Hong Kong-based conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises has closed on its long-awaited purchase of the Bahamas’ Baha Mar and is now sole owner of the Caribbean’s largest gaming resort.
The purchase, first announced last October, was contingent on Chow Tai Fook opening the stalled mega-project by April 2017, a commitment the company fulfilled with the debut of the casino, an 1,800-room Grand Hyatt, a golf course and entertainment, MICE, dining and other attractions in a soft opening that same month.
The resort’s second phase was completed in November with the opening of the 299-room SLS Baha Mar, additional restaurants and the launch of a global marketing campaign. A William Hill sports book has since been added, and a 200-room Rosewood hotel is slated to come on line in the spring.
Capping its purchase, CTFE said it now has in hand a permanent certificate of occupancy from the government, which backed the conglomerate’s involvement as the best opportunity to revive the stalled project and save the thousands of local jobs it promised.
Construction was halted on Baha Mar in 2014 after months of financial difficulties, cost overruns and other problems led to a falling out between founder Sarkis Izmirlian and lead contractor China State Construction and principal investor Export-Import Bank of China. Izmirlian was ousted after attempting to place the project under bankruptcy protection in the United States, which the then-government of the Bahamas opposed, and Baha Mar went into receivership under the supervision of the island nation’s courts. CTFE bought it from a trustee established by China State Construction and the bank to oversee a sale.
Baha Mar President Graeme Davis called the completed purchase and the certificate of occupancy “the culmination of our efforts to purchase and open this spectacular resort destination”.
“We have exciting plans,” he said, “and I am immensely proud of the progress our team has made over the last year.”
