Completion of construction, full debt payment promised
Billionaire Sarkis Izmirlian, who founded, owned and secured financing to complete the largest construction project in the Bahamas, is making a new bid to reclaim ownership of the unfinished six-hotel Baha Mar Resort.
Izmirlian sent a letter last week to the state-owned Export Import Bank of China (Exim), which foreclosed on Izmirlian’s $2 billion in loan financing for the $3.5 billion project, with a new proposal to regain ownership of the resort, complete construction and guarantee payment of all debt at the original terms, which he said will gain few takers in today’s saturated gaming market.
Izmirlian described the sale process as “opaque, fraught with obstacles and irregularities,” and “not designed to maximize value for all.”
“There is great concern that serious and experienced bidders are being driven away by the process,” he wrote. “I don’t believe that is the goal, nor the moral standard that you have established for the bank and therefore offer again for my team to meet with you.”
Izmirlian followed up with a press statement stressing that no potential owner has his expertise or commitment to get Baha Mar moving again.
“It is unfortunate what has happened to Baha Mar these many months, but all of this is correctable,” Izmirlian said. “We are confident our offer is the right solution. We know we can make Baha Mar successful. We want all creditors’ economic interests to be addressed fairly. We want former Baha Mar employees to be able to be back at work.
“While we will continue to fight the ill-advised winding up/liquidation through the courts, following a positive meeting last week with Prime Minister Perry Christie, we hope to work with him towards our shared goal of opening Baha Mar rapidly and successfully for the benefit of all Bahamians, especially our highly trained Baha Mar team members.
“We are prepared to move forward immediately with Exim Bank on our offer. Time is of the essence.”
Christie, for one, said later in an interview with the Bahamas Tribune that Izmirlian deserves “every consideration” of his bid to regain control of the resort.
“He (Izmirlian) met with me and discussed having put in a number of new offers to the bank,” Christie said. “I have written the bank in pursuance of his advising me to ask the bank to confirm that has happened and that they are giving consideration to it. Clearly, he is deserving of every consideration, and it is a question of the bank being in a position to determine what they are going to do.
“I think it’s a question of the bank making the right decision as what’s best for them and the Bahamas. What Mr. Izmirlian has advised me is that he has put in an offer or offers that will not cause the bank to lose any money. I have not seen the offer (but) I am assuming that means it’s an attractive offer. But again it is on the part of the bank. They have to make that decision.”
The Baha Mar project has been idle for nearly a year, since the China-owned construction contractor stopped work after Izmirlian refused to keep paying them, claiming the work was inferior and the project missed key deadlines for opening—which was originally planned for December 2014.
Christie’s government tried unsuccessfully to mediate an agreement among the contractor, China Construction America, Exim and Izmirlian, and last summer the Bahamian Supreme Court placed the project in receivership at Exim’s request.
Izmirlian contributed nearly $1 billion of his family’s money to the project. The 1,000-acre resort, which will include six hotels—four new and two refurbished existing hotels—the largest casino in the Caribbean, a championship golf course, is expected to revive the legendary Cable Beach resort area in Nassau, and the Bahamian government is depending on its promised boost in tourism dollars.
