approximately 130 permanent construction jobs for Bahamians”.

Condominiums, town homes and fractional development was also promised, along with a “hilltop boutique five-star branded hotel and beach club”, but this newspaper was told that none of this has materialised with the developer/ownership not selling a single new home or lot during their decade in charge.

Now, with the project’s last five-year Hotels Encouragement Act agreement having expired on March 31, 2024, there are fears that the Government may demand the retroactive payment of Customs/import tariffs and real property taxes by homeowners on the basis that the developer has failed to live up to its Heads of Agreement commitments.

Neither Mr McGarvey nor Mr Sasso responded to Tribune Business messages sent to their personal e-mails seeking comment before press time last night. Mr Kim, who said he has been visiting Exuma for the past 20 years, added that he was unable to give specific details due to the non-disclosure agreements he has signed.

Still, asserting that renewed development activity at February Point will benefit Exuma’s economy and residents, as we as the wider Bahamas, he added: “We were brought on board to talk about what steps are being taken, and need to be taken, to move forward.... We’re just trying to go through and evaluate what needs to be done.

“It needs to be the jewel of Exuma. It deserves to be the jewel of Exuma. It’s in a tremendous location and really deserves to be the jewel of Exuma. We couldn’t be in a more perfect location, being right next door to Crab Cay with its history. At the end of the day, we are all about moving it forward for the benefit of the local population and Bahamians in general.

“We’d love to be able to change the narrative into a positive moving forward story instead of the narrative that has existed to-date. Our task is to move it forward for the betterment of local people, the local economy and to what it deserves to be.”

Tribune Business previously reported February Point contacts as revealing that no new home have been built for the past ten years since the present developer group took over. “February Point is not falling apart, it’s not going to hell, but for the vast majority of individuals it’s not doing what it should be doing,” one contact said.

“It’s the finest you’ll find in George Town. You walk in here and look at Elizabeth Harbour and look at the location of February Point and there’s no reason in the world why this can’t be a thriving community but it’s stagnant.” 

While Mr McGarvey has received the lion’s share of blame for February Point’s ills, Tribune Business sources suggested that he is conveniently - and unfairly - being made a scapegoat because the homeowner investor group that partnered with him to acquire the development are frequently at odds with him.

February Point’s immediate Bahamas-based holding company, FP Associates, is owned 100 percent by a Delaware incorporated entity, FP Management Company. The latter is majority-owned by Mr McGarvey, who holds around 55 percent of the equity, while the homeowner group controls the remaining 45 percent.

This newspaper understands that February Point is effectively paralysed because the two sides “cannot agree on anything” and therefore the project has no direction, strategy or vision guiding its build-out. While many homeowners blame Mr McGarvey because he has majority ownership, others are arguing that the minority group has also not lived up to its side of the bargain.

“February Point is still the crown jewel of Great Exuma,” one source said. “It is the gem of Great Exuma. If that doesn’t move soon people will get worried. It sends the wrong message to external investors.” The development is also unlikely to escape scrutiny given that Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, also happens to be the local MP.