Paradise Island, Bahamas – The $3.5 billion Baha Mar development has no investment from China, according to a senior executive.
Robert Sands said that while $2.6 billion of that money was a loan from China and it was being constructed by China State, there was no Chinese equity in the mega-resort being constructed at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
He said it was anticipated that the 1,000-acre site would be opening in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“It adds 1,500 new rooms to the Bahamas’ inventory. We are blessed with proximity [to the United States], public and private sector co-operation,” he said. “Baha Mar and Atlantis working together could make the Bahamas the pre-eminent destination in the Caribbean.”
He said the success of the Atlantis resort had assisted the decision to go ahead with Baha Mar.
George Markantonis, president and managing director of Atlantis on behalf of management Kerzner, said that recent stories about financial troubles involving the resort’s ownership were off-beam.
“It is the financial teams negotiating between themselves over who owns the underlying asset; Kerzner is the management company. The Brookfield deal did not collapse but when you are dealing with a lot of lenders there is territorial disputing. In a way it’s a compliment that there is such a fight.
“The deal presented by Brookfield is going to probably be re-adjusted so they have stepped back. We let the financial people do their thing but it is in everybody’s interest that there is a resolution,” Mr. Markatonis said.
He said the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Hubert Ingraham, had insisted that there were three minimum criteria for any transaction. They were that there were no changes to employment levels or capital expenditures and that the management team was the same.
“For us in property operations all this is not a story,” Mr. Markatonis said.
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