The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition’s deputy leader yesterday said Baha Mar’s original developer, Sarkis Izmirlian, should be given the first chance to revive the $3.5 billion project if he has a workable plan.

 “One would assume that if he was trying to reach out that the Prime Minister would be open to that, considering that the man has so much invested in the project. If he has a plan, a workable plan, he certainly should be given first opportunity to bring it to fruition,” K. P Turnquest told Tribune Business yesterday.

He was responding after Perry Christie recently said he was surprised to learn that Mr Izmirlian had been seeking to meet him over proposals to the resort development completed and opened.

Mr Izmirlian told The Tribune on Sunday that he had not heard from Mr Christie since last summer, even though he has submitted proposals geared toward opening the resort and putting “Bahamians back to work”.

Following the appointment of Deloitte and Touche as receivers for the project last October, Mr Izmirlian said that despite his attempts to resolve the issues that would enable Baha Mar to be completed and open, other paryies appeared more focused on legal and political manoeuvres than solutions. 

Mr Christie told The Tribune this week: “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 because, as you would appreciate, it has nothing to do with the Government in terms of this matter, which is in the hands of the provisional liquidators and the receiver/managers and the bank, so really the Government as a stakeholder would have an interest in being able to facilitate the resumption of construction to the point of completion.”

That, however, could be a year away at least, Mr Turnquest said.

“Based on the Prime Minister’s own timeline and the timelines that were given for the adjournment of the winding-up, it’s probably reasonable to say that  we are three months out before a deal is consummated for any buyer that may be out there,” he said.

“From  there to the completion of the project, where it is in a state to be opened, is going to take at least another six months, I would imagine, and that’s being optimistic. From there, if you add the process of opening and all that goes into trying to market and relaunch, it’s not unreasonable to think it’s going to take at least the rest of this year.”

Mr Turnquest added: “I think all that has happened has justified the criticism of how this administration handled this project, and I hope it’s a teachable moment. Commercial matters are best left for commercial entities to deal with. Hopefully we learn some lessons from this.”