The Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas, which at the start of
the year was slated to open four new hotels totaling 2,200 rooms on March 27, will
have available rooms at only one of its hotels on that date.
The $3.5 billion project, said to be the most expensive
development in Bahamas history, will have finished rooms only at its 1,000-room
Baha Mar Casino & Hotel on March 27, confirmed Baha Mar spokeswoman Alyssa
Bushey. The property’s 100,000-square-foot casino, which includes 1,500 slot machines
and 150 table games, will be open, she said.
The public spaces at the 300-room SLS Lux at Baha Mar, the
200-room Rosewood at Baha Mar and 707-room Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar will be open
by the end of next week, though rooms at the SLS and Rosewood won’t be
available until “shortly after” March 27, said Bushey.
Baha Mar had previously announced in January that the Grand
Hyatt opening would be pushed back to May 1. The hotel remains on schedule for
that date, when Baha Mar will hold its official grand opening event, Bushey
said.
Many “resort core” amenities, including various
entertainment and recreation areas such as Beach Sanctuary and the Jack
Nicklaus-designed TPC at Baha Mar golf course, will be open on March 27, Bushey
said.
A search on the Baha Mar Casino and Hotel’s website shows
first rooms available to the public starting April 13, while the website for
the SLS property shows availability starting April 29. The Rosewood Baha Mar is
taking reservations for stays starting in June, according to its phone-reservation
representative.
As recently as March 9, Baha Mar representatives said its
flagship hotel as well as the SLS and Rosewood would fully open by the end of
this month, though Travel Weekly last week was informed by John Buchanan, a
reporter with STR’s Hotel News Now publication, that Baha Mar wouldn’t meet
that deadline. Bushey declined to give specifics on the reasons behind the most
recent delay.
Baha Mar, which is being backed by China’s state-run
Export-Import Bank and constructed by thousands of Chinese workers employed by
China State Construction Engineering Corp., broke ground in Nassau’s Cable
Beach area in February 2011. The project had been scheduled to open to the
public by the end of 2014 until last August, when the opening date was pushed
back until this spring.
A fifth hotel at the resort, the former 694-room Sheraton
Nassau Beach Hotel, was reflagged in late 2013 as the Melia Nassau Beach and
will be renamed the Melia at Baha Mar once that property completes its $19
million renovation. The property, which will be Baha Mar’s only all-inclusive
resort, is scheduled to be completed early next year.