Grand Bahama's cruise passenger numbers have climbed sharply since Carnival opened Celebration Key. Over the same stretch, Port Lucaya Marketplace lost a major restaurant, its landlord has said occupancy is near half, and its marina sat behind a stop-work order. The Marketplace's own owner has said it cannot sustain its long-term operations without a revived marina. That marina's future depends on a 99-year seabed lease that rents for $1 a year. The lease has spent 13 years in court, and it now sits under a judge's timetable. If you're weighing Lucaya against other islands, that timetable matters more than any passenger count.
Thousands of passengers who never reach Lucaya
When Carnival opened Celebration Key, the Nassau Guardian reported that two more berths were expected by 2026. Local businesses had hoped the extra passengers would bring foot traffic to Port Lucaya. This October, the president of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce gave a rougher estimate. "Out of the 7,000 passengers that flow through there, less than 1,000 basically leave there," Ralph Hepburn told The Tribune on October 6, 2026.
That figure is an estimate from a business advocate, not a turnstile count. Still, it fits a second detail from the same interview. Hepburn said Freeport Harbour has not been getting ships regularly because Carnival had been one of its main lines. "With Carnival gone, they depend now basically on MSC and Royal Caribbean, which is not consistent," he said. So more passengers on the island has not meant more passengers in town. Hepburn added that Port Lucaya businesses increasingly depend on local customers, and that local spending itself depends on tourism income.
Former Cabinet minister Peter Turnquest raised the same issue in The Tribune on October 9. He asked whether self-contained cruise facilities keep visitors from spending money in the wider community.
The most visible sign this fall is Agave Lucaya, the Caribbean-Latin restaurant at the Marketplace. The Tribune ran two accounts on the same day. In one, Hepburn passed on an owner's word that the closure was temporary and meant for renovations. In the other, Tribune Business reported that the Department of Labour had been told informally that 40 workers were no longer employed, and that a reporter found the restaurant closed during its normal hours. As of mid-October, neither account has replaced the other.
The marina rents for $1 a year and has been in court since 2013
The Chamber's warning in October was specific. More Marketplace businesses could close unless the marina redevelopment got back on track. To see why the marina carries that much weight, and why it has been so hard to fix, start with the lease.
A September 30 Tribune Business report on a Supreme Court judgment set out the history. Port Lucaya Marina Company holds a 99-year lease from the Grand Bahama Development Company, known as DevCO, on 10.6 acres of seabed in the Bell Channel. The rent is $1 a year. In return, the tenant must keep the property in good condition. New Hope Holdings bought the company for $3.5 million in July 2006.
DevCO served a notice of breach in February 2013 and sued that July. It asked the court to take back the marina or, as an alternative, to order the tenant to do the repairs. In 2013 a Grand Bahama Port Authority official put the total repair bill at $214,558. A GBPA building manager's June 2019 report concluded the marina needed immediate repairs to prevent further collapse. Part of the docking collapsed in September 2020.
Because the seabed lease costs almost nothing to hold, its value depends entirely on the docks built on it. While the dispute ran, the docks deteriorated. The Marketplace depends on boat traffic, so it slowly lost the steady stream of visitors that boaters once provided.
July 2026: one day of demolition
Bahama Land Waterways is owned by Marketplace proprietor Peter Hunt and his business partner Shmuel Herschkowitz, and it says it has completed its purchase of Port Lucaya Marina Company. Its redevelopment plan is valued at about $21.8 million and covers the Marketplace, the marina and the Grand Bahama Yacht Club. Phase one calls for 60 concrete slips, dredging of the basin, renovated shore facilities and a fuel dock. Demolition started on July 23, 2026.
The next day, the GBPA issued a stop-work order, as The Tribune reported on July 28. According to Tribune Business on July 28, the GBPA said it was enforcing long-standing permit rules. The landlord, DevCO, had to authorize the works in writing first, and it had not done so. DevCO said it was still waiting for documents showing the new buyers were now the owners and authorized representatives of Port Lucaya Marina Company. Bahama Land Waterways replied that the purchase had closed and been paid for, and that only the registration of the share transfer was outstanding.
The buyer's notice also included the clearest commercial figures in the public record. Bahama Land Waterways said Marketplace occupancy had fallen to about 50 percent and that "rental rates have not been increased for more than 12 years." Those are the owner's figures, offered in support of its own case. Even so, they describe a retail center where rents have stayed flat for more than a decade while half the space sits empty.
Hepburn described the standoff as solvable when he spoke to Tribune Business on July 30:
"It's just a matter of having the trail properly mapped out between tenant, landlord and all the legal work, and all the 'i's' dotted and the 't's' crossed."
In the same article he called the waterfront a near ten-year "ghost land" and urged all parties to sit down and work it out.
September's ruling starts a timetable
On September 17, 2026, Justice Constance Delancy refused DevCO's request to forfeit the lease. That removes the risk that the landlord takes the marina back. She ordered Port Lucaya Marina Company to meet its lease obligations by repairing and upgrading the docks, jetties and navigational aids, and by clearing trash, waste and pollution. The order lays out steps in a fixed order:
- Hire a GBPA-licensed and approved structural engineer within 30 days to carry out a full assessment of the marina.
- Complete the engineer's report on required repairs within 60 days of hiring, and share it with DevCO.
- Then apply to the GBPA for a building permit.
Count from the ruling date and use both windows in full. The engineer would be hired by mid-October and the report finished by mid-December. That puts a permit application at about the end of 2026, before any permit is even granted. Tribune Business also reported that other obstacles may remain, including liens and charges on the property tied to unpaid fees and bills allegedly left by the former owners. As of mid-October, no report we found says the stop-work order has been lifted or that demolition has restarted.
The larger projects run on slower clocks
The marina is the smallest of the projects that are supposed to revive Lucaya, and it is the only one with a court-set timetable. The larger projects have public announcements but no firm delivery dates.
| Project | Last confirmed step | Still missing |
|---|---|---|
| Port Lucaya Marina, about $21.8m plan | Sept 17, 2026 ruling with engineer and report deadlines | Lifted stop-work order, permit, resolution of liens |
| Grand Bahama International Airport, phase one over $100m | Polycon mobilized for site preparation, announced January 27, 2026 | Any later construction milestone or completion date |
| Grand Lucayan, Concord Wilshire | Revised multi-phase plan reported April 10, 2026 | Construction timetable; demolition waits on environmental approvals |
| MSC Freeport Harbour cruise complex, about $450m | Announced January 2026 | Build schedule |
The Grand Lucayan plan described by The Tribune in April includes an MSC beach club, a mega-yacht marina and casino resort, a beach hotel and a golf course redevelopment linked to Greg Norman. A developer update promised for March came and went without being issued. The October 9 Tribune report said residents and community leaders want firm timelines for the airport and the Grand Lucayan before a major announcement expected from Prime Minister Philip Davis. We found no report of that announcement as of October 13, and whatever it contains could change the picture.
Even the island's food calendar is waiting. The Grand Bahama Island Promotion Board moved its full Restaurant Fest to 2027. In its place it plans a one-night November event with the Xquisite Catamaran Center and The Galley Bar & Restaurant, with details still to come.
Reading Lucaya by its legal calendar
For a buyer comparing Lucaya with Nassau or the Out Islands, the useful signals over the next few months are dated filings and site activity, not passenger counts:
- Confirmation that a GBPA-approved structural engineer has been hired for Port Lucaya Marina.
- Delivery of the engineer's report to DevCO, followed by a GBPA building permit application.
- Any public report that the July stop-work order has been lifted, or that the reported liens have been cleared.
- The content of the Prime Minister's expected Grand Bahama announcement, especially any construction dates for the airport and the Grand Lucayan.
Each of these is reported in the local press when it happens. Together they show whether Port Lucaya is moving toward 60 new slips or still waiting on paperwork.
FAQ
Did the court ruling clear the way for construction? It removed one obstacle: DevCO's request to forfeit the lease. It did not grant a permit. The order requires an engineer's assessment and report before a building permit application, and Tribune Business reported that liens on the property may also need to be resolved.
Is Celebration Key bringing visitors to Port Lucaya? According to the Chamber president's October 2026 estimate, fewer than 1,000 of the roughly 7,000 passengers who pass through leave the facility. Port Lucaya's merchants have not seen the foot traffic they hoped for.
Is the airport under construction? The most recent milestone we found is from January 2026, when Polycon was mobilized for site preparation on a phase one worth more than $100 million.
This piece explains a court order and a lease structure as they were reported in the press. It is general information, not legal or financial advice, so please confirm how any of it applies to you with a qualified professional. If you're weighing a Lucaya property against Port Lucaya's legal calendar, My Bahamas Realtor Properties follows these filings week by week and can walk you through what each one means for a specific address. Schedule a private consultation.
