As the row of gold shovels first hit the sandy beach ground in Nassau, Bahamas, change was soon to follow. It was the start of construction for Baha Mar, the resort that is set to transform this part of not just the Caribbean, but the whole tourism industry. The official groundbreaking was held Feb. 21, and the event was well attended, with many VIP speakers representing local government, resort investors and partners.
Tom Dunlap, EVP of development and construction for Baha Mar, described the groundbreaking as fantastic. It was held on a portion of the site, right on the beach, on a clear, beautiful, Bahamian day. There was a Chinese lion dance combined with a Bahamian Junkanoo band, and the initial opening music was performed by the Royal Bahamian Police Force band. “The experience was one that, in retrospect, is very much about Baha Mar because it was a very global experience,” Dunlap said. “It just had a genuine air of excitement about it. I think it was the global flavor combined with the period of our economy and our cycle that occurred that made it an absolutely memorable day.”
The resort is set to open in December 2014, and will have several exciting features and amenities. Four hotel towers, each representing a hotel brand, will create 2,250 rooms on the property. In addition to an existing hotel, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts will operate and manage the Luxury Hotel; Morgan’s Hotel Group will manage and operate the Lifestyle Hotel; and Hyatt Hotels and Resorts will operate and manage the Grand Hyatt Convention Hotel. Also planned is an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course. And it’s all part of a strategy to bring best-in-class brands to Baha Mar.
Baha Mar will also include the largest convention center in the Bahamas, with 200,000 square feet of space, as well as a 100,000-square-foot casino. A 20-acre eco water park and pool experience, and three unique spas, will span the resort along the Bahamian Riviera. Also present will be a retail shopping village and 24 dining establishments—all of this on one strip of land and only 12 minutes from the new airport. There will be something for everybody here, as passive or active as you want to be.
It’s a true destination resort, and Baha Mar is set to make a major impact on the area. In a place where tourism already accounts for 60 percent of the Bahamian gross domestic product, estimates show that Baha Mar will contribute an additional 10 percent growth in the GDP. It will also create thousands of new jobs and wages for locals, desperately needed in an area with a staggering 15 percent unemployment.
There are several groups of people behind this major resort, but it all starts with a local family, the Izmirlians, looking to invest in their hometown and restore Cable Beach to its former glory as a major tourist destination. Sarkis Izmirlian serves as chairman and CEO for Baha Mar, and is the visionary behind the resort, overseeing negotiations with the local government and the acquisition of the project site. The major financial backer is the Export-Import Bank of China, whose loan to Baha Mar is a rare exception for the company that primarily lends exclusively to governments and financial institutions.
“There are projects all over the world that have not been able to succeed in getting financing and getting built, but we’ve been able to work very closely with the Chinese and the construction company and the bank,” explained Don Robinson, president of Baha Mar. “They believe in the same vision that we do. The project is complicated and involved. It’s going to be on the world stage and it’s going to give them the ability to say that Chinese construction companies can build complex projects all over the world.”
What really makes this resort so noteworthy is the economic environment in which it all came together. The initial efforts began nearly six years ago, and it endured through the tough economy since. Work was put on hold for a period of time, but as Dunlap explained, “Through the tenacity and passion and vision of our ownership, they were consistently committed to exploring new options and new ideas that would bring our financial partners together with us.”
Robinson said locals are really getting excited for the project. At first, some were against it, but as the benefits to the local economy and people were revealed, it was hard to not be on board. And now with construction actually started and renderings available, it has become a reality. “What we’re trying to do is create a destination that is true to the Bahamas, true to the culture, true to the history, highlighting Bahamian entertainment, arts, crafts, artwork, sculptures and certainly the friendliness of the people,” he said.
Being sustainable and having minimal environmental impact is extremely important to Baha Mar. An environmental audit was done to examine the resort’s plans and processes, looking at things such as air conditioning, lighting, power usage and water. As Dunlap said, “it’s recognizing that we are living on an island and energy consumption is a very important factor of how one exists. You basically have to produce everything for yourself.” One thing the Baha Mar team is looking at is a process called deep sea water cooling, that essentially pumps cold ocean water from 5,000 feet and could be used to run the air conditioning rather than using electricity to cool the air. “That cold air allows you to provide air conditioning at pennies on what it would cost you to run electricity,” Robinson said.
Another initiative was to set aside a wetland preserve to rejuvenate and restore what was once a migratory bird stop on the western edge of the property. There is also a significant beach restoration project to repair and restore it to what it might have been pre-1970s.
Behind the resort’s architecture is Michael Hong of Michael Hong Architecture. Dunlap explained that Hong served as concept architect on Baha Mar and had an impressive portfolio already, working on some of the best casino resorts around the world. The whole team’s goal was to celebrate the resort’s truly regional influences, yet be authentic to its location. “When you bring in his knowledge, his ability to design the circulation and the components of these large resorts in a way that they’re effortless and user-friendly for your guests, and you do so in such a beautiful location as Nassau, Bahamas,” Dunlap said. “By bringing together the celebration of Caribbean architecture and its African and British heritage with the logic and functionality of the Caribbean-influenced resort design, Hong will make Baha Mar a phenomenal resort experience.”
Their inspiration? The natural surroundings, of course. But they also drew from Caribbean history and culture. “When we’re in Nassau, there are beautiful examples of great historic architecture, whether it’s in the churches or in the original government buildings, or even in the residential scale architecture,” Dunlap said. “If you go to the sister islands, you see versions of that. Harbour Island has a lovely kind of ship-builder craftsmanship to the homes that were built there. And so you see a different level of authenticity of craftsmanship. Everywhere you look at Baha Mar, you will see a respectful tip of the hat to these great designs that came long before us.”
Explaining some particular features of the resort, Dunlap said: “One of the things we did in the master plan is put tremendous amount of focus on finding a way to pull the hotel towers back from the beach to create a large 20-acre zone between the buildings and the beach that gets beautiful sunlight, to create a phenomenal exterior experience.”
The pool experience alone is sure to be incredible. There will be a broad spectrum of pools, water fountains and features, natural grottos, decks, cabanas and pool bars. You really could invest an entire day there.
Now, with a great plan in place and construction started, the next goal is to select a casino partner. “We’re looking for a casino operator that wants to be a very critical component of the destination but understand what it means to be part of an overall destination and that would be a good partner with those hotel brands,” Robinson said.
Another upcoming milestone is approximately seven months away, when the roads that are now under construction will open. “That makes a pretty significant difference to the people of the Bahamas to have a whole new roadwork network system that we’re putting in place,” Robinson said. Once that occurs, we will start all the piling and the super-structure construction of the project. You’ll start to be able to see the first visible signs of it coming out of the ground. That will be exciting to a lot of people.”
Then, about a year before opening, Baha Mar will begin taking reservations and start their destination marketing.
Reflecting on the groundbreaking, Robinson commented: “Through all the trials and tribulations of the economy of the project, we had finally achieved the objective, and we knew sitting there on that beach that the shovel going into the ground is a beginning of a project that very few people in the world have the ability to pull off. You sit there and think about the magnitude of what we were just getting ready to start on—a $3.4 billion project starting construction doesn’t happen very often.”
For Dunlap, every day provided a memorable moment. He especially enjoyed getting to know the new team members as they arrived to help with the project. And they came from all over the globe—China, Southeast Asia, England, Europe, Russia, North America and more. “It’s absolutely magical to see all of these different personalities and cultures arriving at the same time, and all of them with a singular focus—to be part of the Baha Mar,” he said.
And the end result of all this hard work and planning is certainly going to be magical as well. Kind of like a resort right out of Paradise.
KEY PLAYERS
Owner: Baha Mar Ltd.
Developer: Baha Mar Ltd.
Principal Designer and Master Planner: Michael Hong Architects
Executive Architect: RMJM
Interior Design: Dianna Wong Architecture and Interior Design
General Contractor and Construction Manager: China State Construction and Engineering Corp.
Quantity Surveyors: Davis Langdon
Owners Representative: MACE International Ltd.
Operators: Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Morgans Hotel Group, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Amanda Huggett is the Managing Editor for Casino Enterprise Management. She can be reached at (701) 293-7775 or editor2[at]aceme.org.
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