The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-director yesterday said it was “absolutely ridiculous” for Prime Minister Perry Christie to say he was in contact with all parties involved in the Baha Mar impasse, given that he continued to ignore the original developer.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, a former Baha Mar Board member, told Tribune Business that he had been left “a little incredulous” by the Prime Minister’s mid-year Budget statement, in which he said the Government was “fully engaged” with all relevant interests.

Mr Christie, in addressing the House of Assembly on Monday, said: “Because of its enormous economic importance, the Government remains fully engaged with all the relevant parties in finding suitable arrangements in moving forward for the completion and re-opening of the stalled Baha Mar project as quickly as possible.”

Describing the $3.5 billion development’s standstill as “an extremely complicated situation”, the Prime Minister even named Sarkis Izmirlian as one of the parties involved, referring to him as “the previous developer”.

Mr D’Aguilar, though, recalled Mr Izmirlian’s public statement on January 31, 2016, in which the developer said he had heard nothing from the Government since October 2015, and that there had been no contact with the Prime Minister since last summer.

Noting the obvious contradiction with the Prime Minister’s mid-year Budget statement, Mr D’Aguilar said: “I was a little concerned by his comments about Baha Mar.

“I actually found it a little incredulous. Sarkis has been saying for months now that he has been making proposals to the China Export-Import Bank to complete Baha Mar, and he [the Prime Minster] said this morning that he was fully engaged with all the relevant parties.”

Both the China Export-Import Bank and the Government appear to have been treating Mr Izmirlian as ‘persona non grata’, viewing him as the person most responsible for the Baha Mar dilemma.

In their eyes, at least, he failed to provide the then-$75 million personal guarantee necessary to conclude a new financing arrangement and instead placed the project into its ill-fated Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

As a result, the Chinese state-owned bank, which has taken possession of Baha Mar in a bid to recover its $2.45 billion, has ignored Mr Izmirlian’s various resolution proposals.

Some observers might argue that the Government and Chinese are trying to avoid the embarrassment of having to deal with Mr Izmirlian again, but Mr D’Aguilar said the former developer was best-placed to engineer Baha Mar’s rapid construction completion and opening.

“Here you have a chap, sitting 10 miles from the Prime Minister’s Office, the original developer, who has the necessary intimate knowledge to get the development up and running - probably the only one that does - and they’ve made absolutely no effort to reach out to him,” he told Tribune Business.

“If the Prime Minister has written him [Mr Izmirlian] off in his own mind, fair enough, but don’t say that you are fully engaged. He’s in the best possible position to get it up and running in the shortest possible time.

“I don’t know what Perry Christie considers fully engaged, but he’s not fully engaged in that respect.”

Reiterating his belief that the Government had “backed the wrong horse” in the dispute between Mr Izmirlian and China Construction America (CCA), Mr D’Aguilar said it was in the Bahamas’ best interests for the Prime Minister to re-engage with Mr Izmirlian again.

“I don’t know what his definition of fully engaged is, but to say he’s fully engaged is absolutely ridiculous,” the ex-Baha Mar director told Tribune Business.

“Do what’s in the best interests of the country to get people employed, back to employment and engaged. Let’s get it moving. The man’s saying he’s ready and willing to go; talk to him.

“In essence, his property has been confiscated from him after he’s put $1 billion in investment into your country. Doesn’t that warrant at least a phone call?”

Andrew Farkas, Sir Sol Kerzner’s joint venture partner on a bid to ac quire Baha Mar, indicated in a Tribune Business interview last month why Mr Izmirlian may be best-placed to achieve the fastest opening.

Detailing the complexity involved in reviving Baha Mar, Mr Farkas said: “There are 40 restaurant leases and operating agreements to be reviewed alone.

“You’re going to have to review and understand the agreement with the operator for the casino. To the best of my knowledge, some of the operating and franchise agreements with some of the hotel flags may not be enforceable.

“We have heard that possibly Rosewood is out. There are the retail shops, concessions, tax agreements, the physical plant itself. It’s a very sophisticated environment,” he added.

“It will take someone a great deal of time and potentially millions of dollars to develop a fully integrated business plan for the property.”

Mr Farkas continued: “I spent maybe an aggregate of five-six hours on site. In five-six hours there’s no way anyone could competently, and properly, say they have a thorough feel of what’s needed to complete it.

“This [Baha Mar] is amongst the most complex hospitality projects undertaken in a single phase anywhere. Certainly, it’s the most complex and sophisticated in the region ever.”

Mr Izmirlian, in his end-January 2016 statement, said: “I have not heard from the Government since last October, and from the Prime Minister since last summer, even though I have made proposals that would enable Baha Mar to be opened and put Bahamians back to work. If the Government is serious about getting Baha Mar opened, then the Prime Minister should meet with me.”

Mr Christie responded later that week by saying he would “call” Mr Izmirlian, adding that both himself and government officials were unaware that the original Baha Mar developer had been trying to contact him.

“It is of great interest to see that Mr Izmirlian is interested, and I most certainly would endeavour to communicate with him to see what that means,” the Prime Minister said in early February.

Mr Christie was quick to point out, though, that all decision-making power in relation to Baha Mar was held by the China Export-Import Ban, via the Supreme Court’s approval of its receivers, Deloitte & Touche.