Pundits note ‘consolidation’ of Browne assets in the Friars Hill area and say the family appears to have struck gold

A United Progressive Party official is wondering whether the unnamed investment company that owns the property occupied by the Ministry of Housing and Lands is “IF Antigua,” which was the beneficiary of a land flip at Long Bay about eight years ago. 

In that instance, Prime Minister Browne claimed that his son Andron and some of his friends were the principals of the company.  However, a search was able to determine that Browne’s oldest son, Andron, was the company’s only director.

In January this year, REAL News learned that the National Empowerment Co. Ltd. – which named Andron’s mother, Hyacinth Harris, as the only director – had received a Cabinet decision in September 2014 that entirely exempted the business from a number of taxes on capital items, including building materials.

Accordingly, pundits are asking whether Harris is also a principal in the unnamed investment company and wondering the Government “paid twice” for the refurbishing of the Friars Hill property.

They are also asking about the consolidation of assets in the Friars Hill area, noting that Harris acquired more than 12 acres of the former West Indies Oil Company lands following the “flip” of lands at Dredge Bay that she purportedly owned.

Those lands were utilized by National Housing, now under the control of Maria Browne, Andron’s stepmother.

Insiders say the “power base” is continuing to grow as, reportedly, another of Browne’s sons is set to open a bar in the same Friars Hill complex.

During its tenure in office, the UPP began the development of Friars Hill, which came to be known as “The Golden Mile.”

“It appears that the Brownes have struck gold for true,” one pundit says.