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118 September 2016 - Business View Caribbean
Business View Caribbean - September 2016 119
Island Site Development
A young firm makes its mark
Island Site Development (ISD) is a wholly Bahamian-
owned civil engineering and infrastructure develop-
ment company dedicated to civil works and commu-
nity development. According to company COO, Naveen
Gupta, the original name of ISD was BMC Underground
Services, formed in 2009 to do all of the infrastructure
work on the Albany Project on New Providence Island.
Albany is a 600-acre luxury resort community jointly
owned by the Tavistock Group and golfers Tiger Woods
and Ernie Els, featuring upscale amenities including a
mega-yacht marina, a championship golf course, res-
taurants, private residences, and resort villas.
“We completed that project at the end of 2010,”
Gupta says. Next, the company won a contract for the
Baha Mar project, the West Bay Street Realignment.
The scope of work included the complete re-routing
of a major thoroughfare with the installation of miles
of new water main, sewer force main, gravity sewer,
storm drainage, and telecom and electrical conduits.
It was at this point that Gupta says the company need-
ed a new structure and identity, so it brought together
some partners in the form of a couple of local, fam-
ily-owned construction firms and changed its name
to Island Site Development. More projects followed
including: underground infrastructure at Baker’s Bay
Golf and Ocean Club in the Abacos; the new National
Stadium and Sports Complex in Nassau; the new 56.6
acre Port Facility on Arawak Cay; the Lynden Pindling
International Airport; the Comfort Suites Resort on
Paradise Island; and a new Maritime Institute on Crys-
tal Cay, among others.
A few years ago, ISD added an electrical component to
its portfolio of civil infrastructure and water and sewer
services, noting a lack of larger professional electrical
contractors in the Bahamas. Chris Wilson, ISD’s Senior
Project Manager explains: “There were a lot of smaller
contractors,” he says. “So whenever a bigger job came
up, a contractor from the States or Canada or some-
where else was brought in to do the work. We saw that
there was a need to fill the gap.” “So we started an
electrical division,” Gupta says. “Currently, about 40
percent of ISD’s business is electrical work.”
Now in its seventh year of operation, Gupta reports
that ISD’s clientele is currently split evenly between
government entity work and private development - and
all of it close to home. Because while ISD is always on
the lookout for potential overseas projects, it has to
be prudent about whom it works for - especially since
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Island Site Development
WHAT:
A civil engineering and infrastructure
development company
WHERE:
Nassau, Bahamas
:
www.isdbahamas.com