While the politicians have been dithering and shuffling back and forth on international trade, with positions seemingly as changeable as the tides, a small but influential group of Bahamian business people have been forging ahead, creating linkages across the globe ensuring that there will be an impregnable beachhead when the trade barriers eventually fall.
This group are influential because except for those cases where Crown and or Treasury land is involved, they are the ones driving touristic development and supporting feverish activity in construction.
This group of business people – realtors – have long understood the relationship between international capital and economic opportunity an equation that appears to have an affinity for the peculiar blend of location location location that is The Bahamas.
One such company celebrating 60 years in the business closed out 2005 with significant accomplishments not least of which was the inking of an agreement that created Damianos Sotheby’s International Realty (DSIR).
In a release the partnership is described as one which “combines the power of an international real estate brand known the world over with a recognised, established Bahamian company”. A spokesperson for the Damianos family stated that the affiliation “would enable them to better serve their clients” with the singular service that has seen them endure for 60 years as leaders in their field.
In the past decade the family islands have enjoyed a model of development that owes its existence as much to government effort as to this band of business people who have been steadily singing the praises of second-home ownership in the Family Islands, a phenomenon that predates “anchor projects”.
The fact that Damianos Sotheby’s International Reality opened an office in Governor’s Harbour – “at the only traffic light on the island” – is as significant an indicator as any that Eleuthera’s economy is on the rebound.
Nor is this revitalisation limited to Eleuthera. According to its press release the company “expanded its sales force to 16 agents” deployed across the archipelago from Abaco in the North (Treasure Cay, Marsh Harbour, Hope Town, Elbow Cay); to the Exuma Cays in the south and of course in New Providence and Lyford Cay in the centre.
The company recognised the sudden passing Al Deleveaux whose 60-year career was spent entirely with “the Damianos Family from 1945”.
The industry is famous for persons who after a career elsewhere move into helping persons realise that most tangible of dreams – their own home – and Damianos had reason to celebrate the achievements of one such associate.
According to the company’s release, former pilot Ridley Carroll topped his decade with the company by becoming the “Top Producer for the Nassau Office”. He accomplished the milestone by selling properties in practically every subdivision in New Providence – Lyford Cay, Ocean Club Estates, Ocean Place, The Residences at Atlantis, Old Fort Bay, Caves Point, Sandyport, Indigo, Tusculum, Charlotteville, West Winds, as well as in Abaco’s Tilloo Cay.
With the second home market growing ever stronger along with the shift toward building communities instead of resorts, the company’s principals believe that their affiliation with Sotheby’s International “backed by 60 years of dedication to integrity, reputation and service” will ensure that the partnership becomes “Best in Class”.
By E. HUGGINS, Business Editor for the Nassau Guardian
