New Delays Loom For Behind-Schedule Baha Mar Mega-Resort

Photo: The $3.5 billion Baha Mar project has experienced several delays.

It appears the oft-delayed $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega-resort project may once again miss an opening deadline.

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Statements on the company’s Facebook page say the resort’s flagship property, the Baha Mar Casino & Hotel, will open in May with all rooms in all of the resort’s four hotels completed later in June.

However numerous Bahamas press reports say room reservations at the Baha Mar Casino & Hotel will not be available until June. Furthermore, bookings and the other three properties will not be available until August.

In fact July is the earliest month for which the Baha Mar website is currently accepting Baha Mar Casino & Hotel bookings. Site users are also informed that rooms reservations are currently unavailable for the Grand Hyatt, SLS Lux and Rosewood hotels at the complex.

In addition, a Bahamas Electricity Corporation official told the Nassau Guardian he has been “reliably informed” the resort will not open until June. When contacted by TravelPulse.com, Baha Mar officials declined to comment on the most recent delay.

However in local news reports, Baha Mar chairman Sarkis Izmirlian has cited “a less-than-ideal business climate” in the Bahamas as being behind the project’s many delays.

Izmirlian has also complained about the reliability and cost of electrical power, government-run education and training programs that were promised but have not been provided, and the developer’s obligation to rely on government growth incentives.  

Local media has also reported of “tension” between Baha Mar and its general contractor, China Construction America.

Obie Wilchcombe, the Bahamas’ tourism minister, told Bahamas media that Izmirlian’s concerns “are noted.” He said the government and the developer are “working assiduously to get the resort opened.”