April
An attempt to resurrect a vision in Grand Bahama
One does not think of the Bahamas as an industrial area, yet it was the desire to develop Grand Bahama Island into an industrial stronghold that created the Grand Lucayan Waterway, a man-made canal connecting the populated areas on the south coast of Grand Bahama Island to the Little Bahama Bank. The waterway is an engineering marvel that must be seen to be believed, but even more fascinating is how the waterway came to be.
The driver behind the waterway was an American named Wallace Groves. Groves developed a reputation as a serious wheeler-dealer on Wall Street and could smell opportunity. He built a considerable fortune, which he used, in part, to buy a yacht named Regardless, which brought him to the Bahamas.
For a time, his business dealings afforded him a high-roller lifestyle that included a Hollywood starlet trophy wife and the purchase of Little Whale Cay in the Berrys upon which he built a luxurious estate. However, his multimillion-dollar empire began to crumble under the weight of scandal, and he was eventually convicted of fraud and sentenced to two years in prison.
When he was released from prison in 1943, after having only served five months, the scandals that had led to his imprisonment continued to follow him, and he was unable to regain his momentum. In 1946, he moved to the Bahamas to rebuild his business career and purchased the floundering Abaco Lumber Company. He made a fortune clear cutting vast tracts of pine on Grand Bahama to supply “pit posts,” the supports used to shore up coal mines, to the National Coal Board of the UK.
After selling his interests in the lumber company, Groves looked at the thousands of acres of cleared land and envisioned a community built around a port that facilitated the transshipment of goods, surrounded by industries which would enjoy duty-free materials from around the world. It was visionary, and Groves formed the Grand Bahama Port Authority which negotiated the Hawksbill Creek agreement with the British Colonial government giving Groves the ability to purchase crown land at £1 per acre or $2.80 U.S.
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It was a radical concept for the time, and Groves sold the vision of a duty-free commercial hub close to the U.S. and open to all who wanted to invest. Groves was given the right to name the new community, and after some reflection, he decided to call it Freeport.
To support the growing community, he engaged partners to build new estates in eastern Lucaya which resulted in the creation of the Grand Lucayan Waterway, a man-made waterway that crossed Grand Bahama Island. Surrounding the waterway were 3,200 acres of housing lots situated on 35 miles of waterfront access.
It was a grand vision conceived during the boom times of the 1960s, but a softening world economy and scandals surrounding the operation of The Port Authority led to the demise of both Grand Bahama as a business destination and the housing projects envisioned by Groves and his partners.
Today, only a handful of houses exist, but the waterway, which was built to exacting standards from high-quality materials remains. Boaters who can pass under the two bridges that cross the waterway have a protected route from the remote reefs of the northwest Bahamas and Abaco to Freeport and Lucaya.
In 2024, a private investment group from the U.S. started to resurrect Grove’s vision of the Grand Lucayan Waterway. With a 70-room, 26-villa, 44-suite resort and 28 separate designer residences, perhaps the bust will turn to boom.
By: Addison Chan
