BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Hyatt and SBE Entertainment Group
have recommitted to Baha Mar and are slated to operate Grand Hyatt and SLS
hotels, respectively, when the Bahamas mega-resort opens, according to Joy
Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.
Jibrilu addressed media attending the Caribbean Tourism
Organization’s State of the Industry Conference here.
Jibrilu said Baha Mar construction is slated to resume within
the next 10 days. “The first hotel to completed will be the 1,000-room Baha Mar
Casino Resort & Hotel, although it is not known at this time if the
property will open under that name.”
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts was to operate a Baha Mar hotel,
but the company backed out of the project in 2015. “There are conversations
underway with Rosewood, but there is nothing to report at this time,” Jibrilu
said.
Baha Mar still does not have an owner. “There are still some
issues being negotiated, but once all issues are settled, the new owner will be
announced,” according to Jibrilu.
The Bahamas government in late August said it
reached an agreement with the project’s primary lender, the Export-Import Bank
of China, to sell Baha Mar to a “world-class hotel and casino operator.”
Baha Mar’s former developer, Sarkis Izmirlian, last year estimated that Baha
Mar was about 97% complete. There is no timeline for Baha Mar’s opening.