Carl Allen recalls visiting Walker’s Cay island in the Bahamas when he was 12 on an old trawler and seeing five different colors of blue and green in the water as they came across the banks.

Allen vividly remembers that first time that he went to the island with his stepfather, Charles Walgreen III, who was the grandson of the founder of Walgreens.

“He had a home in Stuart and 45 years ago this August, I was 12 years old, he took me to Walker’s on an old trawler … and I had never see the ocean let alone going right to see Walker’s,” Allen recalled.

“Crossing over the gulf stream and then seeing the banks. I was up in the tower of this old trawler and we would just go to Walker’s to see it, and the first time we only stayed one night. And I just fell in love with it and would go back as much as I could with my own family and on my own,” Allen said.

Walker's Cay, Bahamas. Walker's Cay Facebook

Allen purchased the Walker's Cay in 2018, and his plans for sustainability and preservation of the island are key to his long-term goals for the island, which he has envisioned for years.

After Walker’s Cay was devastated by back-to-back storms, Allen saw the devastation when he visited in 2004. He said he would “think about Walker’s and what it could be.”

For the next 14 years, he saw deals by corporations to buy the island fall through, and he contacted the owner personally to express his interest in purchasing it, emphasizing it would be family-run.

A successful Texas businessman and philanthropist, Allen sold his company, the Heritage Bag Co. in 2016 and founded Allen Exploration, a diversified investment company that has numerous philanthropy projects.

Allen built up his oceanic fleet, which includes several yachts (including one named after his wife, Gigi), a submarine and even a seaplane.

The fleet of Allen Exploration. Photo courtesy of Allen Exploration

After he purchased the island three years ago, Allen said he spent a year signing contracts and began construction on the marina.

Then Hurricane Dorian hit in September 2019 and dealt a devastating blow to the Bahamas. 

Allen then stopped restoration at Walker’s, and he and his crew of 25 focused on relief efforts to help the people of Little Grand Cay. He started a GoFundMe page and matched $1 million to the proceeds. His fleet brought food, water, diapers, generators and basic relief supplies to the Bahamians. They also got the clinic up and running, cleaned out the school and cleaned up the streets. 

To restore power to the island, Allen hired 25 Florida Power and Light men who got the power up and running in a matter of weeks. Since their water supply was also destroyed, Allen also secured four big 5,000-gallon water tanks. They also repaired everyone's roofs.

"It was a massive effort. I'm so proud of my crew that they were relentlessly going back and forth," Allen said. "We had damage to our boats. We had a whole bunch of injuries. And it was, you know, probably one of the most philanthropic things that my wife and I have ever done -- and that's saying a lot because we've got a lot and so very proud of my crew."

The fleet at Walker's Cay. Walker's Cay Facebook

As if Dorian wasn't a huge challenge, an even bigger one was on its heels.

“Then the pandemic hit, and the pandemic made the storm look like a road bump,” Allen said.

With 80% of the Bahama’s economy being tourism, the island took a major blow. 

“The economy is just shot there,” Allen said, adding that the government has done well in controlling the virus.

But he is starting to see signs of tourism returning, and his plans for Walker’s Cay are now in the works.

“…it’s a real challenge to balance…the environment out there and then bringing it back to its former glory. I believe we can do that,” Allen said.

Powering the island with safe and clean energy is the first item on the agenda. 

"We have bought basically jet engines ... they're turbines, and they burn natural gas that's compressed with frozen liquid natural gas that comes from Texas through Miami in tanks, Allen said. "It's very safe and it's extremely clean. We're going to go to almost zero emissions. And that's a big, big thing coming from four big diesels."

He is not only going to power Walker's but Little Grand island, which has 500 residents.

These turbines will also be quiet and will be housed in big insulated structures.

"It's a real tremendous energy plan that's going to totally change that whole part of the Bahamas," Allen explained. In addition, 20% of the island's electricity is mandated to be solar-powered, and Allen has those plans in place.

Carl Allen, with his wife, Gigi, flats fishing off Walker's Cay. Photo courtesy of Allen Exploration

What to do with trash is another consideration, and Allen said he always uses the three Rs--reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. He said a small incinerator will be on the island -- and that too has almost zero emissions. Another machine he is considering is an anaerobic digester, which is a machine that basically eats trash.

"There's no emissions on that, and you end up with a small tube of something that you can actually burn as a biodiesel product or simply dispose of it," he said.

As for drinking water, it will be pumped out of a well, which will provide 40,000 gallons of freshwater every day for the marina and the island.

Carl Allen, owner of Walker's Cay. Photo courtesy of Allen Exploration

Allen's protection of the natural environment of Walker's Cay is paramount. One plan he has is to uphold the 12-foot rule that previous owners of the island instituted. That rule, he said, is that no one is to kill anything 12 feet or above around the island. That would mean people who wanted to catch lobster or conch or other fish would have to get far from the island to catch them.

"And so the environment is extremely important to me. And I think it's a place where we can use it not only to educate the Bahamians but we can educate Americans on how to keep this natural resource intact, because it's not that far from Florida, we're only about 100 miles from the Gold Coast of Florida," Allen pointed out.

In addition, another sustainability project revolves around the baitfish on the island, which are important because he said they are the bottom of the food chain. He is going to grow fish on the island, he said, "rather than people devastating the fishery around the island."

Plans for lodging at Walker's Cay won't just be for the wealthy either, he explained, as he wants everyone to be able to enjoy Walker's. 

"We're going to have some really nice cottages and stuff, but we're also going to have what I call affordable housing for the center-console guys who just want a room with a clean bed and a shower, and it won't be that much every night," Allen said. "So call me crazy, but we're trying to do that." 

Allen, who also loves to treasure hunt, received a license from the Bahamian government to try to recover valuables from the ship, the Nuestra Senora de la Maravilla, which sunk 40 miles west of Walkers in 1656.

Aerialiew of the island. Walker's Cay Facebook

"I always had my eye on that ship and so when I sold the company and bought Walker's ... I decided to go after a permit," he said. "And I approached it a whole different way and a huge part of it goes back to the Bahamas, to the people."

Last year, he said, he and his crew located a debris field and found coins, gems, whole swords, olive jars, spikes, plates, guns, cannons, among other items. One sword had the name of a man on it who from the manifesto was shown to be on the Maravilla. Around 50 emeralds, which are very high priced, were discovered as well. 

"We're slowly working our way, hopefully, toward some kind of a mean pile or what Hollywood likes to call the mother lode," he said.

"It's a public-private partnership; you know, 50% goes back to the Bahamas, 50% goes to us and our group," Allen said. "Everything is going to stay in the Bahamas, so we think we're doing a really good service from the Bahamas, not only culturally, but educationally as well as financially."

With the Walker's marina now completed, Allen's focus is on the island's structures and ensuring they can withstand a powerful hurricane. He is building most of them out of steel, and the marina has a floating dock and the pilings go up to 11 feet.

"You know, one thing I'm very proud to say, everything we've done to date, the marina, all the landscaping, a lot of them, a lot of the infrastructure that we've done has all been 100% Bahamian pretty much from here," Allen said.

"I think that's one thing that I'm going to try and use Walker's as kind of a microcosm of everything we're doing -- you know, from power to trash to the environment, to hurricane resistance -- that we can prove that it may cost a little bit more, but it's sustainable and it saves lives...," Allen said. 

The island is legendary for its saltwater fishing, and Allen remembered being at the island with his stepfather when the fishing tournaments were occurring.

Fishing tournament at Walker's Cay. Walker's Cay Facebook

"And that was one of my first goals—to bring back that big tournament, and I did check that off that box," Allen said. The Walker's Cay Invitational this year attracted 60 boats to the marina, 36 sports fishing boats, and the winner with the 508-pound marlin won approximately $300,000.

"I walked up to that top of the hill where I always would and I had a cameraman with me...and I walked up backward just to see all the boats...we had 60 boats in the marina that night when we opened and I turned around just as the sun was going down. And I just lost it. And it's all on camera. It's pretty good because that was certainly a short-term goal," Allen said.

With the first tournament now in the books, Walker's is back.

"And people will know that Walker's is open and back in business. And, as far as long term, it's as I said earlier, I don't ever want to sell it," he said. "It's hopefully going to be my legacy."

Allen has one daughter, three sons and two grandchildren who are part of his legacy too -- and may one day carry on their father's and grandfather's love and vision for Walker's Cay.

The sun sets over the fleet at Walker's Cay. Walker's Cay Facebook

For more information on Walker's Cay, visit walkerscay.com.