What’s Happening with the West Side Glory

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Western New Providence is a beautiful place. The flora and fauna attract many of our visitors, and many Bahamian residents only wish for the opportunity to reside in this space. Sadly though, the West is losing its appeal due to shoddy roads and gruesome, abandoned buildings, to name a few things. 

GoldWynn, a major hotel development located on West Bay Street, just across from the Office of The Prime Minister, is almost complete. This high end development will offer countless Bahamians employment and bring lots of business to local vendors. The downside is just a few yards from GoldWynn sits “La Playa”, a once majestic mansion just beside Goodman’s Bay. “La Playa”, owned by the National Insurance Board, is in ruins. 

Just east of Goodman’s Bay is the former Gaming Board building which also sits in ruin; infested with mold, locked up for years and forgotten. Just next to that is the former Bahamas Development Bank which also was abandoned, but in better shape. 

In 2021, I wrote a series of articles on the abandoned houses of the West and in those articles, I begged the Minnis Administration to give some attention to those homes, which I discovered were in the Government’s care.

My pleas fell on deaf ears.

There are also a number of those houses in the Prospect Ridge area that once housed foreign Supreme Court judges. They were left to rot on plots of land that no doubt value close to a million dollars each. 

When voted in last year, the New Day government immediately appraised some of these properties with the intent to sell them. My intel tells me that “La Playa” will remain in the government’s care and that the old Development Bank building is now under lease. I went to see for myself, but guard dogs now occupy the back of that property and from the looks of their fangs, they mean business. 

The developer of GoldWynn approached the government and offered to purchase some of these properties so they wouldn’t bring down the value of his building, however he was denied. To my knowledge, both governments denied him. He also wanted to spruce up Goodman’s Bay, but no one seemed interested in his generosity. 

The residents of Western New Providence are concerned about the appearance of their main roads and neighborhoods. Shouldn’t the Member of Parliament for the area be concerned as well?

Those who pay well over $100,000 for land in the West, do not want to see a dilapidated house next to or even around the corner from their dream homes. 

Valuable government-owned properties in ruins, yards overgrown, roads bumpy and residents kept in the dark.

Has the West lost its glory? It certainly looks that way to me. Well that’s how I see it, anyway.

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