By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The owner of two buildings devastated by Thursday night’s downtown Nassau blaze says the devastation has “escalated” his ambitions to renovate both properties.

Delvon Ferguson, who also owns I Dream of Sugar, a candy store located across from the Straw Market on Bay Street, told Tribune Business he is committed to bringing more retail and entertainment attractions to the area east of East Street that has largely been abandoned by commercial activity.

He said about $3m was invested into his first Bay Street location, and he intends to begin work in the “near future” on the other properties hit by the fire. “Before this happened, we already had a plan in place, so it just escalated it to move even faster. We’ll work with the team that’s there to help clean it up and, in the near future, you have upcoming events,” said Mr Ferguson.

“Right now, we already have something on Bay Street and we invested about $3m into that property opposite the Straw Market. The same way we were creative to do something there - to be the trendsetters for the western part of Bay Street - our mission is to do the same thing with the eastern part of Bay Street.”

Mr Ferguson said he hopes his planned investments on east Bay Street will attract other Bahamian investors and patrons, and generate the level of traffic seen further west in the downtown area.

“Our main goal is to invest in the eastern part of Bay Street with more retail shops, and to bring more Bahamians back to Bay Street, to bring more Bahamian investors into Bay Street. When somebody comes up with a good idea, then you have another coming with another one. So that’s the goal,” said Mr Ferguson.

“We did our part on Bay Street on the west. We’re going to come and do the same thing on the eastern part of Bay Street.” Mr Ferguson said that although there is a need for more fire engines in The Bahamas, the firefighters on Thursday night did an “amazing job” of containing the blaze and preventing it from damaging other buildings on the strip.

“I think we need more fire engines, but because of the way the roads and the way Bay Street is, I don’t think there’s much more they could have done. I think they did an amazing job with saving the rest of the buildings on Bay Street. I think it could have been much worse,” said Mr Ferguson.

“The firefighters did an amazing job. The police and Defence Force were doing their best. I personally came out around about 10pm and I saw exactly what they did to try to save the property. They did an amazing job with containing the fire and saving the other buildings on the eastern part of Bay Street.”

Mr Ferguson added that the Downtown Revitalisation Unit and the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) are assisting business owners with getting their operations restarted.

“We have a team on Bay Street, the revitalisation team, they’re doing an amazing job. They were there from the beginning of the fire straight to the end of the fire all night. They’ve been working tirelessly with the clean-up program. We’re trying to get everything back together with BPL and Water and Sewerage, and the countless calls to make sure everything is back in order. And the TDC has been doing an amazing job giving stakeholders updates,” said Mr Ferguson.

A major fire broke out on Thursday evening in the Bay Street and Elizabeth Avenue area damaging four buildings, including Victoria Court, displacing residents.

According to residents, what began as a blaze in an abandoned building adjacent to the complex exploded into a roaring inferno, damaging buildings and forcing panicked tenants to flee with whatever they could grab: Passports, irreplaceable photos and clothes for their children.