Bahamians are hopeful for Baha Mar. The $3.5 billion resort in western New Providence is the only immediate thing on the horizon that can bring down our high unemployment rate. In effect, Baha Mar is the whole economic plan of the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) for this term in office.
The national unemployment rate was last measured at 15.7 percent in November 2014. In Grand Bahama, the jobless rate was 18.6 percent; in Abaco, 20.3 percent. Youth unemployment nationally stood at 31 percent. We have been dealing with double-digit unemployment rates from the financial crisis of 2008.
Baha Mar said it would open on Friday - this after previous statements that it would open last December. Yesterday, the company said it would not open on Friday but in May instead.
Baha Mar said that despite repeated assurances from the contractor that the resort would be able to open on Friday "it has become clear that the contractor has not completed the work with an attention to detail consistent with Baha Mar standards of excellence".
The Export-Import Bank of China is financing the resort. The main contractor is China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
Last week, Baha Mar Vice President Alyssa Bushey told "Travel Weekly" that only one of the four new Baha Mar hotels would open on Friday - that being the Baha Mar Resort and Casino which is a nearly 1,000-room property with a 100,000-square foot casino.
The Grand Hyatt is set to open on May 1, and the former 694-room Sheraton Nassau Beach Hotel, now the Melia Nassau Beach, is supposed to be renamed the Melia at Baha Mar once that property completes its $19 million renovation. There have been no details on when the SLS Lux and the Rosewood Baha Mar will open.
Officials broke ground at Baha Mar in February 2011. The resort is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs, a fact Prime Minister Perry Christie has touted on numerous occasions.
At this stage Baha Mar needs to work to ensure the resort is completed. It is not necessary for the company to keep making declarations regarding the open date when there is clearly so much work to do. Get the work done. And when it is just about done the company would be able to project a realistic time for it to open. Constantly moving the goal post for its start creates uncertainty surrounding the property, its ownership and management.
The resort's amenities will include the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, the ESPA at Baha Mar spa and more than a dozen pools. Other attractions will include 50,000 square feet of high-end retail and shopping and over 30 restaurants, bars and lounges. There will be 200,000 square feet of combined state-of-the-art convention facilities, including a 2,000-seat performing arts center and an art gallery with the largest curated collection of Bahamian art, a beachfront sanctuary with native Bahamian flora and fauna and a private island.
All of this will bolster the Bahamian tourism product when it is ready. Baha Mar is nowhere near ready right now. That is obvious. The statement the company released yesterday on this latest delay surprises no one.
Anyone who drives by it can see it's not ready. But once it is the company will have a whole nation supporting it. It makes sense at this stage for the company to just focus on finishing. Once the work is done then it will be obvious when the doors can open.
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