Baha Mar Grand Opening Pushed Back to Spring 2015

The $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas, originally slated to open in December, will have its opening pushed back by as many as six months.

Baha Mar said that next month it will start letting the general public book reservations at the five-hotel resort for stays starting in “late spring 2015,” according to Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice present of administration and external affairs.

Sands maintained that the project was "progressing as planned," though Baha Mar President Tom Dunlap last fall, in comments to the travel trade, said the project was on schedule to open in December.

Parts of the resorts’ more than 2,900 rooms will be opened as early as mid-December for travel partners, media, travel agents and selected others to preview, said Sands, who declined to say which hotels would be ready for the soft opening.

“We are confirming a grand opening celebration planned for late spring,” said Sands, who said that the project was on budget and added that further details would be disclosed Oct. 1. “The rationale is the fact that this is an extremely complex project.”

Baha Mar has been billed as the largest private investment in the Bahamas’ history, backed by China’s state-run Export-Import Bank of China and constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corp.

Ground was broken in February 2011 on Nassau’s Cable Beach. Plans call for four new hotels plus an existing one operated by Melia, a casino, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course and a convention center.

The new hotels are to include the 1,000-room Baha Mar Casino & Hotel, a 707-room Grand Hyatt, a 200-room Rosewood and a 300-room SLS hotel.

Sands declined to say how many conventions have been booked for Baha Mar next year. He added that he was “encouraged” by talks with airlines and the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism about boosting airlift to accommodate an expected increase in tourists.

Representatives with Rosewood and SBE Entertainment (parent of SLS Hotels) referred questions to Baha Mar. A Hyatt representative didn’t have further details, while Melia declined to respond to a request for comment.

Source: Travel Weekly