The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar yesterday confirmed it has pushed its ‘Grand Opening’ back to “late Spring” 2015, with the $3.5 billion mega resort project set to open in stages from December 2014 onwards.

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, downplayed the “full” opening’s move to an undefined Spring date, explaining that the priority was to “get the guest experience right first time”.

Adding that it was “not uncommon” for projects of Baha Mar’s scale to undergo a phased, or staged, opening, Mr Sands said the altered dated had not been caused by any construction delays or problems.

He was speaking after Tribune Business obtained a letter sent to resort employees yesterday by Baha Mar president Tom Dunlap, who outlined the developer’s opening plans.

“We will start preview openings of our facilities in December 2014, and plan to continue additional preview openings through Spring 2015,” Mr Dunlap wrote.

“The previews will culminate in our Grand Opening celebration planned for late Spring, when we expect to have the full Baha Mar destination resort open for our guests.”

The three million square foot Cable Beach redevelopment includes four new hotels - the Baha Mar Hotel & Casino, the Grand Hyatt, Rosewood and SLS Hotels branded properties - and numerous associated amenities such as a convention centre.

Mr Dunlap gave no specifics on which parts would open when, and in what order, telling Baha Mar staff: “We are in the process of determining what areas will open at specific dates between December and the Grand Opening celebration.

“We’re working through the details with our partners, and expect to know more by October.”

Baha Mar’s staged opening, and Spring 2015 timeline to be “fully” online, will come as little surprise to informed observers.

Tribune Business revealed earlier this year how Morgans Hotel Management, in court filings related to its dispute with Baha Mar over the hotel management agreement for the Mondrian brand, alleged that the two sides had discussed pushing the property’s opening date back from December 1.

And other filings by Morgans disclosed that it had urged Baha Mar to push the Mondrian’s opening date back by five months to April 1, 2015, branding the December date as “not accurate”.

Mr Sands gave an optimistic appraisal of Baha Mar’s revised opening plans yesterday, emphasising to Tribune Business that it would not impact the developer’s plans to hire up to 5,000 new employees.

Still, the delayed “full” opening will mean a delayed economic impact, which is not good news for a still-struggling Bahamian economy and society, plus the Christie administration. The wait means that GDP growth projections for the Bahamian economy in 2015 may also be cut.

But, on the flip side, it will give the Government and Bahamian tourism industry more time to put in place arrangements with commercial airlines to generate the extra 400,000 seats into Nassau that Baha Mar and the wider hotel market will require.

And, potentially, it will enable Baha Mar to get the guest experience right, and ensure this matches expectations.

“That’s the key,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. “Getting the guest experience right first time is extremely important. You hit the nail on the head.

“Our biggest obligation and strategic concern is we want all aspects of Baha Mar to offer a luxurious and unforgettable experience to all guests. We can’t compromise on that standard.

“The most important thing we’re working towards is when it does open, it will be a fantastic time to visit the Bahamas. We want all our guests to experience the full Baha Mar luxury resort.”

Mr Sands said Baha Mar was working closely with its hotel brand partners, and main contractor, China State Construction, to determine the opening schedule.

“It’s not uncommon for tourism projects of this size to roll out in stages,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. “If you think for a moment about the complexity and grand size of this project, it includes more than three million square feet of space.

“We’re going to have over 101,000 pieces of furniture, over 12,000 pieces of art, 40 restaurants and bars, gardens and tennis courts. We have all these parts moving together.”

Supporting Mr Sands’s argument is that Baha Mar is attempting to do in one phase, or one go, what it took Kerzner International three phases to achieve on Paradise Island across a 14-year period.

He denied, though, that the new opening schedule had anything to do with problems on the construction side, telling this newspaper: “It has nothing to do with delays.”

The ‘preview openings, essentially a soft test run for the resort, will see Baha Mar’s travel partners, the media, staff and their families test out the new resort campus and facilities.

“What is very important is that this does not affect jobs or hiring,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. “We’re going to have 1,000 graduates and employees by early 2015 from the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) segment.”

The LDI is now on its third 250-strong intake, having graduated 150 from the first class with another 160-165 in the second group.

The 300 persons in the first Baha Mar Gaming School class will be offered jobs if they successfully complete the 12-week course, and the resort developer is also aiming to launch pre-training schools for culinary and supervisory/management personnel by the first week in September.

Mr Sands said Baha Mar would be in a better position to give specifics on the opening dates, and what parts would open when, in October.

“It’s an exciting time for transformative project to be coming online, and it will have a dramatic impact on the economy and tourism landscape of the Bahamas,” he added.

Mr Dunlap, in his letter to staff, promised Baha Mar would be “spectacular” and “compete with the best the world has to offer”.