The work on Potter's Cay's electricity happens while the dock is empty. Ormanique Bowe, president of the Potter's Cay Dock Fish, Fruit and Vegetable Vendors Association, told The Tribune in June that crews come out after midnight, start around 1 a.m. and leave around 7:30 in the morning. "When patrons are out there during the day or evening, it would look like the work has stopped," she said. What a daytime visitor does see is an extended sidewalk under the Paradise Island bridges. It covers underground cables that already run to the stalls.
Above that sidewalk, the stalls run much as they always have, without grid power. Every cold drink, every iced snapper and every conch kept fresh until the afternoon costs the stall owner money each day. Once a stall is connected, that cost changes, and the stalls will connect one at a time.
The daily bill that sets the counter
Bowe has estimated that operators spend about $60 a day on generator fuel and another $60 a day on ice, according to The Tribune's June 1, 2026 report. That comes to roughly $120 a day before a single conch is cracked. Over a six-day week it is about $720, all of it spent just to keep the lights on and the product cold.
That overhead explains a lot about the dock. One vendor told Our News in October what power would change: "There'll be less ice. I'll be able to run the refrigerator, the freezer longer. I will be able to have my bottles, beer bottles, chilled longer instead of me having to bring ice just about every day." Bowe has said the same thing in business terms. Power could cut operating costs and let vendors buy freezers, ice makers and electric appliances.
Each vendor's hours are their own. Rodney "Bones," owner of Bones Seafood, described his to Our News: "I come to work at 7:00, 6:00, I gone," adding that he does not work nights. The Ministry of Agriculture's page for the dock lists Potter's Cay as open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and notes that some vendors close on Sundays. The dock is open all those hours. How long a particular stall stays open, and how much it can keep cold, depends on what that owner is willing to spend on fuel and ice.
The fish and conch come in by boat. A Grand Bahama Museum history of the Bahamian mailboats counts 18 mailboats based at Potter's Cay, serving more than 45 communities across 14 Family Islands. Restaurant operators buy there too. Bay Street Marina operator Peter Maury told The Tribune that he regularly goes to Potter's Cay to collect seafood shipped in from the Family Islands for his businesses.
How the power date has moved
The current project has a short paper trail and a long background. Our News described it in October as coming "after decades of operating without electricity." Here is how the target date has moved:
- January 2025. The government reported an energy minister's walkthrough of Potter's Cay aimed at bringing electricity to vendors. Our News reported that month that vendors expected power for the first time.
- May 2025. Bowe told The Tribune she expected most stalls to have power by September.
- December 2025. Bahamas Power & Light announced dedicated connections for vendor stalls, to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2026, as The Nassau Guardian reported. The plan also included lighting, CCTV, fire equipment, fencing, gate controls, road improvements and future cold storage.
- End of August 2026. The deadline moved here after the first-quarter target passed.
- November 2026. As of Our News's October 14 report, this was the month officials were aiming to commission the supply.
JoBeth Coleby-Davis, speaking as minister of energy and transport earlier in 2026, described what was at stake in a video quoted by The Tribune: "Potter's Cay is known to every family, and the tradition of coming out on the weekends to celebrate with the vendors here is important."
Why the stalls will connect one at a time
The power will not come on across the dock at once. Each stall has to be ready for it. Our News reported that officials close to the project say some stalls do not yet meet safety and compliance requirements. A checklist sent to vendors covers permits, sanitation, fire safety and other regulations. Earlier delays, according to The Tribune, came from vendors lacking compliant meter boxes, changes of contractor, and coordination among the Ministry of Works, BPL and the Water and Sewerage Corporation. Their underground lines cross each other throughout Potter's Cay.
Readiness therefore varies from stall to stall. Bones told Our News he had already made the required changes to his stall and was waiting for the connection. Kenneth McKenzie, owner of McKenzie's Fresh Fish and Conch, told the same outlet he wanted the full list of requirements set out at the start: "Bring the whole thing, don't bring piece here, this here, that there." Bowe still expects most stalls to be connected, as she told The Tribune in June: "all of the infrastructure is already in and positioned to all of the stalls."
Once connections begin, a stall with a meter can run a freezer and keep drinks cold without daily ice, while the stall next to it may still be waiting.
The western side has already been rebuilt once
The western side of the dock has been through this kind of change before. On November 19, 2023, a burning boat drifted into the western side of Potter's Cay. The Tribune reported that five stalls were affected, with four burned down and one badly damaged, while the rest of the dock's vendors were soon back at work. The government then announced help for the four owners who lost their stalls, along with stronger safety rules, inspections and training.
The rebuilding plans included piles that extend stalls out over the water. A ministry account in The Nassau Guardian said the rebuilt stalls were meant as models for other stalls under the bridge, and that a wider redevelopment had been set aside for lack of funds. Vendors, according to The Tribune, see the power project as a way to lower fire risk as well as costs.
McKenzie's stall is one of the dock's longest-running. The official Bahamas tourism site describes him as a former conch fisherman turned restaurateur who has worked the same spot for 25 years, with his shack on the west side of the bridge.
Three proposals for the waterfront around the stalls
While the stalls wait for power, there are also proposals for the land and water around them. None of the three below is an approved plan.
| Proposal | Who is behind it | What it would do with the mailboats | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blu Cay Marina | Larune Russell, sole investor | Russell says marina traffic would not overlap much with busy mailboat days | A 25-slip marina for tour boats just west of the dock, more than $2 million in investment, 50 jet-ski spaces and a café for early-morning boaters |
| Vendors association vision, presented in 2023 | Potter's Cay vendors association | Moves mailboat operations to Arawak Cay | Room for more stalls, family entertainment, a stage, shops and a cultural square |
| LanQi group alternative | LanQi group | Keeps mailboat shipping at Potter's Cay | Separates the fish fry and public market from mailboat freight and moves fish-fry activity east |
Russell told vendors at an August meeting, reported by The Tribune, that the marina would send visitors to existing vendors rather than run a competing restaurant. He started working on this waterfront at age 11, as a packing boy for the old City Markets. McKenzie told The Tribune he was open to the marina but cautious. The LanQi group told The Tribune it had not yet secured financing for its plan.
All three proposals differ on the mailboats, which bring in the Family Island produce and seafood the dock depends on. Meanwhile the power project is going in under the sidewalk, one stall at a time, under bridges that link East Bay Street to Paradise Island.
For eastern Nassau owners, Potter's Cay is a short drive along East Bay Street, and a stall's improvements show up the same way a home's do: wiring, meters and inspections, finished one at a time. Bond Bahamas follows these changes across New Providence and pairs that local knowledge with brokerage, rental management and construction support. Download the Balmoral Guide for a closer look at owning on this side of the island.
