The Baha Mar project hangs in the balance

Chinese consider Baha Mar changes
By CANDIA DAMES Guardian News Editor
candia@nasguard.com

Gov’t presses for $500 million in work for subcontractors


The much-touted $2.6 billion Baha Mar project planned for Cable Beach is hanging in the balance as the government awaits word from the company’s Chinese partners on whether they will make fundamental changes to the deal.

The Nassau Guardian can confirm that the government is waiting on the Chinese to say whether they would agree to Bahamian subcontractors getting up to $500 million of the work, as opposed to the $200 million in work currently envisioned in the deal.

It would mean a stronger involvement of Bahamians on the project, something Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has been insisting on.

It is understood that Ingraham has also asked the Chinese to agree to a phased development as opposed to a one phase project.

The Guardian has learnt that the government expects an answer from the Chinese on these issues by the end of November. Baha Mar officials had hoped to break ground on their development by then, but that appears unlikely.

Until such time, the Baha Mar resolution — which the government had intended to debate many weeks back — will remain on the shelf in Parliament.

Ingraham told The Nassau Guardian in Beijing late last month that the government expects to have an answer for Baha Mar by the end of 2010.

The prime minister, who returned to Nassau late last week from his travels, has been quiet on his discussions with officials of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation and the China Export-Import Bank.

It remains unclear whether Baha Mar’s request for more than 8,000 work permits will be adjusted.

Not long before he travelled to China, Ingraham stressed that there were certain points the government was not prepared to budge on as it related to the project.

“There are two things that stick in our craw and we want to be able to digest the project and it is difficult to digest it with these things sticking across here,” he said, pointing to his throat.

Apart from the labor issue, Ingraham referred to Baha Mar’s plan to build the massive project at Cable Beach in one phase with a planned 2014 completion.

He said those are “major issues, like a big bone”. The prime minister added, “It has to be fixed.”

“To do the project in a one, single-phased development is not in our interest, and it’s in our interest to have the development but not as a single-phased development. Regrettably, that is the position,” he said.

But Baha Mar CEO Sarkis Izmirlian told The Nassau Gaurdian recently that the one-phased approach was a condition of the financing.

Ingraham said prior to the China trip, “There is more than enough land between the Nassau Beach (Hotel) and the land owned by Baha Mar east of the Nassau Beach for them to construct their 1,000 room hotel, their casino and whatever else they want to construct and open it.

“And nothing prevents them from building the others at the same time. There’s no need whatsoever for all to be built and opened at the same time. That is not in our interest. That may well be in the interest of the financiers, the construction company and the owners of the project, but what about our interest? It is not in our interest.”

Ingraham said while in Beijing, just prior to his meetings, that he expected the Chinese would be receptive to the government’s position.

The prime minister is expected to announce adjustments to Baha Mar’s plans in Parliament after the government hears from the Chinese partners.

11/10/2010

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