A new claims committee is up and running in the Bahamas to compensate employees and contractors who have suffered losses in the Baha Mar super-resort fiasco.
The government of Prime Minister Perry Christie, which has been under fire from the media and political opponents since the resort failed to open as planned 18 months ago, appointed two of the five members of the committee.
The committee’s mandate, said Chairman James Smith, a former member of the government—to “take care of Bahamians.”
Smith said the process for depositing money into a bank account that the committee will access has begun, and information will be released informing petitioners about where they can go to discuss the claims process with committee staff.
The government has said it hopes former workers of Baha Mar will be paid money owed to them by the end of this month and local creditors by the end of the year.
Export Import Bank of China (EXIM), the lead lender behind the failed project, is paying the claims. A source close to the committee said the amount to be deposited is “around $100 million.”
The US$3.5 billion, 2,200-room Baha Mar started construction on Nassau’s Cable Beach in February 2011 with plans to open in late 2014. But founder and developer Sarkis Izmirlian and principal contractor, China State Construction, fell out with each other, prompting lenders to pull their financing. Izmirlian tried to put the development under the protection of U.S. bankruptcy law, but the Bahamian government was opposed, and Izmirlian was forced out when the project was placed in receivership in the Bahamas.
Christie has said his administration has an agreement with EXIM to finish construction, possibly as soon as next spring, and sell it to a “world-class hotel and casino operator.”
