The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

BAHA Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian and former president Tom Dunlap yesterday paid homage to the resort’s former 2,000 employees, promising to “search every possible option to resolve the pains we find Baha Mar in and to get it back under sail”.

Mr Izmirlian and Mr Dunlap, in a joint paid advertisement, said notwithstanding “all that has happened” to the resort in the last year to impede its highly anticipated opening, they are still optimistic of a “positive outcome” which they said will be the “foundation that we will all step forward from when called upon”.

The two men also called for Baha Mar’s former employees not to lose the “Baha Mar faith” and not to let anyone “dampen the ‘blue spirit’ that fuels us no matter what we find ourselves doing this day”.

The comments came in a joint statement recognising Easter Sunday as the one-year anniversary of the scheduled grand opening of Baha Mar and the subsequent “unveiling of one of the greatest resort projects ever seen”.

Baha Mar was originally supposed to open in December 2014; however, the resort subsequently set a soft opening for March 27, 2015. After that date was delayed days before the planned opening, Baha Mar officials said they were aiming for an early May opening.

On June 29, however Baha Mar and 14 of its affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy in a Delaware court, blaming the resort’s contractor, China Construction America (CCA) for the construction delays that caused it to miss its previous opening deadlines.

The government subsequently filed a winding up petition in the Supreme Court for the appointment of provisional liquidators to speed up completion of the stalled resort.

In October, Baha Mar’s joint provisional liquidators, Bahamas-based KRyS Global and UK-based AlixPartners, announced that more than 2,000 Baha Mar employees were made redundant from the resort. The joint provisional liquidators said the layoffs were due to the financial insolvency of the $3.5bn resort.

The layoffs affected approximately 1,440 non-active employees and approximately 580 active employees, including members of management and staff. The layoffs did not affect the Melià Nassau Beach Resort however.

Nonetheless, in yesterday’s statement, both Mr Izmirlian and Mr Dunlap said that a year later and “in the face of adversity”, they still “proudly see the elements of the Baha Mar vision still sprouting”.

“For those 300 plus among us that still navigate the ship daily at Baha Mar, we see the creativity, the loyalty, the professionalism,” the statement said. “For those 2,000 trained and equipped colleagues waiting on the sidelines to be called back to the game, we see dedication, belief, faith, commitment and pride.

“You inspire us to search every possible option to resolve the pains we find Baha Mar in and to get it back under sail. You are our friends, our colleagues, and together let’s keep the Baha Mar faith. Let’s not let those that frown upon us, or fail to respect what we accomplished, dampen the ‘blue spirit’ that fuels us no matter what we find ourselves doing this day.

“Our dream of an open Baha Mar is still our dream. Let’s hold it firm and let our collective faith in a positive outcome remain the foundation that we all step forward from when called upon.”

On Monday, Baha Mar’s receivers, Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) launched a formal sales process for the stalled resort project by hiring a Canadian-headquarted real estate firm to market it to potential purchasers.

Raymond Winder, Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner, told Tribune Business that the move to engage Colliers International was a “very important step” towards resolving the problems plaguing the Cable Beach property.

Mr Winder also expressed hope that the move would give Bahamians “the sense there’s light at the end of the tunnel” over Baha Mar, and the negative impact its failure has had on job creation, economic growth and business/investor confidence.