The much anticipated opening of the first super resort in?the Caribbean has suffered another delay. Now the Baha Mar website is not accepting ?reservations for any of their four luxury hotels until July 1, 2015. The $3.5 billion destination resort and casino was originally supposed to open in December 2014.
Baha Mar’s chairman and chief executive, Sarkis Izmirlian has upped the ante and is taking his fight to the Bahamian business community saying, among other things that governments over the last twelve years have not done their part to reform energy and education policies – giving the development a “less than ideal” environment in which to succeed. His statements were made in an address to the National Conclave of Bahamian Chambers of Commerce.
This week reports also came out suggesting that a payment disagreement between the resort and their main contractor, China Construction America (CCA) had initiated a construction slow-down leading up to the latest missed opening of March 27th.
The Bahamas Tribune242.com online newspaper quotes multiple trusted sources as saying that Prime Minister Perry Christie recently headed up a meeting with all involved parties in an attempt to make sure they can still work together and complete the project. According to the Tribune, this was the first involvement of the Chinese and Bahamas governments to resolve problems plaguing the resort’s opening. The meeting reportedly also involved?top cabinet members,?the Chinese Ambassador to the Bahamas, Baha Mar chairman Sarkis Izmirlian, and two representatives of CCA.
Comments, not confirmed to have been made inside the meeting, seem to have inflamed the situation.
Customer dissatisfaction with the way the delay?of?opening has been handled goes back to?December. One of the?first public announcement that the resort would not be opening on time was made on Facebook, just two days before the anticipated opening. Currently there are several complaints on the social media outlet – comments such as, “It’d be nice if your reservations department would call us back to figure out our compensation since Expedia is basically claiming they had no clue the hotel wouldn’t be opened for our April 17-21 trip. They are not refunding us. I have already sent ANOTHER FB message but have not heard from anyone.”
To which a representative replied, “Hello [name], please excuse the delay. We have forwarded your information to the team and will have someone reach out as soon as possible.”
Baha Mar has been in planning and?development since 2002 and finally broke ground in 2011.?Upon opening the resort will feature a casino floor of nearly 100,000 square feet holding 150 table games and 1500 slots, four upscale hotels, multiple restaurants and lounges including a club designed by Lenny Kravitz, and a Jack Nicklaus golf course among many other amenities.