By Annelia Nixon

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Skyline Lakes residents have voiced concerns over noise pollution from the Brickell Square project proposed by a developer chaired by Sebas Bastian, the Island Luck co-founder and PLP’s Fort Charlotte election candidate, which is also targeting a second phase, 108-room hotel.

Attendees at the public consultation on the mixed-use, nine-acre retail and commercial office complex, which was held by the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), were especially unsettled by the project’s inclusion of an outdoor performing stage.

Ansel Watson, Brickell Management Group’s president, sought to reassure that the structure would not be “a major stage”.However, attendees argued that once a performance stage is built, the developer will “have absolutely no control as to what happens on that stage”.

“This is not a major stage,” Mr Watson said. “This is just an outdoor structure. It's a stage platform. The stage doesn't provide noise, and there's no organised function to provide noise. It's an outdoor set-up of low-key activity, just as the fountains and everything else that you sit around and enjoy.

“You got retail stores, you got offices. Everything is a professional environment set-up. There's a simple few square feet of stage, and that's distracting the focus in terms of the whole massive structure of 94,000 square feet and 35,000 square feet.”

Brickell Square will be located on the east side of Baha Mar Boulevard, immediately north of MacFit 360 Fitness and south of the Skyline Lakes subdivision. It will be separated from the subdivision by a 150-foot Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) reservation.

One attendee inquired about the possibility of having a wall built to act as a buffer from the developments and construction work occurring near his neighbourhood. 

“So, right now, we have a nice quiet neighbourhood,” he said. “Every now and then we have little issues, but if we have either commercial or a whole lot of additional activity here, and we are not separated from that, that is an exposure, agreed? So one question is, can we get a wall here? Whoever's doing this, tell them put a wall here?”

While Mr Watson noted his point, another attendee doubled down by asserting that a performance stage in the vicinity can be disruptive to those in the community. 

“No, no,” she said. “You can’t say the point is noted. We’re making a request. If you’re coming into a subdivision, coming near a subdivision and awaiting necessary approvals, you should make sure that the residents are not adversely affected. I don't care what nobody say. Once you put a stage up there, people will go crazy - a little bit of liquor and a little bit of music, and it's over.”

Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy, the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) director, said there are rules to control noise in residential areas and added that construction hours will be regulated.

Considering complaints made during the consultation regarding possible noise pollution due to the potential inclusion of the performance stage, Dr Neely-Murphy said DEPP will sit with Brickell Management Group as well as environmental consultants to discuss options to address the issue.

“So, we also have rules with respect to noise and what can happen in a residential community - or close to a residential community - for noise levels and times that heavy noise can happen,” she added.

“We also write into their conditions for the certificate of environmental clearance (CEC) that this development will receive, as simple as time for construction, the times that construction can happen to avoid a disruption to any neighbours that are in the nearby vicinity.

“So construction hours during the week are between 7am to 7pm. There's very quiet construction activity on Saturdays, and that can't begin before 9am, between 9am and 5pm. Sometimes 9am and 6pm. And on Sunday, no loud noises at all next to residential communities,” the DEPP chief added.

“So these will form a part of their conditions during the construction period. And, like I said, there are rules currently for noise levels in residential areas - for parties and concerts or anything of that nature currently in The Bahamas. So if you are having issues with respect to commercial activities, concerts, loud noises in your community now, you should write to the Department of Physical Planning to advise them.”

One attendee also reported noise at 2am in her area. Dr Neely-Murphy said that persons have been illegally removing fill from properties but the agency is cracking down on that activity. 

“In New Providence, we are now starting to regulate the removal of fill from people's property illegally on this island, specifically,” she said. “And a lot of people decide, a lot of the truckers and heavy equipment operators, decide to operate at 2am in the morning and 3am in the morning when they figure, you who work from 9am to 5pm at home, sleeping. 

“And so if we get a lot of calls from those further west of you, people jumping, for example, in Adelaide and in the Albany area... I don't encourage you to go out your house at 2am in the morning, but if you are able to get a licence plate number we can go and penalise these individuals because they are doing an illegal action that we are now regulating. People are removing fill off private property or Crown Lands, and they're doing it in the middle of the night. 

“We have a task force, The Bahamas Wildlife Enforcement Network, that are out and patrolling, a task force of police and Defence Force officers that are out, and they're doing these patrols. But if we know of an area that may be an active area, if Skyline Lakes is active - you're saying that that is happening at 2am in the morning - we could send them out to do their patrols in that area, so we could could see what's happening in that area.”

An online attendee questioned what mitigation strategies will be put in place to handle traffic in the area of the Brickell Square development. Dr Neely-Murphy said: “There are big changes planned for that roundabout on JFK, Gladstone, Baha Mar Boulevard.” She said the roundabout was incorrectly built and it is already scheduled for redesign. 

“The roundabout was not built properly, and it's unfair to motorists coming from Gladstone Road, I believe,” she said. “And it is too fluid for those coming from the east.”

Clarifying that no approvals have been granted, Dr Neely-Murphy added there is a 21 business-day period that will end January 13, 2026, for DEPP, Brickell Management Group and the environmental consultant to receive questions or comments concerns on the project which will form part of the public consultation. 

Noting that there is “a significant budget to spend over a two-year development period commencing 2026”, Mr Watson said the 94,000 square foot project will include a combination of commercial, residential and recreational spaces The development will have a set of tropical modern structures that will be known as the Shoppes at Brickell Square. It will contain retail stores, restaurants and cafes.

Phase two will include a hotel, “a luxurious, four-storey extended stay hotel featuring approximately 108 rooms of one-bedroom and two-bedroom set on four acres of property”. Phase three will include 258 condominiums in a gated community targeted at middle income earners, with units consisting of one, two and three bedrooms.