Baha Mar faces yet another delay in completing its construction and opening for the public. This is one of the many postponings for the resort casino located in the Bahamas, which was expected to commence work back in April this year.
April saw the soft-opening of the first phase of Baha Mar resort casino, which marks two-and-a-half years since its originally scheduled opening date. The construction of the $4.2 billion Bahamas resort began nearly six years ago and was widely known as the largest gaming project ever attempted in the Caribbean. The complex is planned to boast three hotel facilities, but in April only one of them was actually ready to accept guests on the premises.
The web page of Baha Mar was running and officially accepting reservations for rooms at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, but the first paying guests were not expected until the 29th of May. Until that day the only residents which had the chance to look around the hotel were invited VIPs, media members, travel agents, and certain fortunate locals.
The non-gaming amenities of Baha Mar also remain not ready for accepting customers and guests. In the project plans there are a casino venue, golf course, spa and five bars and restaurant at the guests’ disposal. The principal contractor of Baha Mar China Construction America has warned that a dispute with the US-based supplier may lead to missing the deadline mandated by the government. The substantial completion of the project should be done by the 15th of October this year and this could become harder with the approaching of the date.
On Monday legal filings resurfaced, in which China Construction America accused a Florida-based supplier Source Outdoor of commercial extortion. The supplier in question refused to fork over 1,420 lounge chairs, which makes up for about 50% of the total number of chairs which were expected to be delivered on site. This comes as a result of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Baha Mar’s original developing company in 2015.
Last December Chow Tai Fook Enterprises signed a deal to take the full control over the unfinished project from the largest creditor of the property, Export-Import Bank of China, which is owned by the state. In the light of the bankruptcy Baha Mar Ltd. had to pay the debts it owed to numerous Bahamian creditors, which inevitably left the Source Outdoor supplier with no funding.
However, the whole situation was a misunderstanding and the Florida-based supplier was still expected to deliver the chairs regardless of the current circumstances. Many local observers have expressed their skepticism regarding the reason for the delay. A more plausible explanation would be that the contractor was well aware that it was likely to miss the October deadline and came up with this argument.
