President and Chief Financial Officer of the Baha Mar Development Company Ltd. Robert Heller on Thursday revealed that during his companyﾴs construction phase, the Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino will be imploded and replaced with a new tower.
Moving quickly to calm fears about the possibility of Cable Beach employees losing their jobs, Mr. Heller said his projectﾴs revitalization plan for the popular strip is one that will take place in stages.
The projectﾴs first phase will amount to $1.2 billion, the single largest Phase I investment in the history of The Bahamas, officials have noted.
ﾓOur first effort is to improve the exiting resorts and we are going to be spending money on the existing hotels from day one. We are not taking them down right away,ﾒ Mr. Heller explained while appearing as a guest on the Love 97 daily talk show, ﾓIssues of the Dayﾒ.
ﾓThe first plan is to actually invest money in all three of the hotels because we want those properties to do well during the long planning process. At the end of this, we would start construction on the big project. But we have a very strong commitment to the government and labour unions to do everything we can to phase the development ﾖ to try to build them one at a time, keeping one open while the other is under construction.ﾒ
Mr. Hellerﾴs comments came only a week after the group signed a deal with American investor Phil Ruffin to acquire his Cable Beach interests.
On Wednesday night, Baha Mar signed a billion-dollar Heads of Agreement with the government following two years of intense negotiations.
Prime Minister Perry Christie said the process that led to that point was ﾓthe most complex, comprehensive and time consuming process ever undertaken in The Bahamas on such a major project.ﾒ
Mr. Heller also admitted that ﾓit feels great to have finally signed the deal and move on to the real business, responsibilities and work of improving the existing assets and begin work on the big project.ﾒ
He also indicated that Baha Mar does not feel threatened by Sol Kerznerﾴs Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, which is undergoing a billion-dollar Phase III expansion.
ﾓWe think Atlantis is a very fine project,ﾒ Mr. Heller said. ﾓItﾴs very financially successful and we [would be] delighted to enjoy that same type of success, maybe even better. But our philosophy is evident in our design and even in our name, which we understand is the original name of this nation,ﾒ Mr. Heller explained.
ﾓWe will complement Atlantis by being more adult oriented, more entertainment oriented and more diverse in our product offerings. Atlantis is a wonderful project, but it is very, very family oriented and you see it packed with children. We are going to embrace families the same way, but bringing in a different development philosophy. We think we can have a broader audience.ﾒ
The showﾴs host, Wendall Jones, also questioned whether Baha Mar officials were at all fearful of the successes Kerzner International has already achieved on Paradise Island. As far as Mr. Heller is concerned, however, Baha Mar is grateful for such strides.
ﾓAtlantis has established the business. They have established the market as very viable for this kind of mega resort project and weﾴre hopeful that they would be thankful to us too for building another project that would complement theirs because supply begets its own demand,ﾒ Mr Heller said.
ﾓThe more you build of a certain type, it has almost an exponential value in driving tourism and the revenues of a project.ﾒ
Baha Marﾴs entire project will span some 500 acres.
But there is the fear that such a mega resort could result in the over-development of the Cable Beach area, speculation Mr. Heller also quickly put to rest.
ﾓWe are going to be opening with 2,700 rooms. There are now 1,950 rooms on Cable, an increase of only 750 rooms. I believe that there are about 10,000 rooms overall on the island. So this is only about a seven percent increase,ﾒ he said.
ﾓThis development will be something that would not only create jobs, but create an economic engine (for The Bahamas) for the next 10 to 20 years.ﾒ
Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
