By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent attorney is calling for the Grand Bahama Port Authority and its affiliates to guarantee the Taino Beach bridge’s rebuilding by posting a bond due to their “less than stellar” upkeep of Freeport.

Terence Gape, a Freeport-based partner at the Dupuch & Turnquest law firm, in an October 10, 2025, letter argued that the bridge’s fate represents “a litmus test” of whether the city’s quasi-governmental authority and its affiliates have the financial and administrative capacity to fulfill their Hawksbill Creek Agreement obligations to properly maintain the Port area and its infrastructure.

Writing to Charisse Brown, chief executive of both the Grand Bahama Development Company (DevCO) and Lucaya Service Company (LUSCO), he cited the “abdication” of the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) responsibility for the island’s airport, and the condition of Freeport’s roads, bridges, waterways, canal entrances and water supply, to back his argument it has “been neglecting their duty”.

And, signalling his backing for the Davis administration’s arbitration push as a means to make the Port area “administratively a part of The Bahamas once again, Mr Gape asserted that Freeport and Grand Bahama “remain the last chance for significant economic growth in the country for the short and long-term given [their] available infrastructure and land mass”.

The well-known legal advocate, in a letter seen by Tribune Business, raised multiple questions over LUSCO’s joint plans with Tamarind (Grand Bahama) Development for Bahamas Hot Mix to construct a “temporary limestone causeway” running alongside, and parallel to, the deteriorating Taino Beach bridge so as to provide businesses and residents with continued access to areas such as Smith’s Point.

Writing on behalf of Taino Beach Ltd, owner and developer of the Taino Beach Resort, plus the Bell Channel Club, residents of Smith’s Point, and the lot, home and condo owners that Dupuch & Turnquest represents on Taino Beach Island, Mr Gape noted that he had written to the GBPA more than a year ago over the bridge’s “questionable integrity”.

Pointing out that his August 14, 2024, letter had also warned about “the danger to the safety of persons” using the bridge, he added that LUSCO’s late September letter informing impacted persons about the temporary causeway’s eight-week construction - due to begin this month - gave no timeline for either repairs to, or the replacement of, the existing bridge.

Noting that the “safe passage” provided by the original bridge is embedded in the covenants, conditions and restrictions attached to real estate purchases on Taino Beach island, Mr Gape added: “The question remains whether this proposed causeway will disrupt or stop the flow of water through the canal systems affecting the hundreds of canal-front properties, being the Bell Channel and Fortune By subdivisions....

“We feel constrained to advise that the riparian rights afforded by the existence of these waterways shall need to be preserved and enforced to ensure that the safe passage aforesaid remains intact to maintain property value, and for the safety and benefit of all owners and seafarers alike,” he continued.

“We do respectfully request confirmation of the relative specifications given that the Bell Channel entrance provides the only sufficiently deep entrance to these canal systems as the Fortune Bay/Fortune Village entrance remains at a hardly useable depth presently - no more than three feet at low water tide.”

Mr Gape then questioned whether engineering reports, architectural renderings of the bridge works and environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and environmental management plans (EMPs) for the project exist.

“Will there be a bond in place for due performance by the contractor and/or LUSCO?” he asked. “Will this bond be in favour of LUSCO and/or Tamarind Development, and/or the owners of the properties situated in the Tamarind and Fortune Bay subdivisions?

“Why do I say a bond or some other contract is needed to guarantee the performance by the GBPA and/or LUSCO and/or GB DevCO? in rebuilding and re-opening the Taino Beach Bridge? It is because, in my opinion, the Port Group of Companies have been less than stellar in living up to their past and present obligations to provide and upkeep these and other important functions of the Port area.

“They showed their lack of interest and financial capability to provide the airport when they, together with Hutchison Whampoa, abdicated their responsibility under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement to rebuild the airport post-Dorian by selling the same to the Bahamian government for $1,” Mr Gape blasted.

“Hence, six years later, we do not have an airport facility which has hindered the redevelopment of the city and would have enabled the growth of the economy. This ‘abdication’ is not admitted by the Port Group of Companies when they insist they have the right to govern the Port area under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement until the year 2054.”

Citing similar concerns with Freeport’s transport infrastructure, Mr Gape added: “The roadways in Freeport, once the best in The Bahamas and, I daresay, the Caribbean are now after 65 years falling into holes and, while being patched, will soon be undriveable - showing a lack of planning or budgeting by the Port Group of Companies for, at the least the last 20 years.”

Asserting that water quality provided by the Grand Bahama Utility Company, which is 100 percent owned by the GBPA’s Port Group Ltd affiliate, “remains sub-par to this day” and has not recovered from Hurricane Dorian’s salt water intrusion, he argued that Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority has also “been neglecting their duty” to maintain bridges and canal entrances for the past decade.

Noting that the bridge over the Grand Lucayan Waterway took seven to ten years to build, the Dupuch & Turnquest partner added that rebuilding and strengthening the Casuarina Bridge had also taken years post-Dorian having been “structurally weak” since before Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

“The Port Group of Companies had no plan or no money to take care of these essentials, leaving the island in danger of financial collapse,” Mr Gape blasted. “This hardly inspires confidence in the hundreds of canal lot owners that rely in access to the said lots by virtue of the said bridge....”

Giving his personal views, Mr Gape added that Grand Bahama’s “future feasibility... remains seriously challenged” due to the difficulties associated with the Grand Lucayan and Grand Bahama International Airport “especially in view of the fact that Freeport and Grand Bahama have, and continue to suffer, from a sub-zero tourism market, particularly these last ten years”.

Suggesting that “there is little public confidence” in the GBPA, its affiliates and partners when it comes to fulfilling their obligations under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, he added: “It appears that for these, and many other reasons, the Davis government has appreciated that the time has now come for the Port area to administratively become a part of The Bahamas, and to be owned and managed by Bahamians wherever possible.

“I appreciate and fully support the Government’s efforts in this regard..... I would hope that the arbitration process now being completed will have addressed these failings of the Port Group of Companies and their many other failings, especially since 2004.”