The Christie administration has changed its mind about purchasing the Bahamas Supermarkets building on the East/West Highway to bail out former City Markets workers.

Last week, Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner, who is the shadow minister for the National Insurance Board (NIB), raised concerns about the Board seeking to purchase the building.

NIB Minister Shane Gibson had said that the Board was seeking to purchase the building in order to assist the City Market workers who for months have been battling to receive millions of dollars owed to them in pay and pension.
He added that the building would have been utilised by the Customs Department.

But in the House of Assembly yesterday, Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis revealed that the Board told Minister Gibson that the department has no use for the building at this time.

“Offers for the property were around $4 million to $5 million. Management is recommending that an offer not be made for the purchase of the Bahamas Supermarket Limited warehouse and land located on East/West Highway until the government has identified a suitable tenant and accept payment terms,” he said.

“I hope the government has no intentions of getting into the real estate business because this communication shows that customs does not need it. The government should not be competing with the private sector.”

In response, the minister said the government received the advice from NIB last week and has decided to take that advice.
“They are recommending that we not make an offer and we will not make an offer based on that recommendation,” Minister Gibson said. “It is interesting that this member would now have this information today, which I just got last week Thursday.”
He continued, “We were trying to assist the employees because when they met with us Mr. [Wanslaw] Turnquest asked us to see how we could assist them. The government said, ‘Listen here, if the Customs Department has an interest in this building then we should look at purchasing it.’ Of course, when we spoke to Customs, Customs said they had an interest. Subsequent to that, Customs said they didn’t have an interest. And so since Customs has no interest, since the investment manager is recommending to us and the Opposition that we not purchase it, then it wouldn’t make sense to purchase it to help the employees.”