By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Perry Christie is expected to meet Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian on Monday after he received verbal assurances from the $3.5 billlion resort's lender China Export Import Bank that it was willing to work with all stakeholders to complete the stalled West Bay Street project.
The Prime Minister told guests at a special meeting in New York on Thursday night that Mr Izmirlian was the only remaining major stakeholder on his schedule, according to a statement released by Bahamas Information Services.
Mr Christie met China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), the parent company of Baha Mar's general contractor China Construction America (CCA), in New York on Monday.
“Around nine last night I started a conference call with the president of China Import Export Bank," Mr Christie said.
"We spoke for 45 minutes or thereabout on this conference call where I got the agreement of the bank to work assiduously with the construction company and the government of The Bahamas and the developer to resume construction.
“So I have now met with the construction company; I have met through a conference call with the bank; I have met with the bank’s representatives at my office [Wednesday] lunch time so I only now have to meet with the developer as Prime Minister and I am meeting with the developer on Monday.”
The special meeting for members of the Bahamian diaspora in New York was organised by the Bahamas Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) headed by Dr Elliston Rahming.
This week, CCA returned to the Cable Beach project to conduct site analysis and assessments necessary finish the development, which is estimated to be 97 per cent complete. The general contractor was re-engaged by Baha Mar's court appointed provisional liquidators.
On Thursday, Mr Christie said: “The intention is to be able to impress upon all of the parties that the government of The Bahamas wants this hotel or resort completed because there are thousands of young people who will be employed."
Comments
sheeprunner12 9 years, 1 month ago
Will the public know what will be discussed???? Will the media have access??? Or will this be a closed meeting of Perry's handpicked "negotiating team" to spin more lies about when the hotel will re-open????
banker 9 years, 1 month ago
More dead-good news.
John 9 years, 1 month ago
Time to kiss and make up.. I guess
BaronInvest 9 years, 1 month ago
"give me 100.000$ all cash or i'll give the chinese your properties!"
ObserverOfChaos 9 years, 1 month ago
Lets hope Sarkis kicks the SOB in the teeth and tells him to F*** himself....he started all this mess by sticking his fat nose into something he had no business getting involved with...now Bahamians are paying the price by not having working jobs!....Let Christie drown in his own pit of stupidity....This is just another ploy by his highness Christie to try and convince Bahamians he's "doing something for them"....all positioning.... period!
SP 9 years, 1 month ago
..Sarkis Needs To Haul Off & Give This Dancing Clown ONE GOOD SOLID BITCH SLAP..
MonkeeDoo 9 years, 1 month ago
The Godfather - I'm Gonna Make Him An Offer He Can't Refuse
sheeprunner12 9 years, 1 month ago
Let's go back to May-June 2015 ................. I remember back then these two big ego guys could not get together to sort out the problem and it led to a Chapter 11 filing ......... now Izzie has to eat crow and sit with Perry who seems to be in the driver's seat with the backing of the Chinese and the courts ............. but they should be reminded of the Pope's admonition to apply the Golden Rule and have mercy ......... this is not the time for Perry to try and bury Izzie but to bury the hatchet and present The Bahamas in a better light than four months ago.
Wideawake 9 years, 1 month ago
Let us all hope that they both realise that they each have too much to lose not to reach some kind of a compromise!
My2cents 9 years, 1 month ago
We can only hope that the PM realizes that it's the country and not just his huge ego at stake. Izmirlian has valid arguments regarding the Chinese construction...so I am not ready to simply label it "ego". Nonetheless, I hope that they can work it out...I want Baha Mar to succeed because of all the people relying on it for employment and for the huge (possibly misplaced) investment that Izmirlian put in the country.
concernedcitizen 9 years, 1 month ago
Izmirlian and the Chinese have already made a deal for Izzie to give up some equity , PGC just trying to look good ,the only question will Izzie let him play big shot to finish his project and in case the PLP wins in 2017
Sickened 9 years, 1 month ago
You are right. If Baha Mar works out then chances are the PLP will win again. If PLP wins again, The Bahamas will surely fail.
So the choice is: do we want Baha Mar to succeed and then lose our country or do we want Baha Mar to fail in order to save our country.
And, if CC does finish the project, with their terrible track record for shoddy construction, there is a very good chance that the hotel will only stand up straight for a couple of years... i.e. until our next election.
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