Many members of Hyatt Gold Passport have been waiting for the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Hotel to open at the Baha Mar megaresort in the Bahamas, located on Cable Beach, about midway between Nassau Airport and the city of Nassau and Paradise Island. I stayed at the Sheraton Cable Beach Hotel in February 2012 near the Baha Mar construction site, about a week before groundbreaking. The megaresort was expected to open near the end of 2014.
Fast forward November 2015 and Baha Mar is 97% complete with a 1,000-room hotel casino, a 700-room Grand Hyatt, 300-room SLS Lux, and 200-room Rosewood luxury hotel. The project was primarily financed with a $2.45 billion loan from Chinese bank, Export-Import Bank of China.
One of the first issues to hit the project was local backlash from Bahamians when the Chinese construction firm, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, hired 4,000 Chinese workers and flew them to the Bahamas, rather than employ local residents.
Delayed Openings
In July 2014 the Baha Mar resort opening was pushed back from late 2014 to spring 2015. Hyatt and Rosewood announced in March 2015 their hotels would open May 2015. There was plenty going on behind the scenes with the lenders, operators and Bahamian government.
Baha Mar bankruptcy
June 29, 2015 Baha Mar Limited filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. court, and the next day filed a claim against the Chinese construction company in English High Court for construction delays.
In July 2015 the Bahamian government seized the Baha Mar project to gain judicial control of the situation and force the US courts out of the situation. 2,000 employees of Baha Mar were fired in October and a week later the Bahamian Supreme Court appointed Deloitte and Touche as liquidators of Baha Mar at the request of Export-Import Bank of China.
Talks resumed between parties and last week a deal was made with new investors to complete the Baha Mar project.
I wonder if it is another Marriott International deal?
Grand Hyatt Baha Mar someday?
Grand Hyatt Baha Mar website shows message “Currently not accepting reservations.â€
No timeline announced for Grand Hyatt Baha Mar resort opening at this time. One of the timeline events this year is Rosewood Hotels said they were pulling out. I am not sure where that position stands now.
The full timeline of Baha Mar development events is listed in this Hotel News Now article Tracking Baha Mar’s development trek (Nov 19, 2015).
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