Baha Mar Developer Asks for Government Funds amid Stalemate

The developer of the stalled Baha Mar resort has urged the Bahamas government to provide funding to help pay off creditors and potentially push the resort toward completion, after Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie said the project had little chance of opening anytime soon.

Tom Dunlap, who heads the real estate holding company owned by Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian, has criticized the Bahamas government for blocking the developer’s efforts last year to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has accused China-based primary contractor CCA of misleading the government.
 
Many of the developer’s affiliates have been taken over by joint-provisional liquidators after the project fell into receivership last fall, when more than 2,000 Baha Mar workers were laid off.
 
In a letter to creditors, Dunlap wrote, “Recent court documents strongly indicate that CCA deceived the government, the developer, you, and the Bahamian people. The impact of this deception has resulted in serious economic consequences for many in the Bahamas and elsewhere. The Bahamian government must step up and act now on behalf of the unsecured creditors, to fulfill its assurances to you. The government must now fund the (joint-provisional liquidators) so that they can do their job on behalf of Baha Mar's unsecured creditors, on your behalf.”
 
Dunlap’s note followed up reported comments earlier in the week from Christie, who said that the failure to open Baha Mar slowed the economy. He said that 2015 economic growth was 1% lower than forecasted, according to the Bahamas Tribune.
 
Christie, who in March 7 comments called the situation “extremely complicated,” added that local contractors have been hired to finish Baha Mar’s convention center so that the facility can be completed in time for the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) convention next month, the Tribune reported.
 
Neither representatives of the Bahamas government nor CCA responded to requests for comment from Travel Weekly this week.
 
The five-hotel Baha Mar resort was originally scheduled to open in late 2014. The developer has said the project is 97% complete.

Source: Travel Weekly