The Baha Mar Development Company has sealed the deal for a hotel and a casino partner to help it get its much talked about billion-dollar Cable Beach development off the ground.
Baha Mar says it has found partners to build, operate and co-own its Cable Beach Development. The company said yesterday that it will on Monday announce “an unprecedented joint venture with two of the top companies in hospitality and gaming.”
“In a deal that will set new standards for the hospitality and gaming industries, Baha Mar Resorts, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., will build, operate and co-own the one-of-a-kind Baha Mar,” the company’s statement said.
The joint venture is said to be the first partnership between Harrah’s and Starwood organizations.
Baha Mar officials also said that their resort “represents a quantum leap forward in the continued success of The Bahamas, ushering in a new era of Nassau’s Cable Beach area of New Providence Island.”
According to the company, the grand announcement is set for Monday morning at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City.
Baha Mar’s CEO Sarkis Izmirlian and Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe will attend, a statement said.
The company had missed an initial target date to find a hotel partner.
During the heads of agreement signing back in April, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that the company “is to use its best effort to enter into final agreements with its resort partner by August 30, 2005, and its casino partner by December 31, 2005.”
Resort officials are remaining quiet until the announcement is made, but in an interview with The Bahama Journal in September, Robert Sands, vice president of administration and external affairs, said the partners will play a key role in helping Baha Mar advance its plans.
“We believe that the synergy between ourselves and a world recognized and proven industry partner, both in gaming and in hospitality, would be pivotal in helping us achieve our goals as a world class resort on Cable Beach,” he said.
A lot is riding on the Baha Mar Development, which is expected to transform the Cable Beach area while complementing Sol Kerzner’s multibillion-dollar development on Paradise Island.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Kerzner said he believes that Baha Mar will be good for The Bahamas, as the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort is.
Baha Mar officials have said an economic impact study revealed that Phase I of the project will create upwards of 5,000 full time jobs and generate approximately 3,000 jobs during construction.
In Phase I, Baha Mar is committed to construct or refurbish to world class resort quality facilities including: a 1,000 room casino hotel with a 75,000 square foot casino; a renovated and expanded 1,000 room convention hotel at Radisson Cable Beach Resort; a new 300 room luxury hotel; 400 renovated rooms at the Nassau Beach Hotel; the creation of 100,000 square foot of convention space; world class attractions and amenities; and other residential resort offerings, including a mixed use village and marina at a site to be agreed.
During the heads of agreement signing, the prime minister noted, “The work will be staged so that only one hotel is closed at a time to enable the completion of 2,700 rooms between 2007 and 2009.”
On its website, Starwood says it is one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies.
“We conduct our hotel and leisure business both directly and through our subsidiaries. Our brand names include St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, W and Four Points by Sheraton. Through these brands, we are well represented in most major markets around the world. Our operations are grouped into two business segments, hotels and vacation ownership operations,” the website says.
“Our hotel business emphasizes the global operation of hotels and resorts primarily in the luxury and upscale segment of the lodging industry. We seek to acquire interests in, or management or franchise rights with respect to properties in this segment.
“At December 31, 2004, our hotel portfolio included owned, leased, managed and franchised hotels totaling 733 hotels with approximately 231,000 rooms in 80 countries, and is comprised of 140 hotels that we own or lease or in which Starwood has a majority equity interest, 283 hotels managed by us on behalf of third-party owners (including entities in which we have a minority equity interest) and 310 hotels for which we receive franchise fees.”
Meanwhile, Harrah’s is expected to focus on the operation and development of the casino at Baha Mar.
Founded in 1937, Las Vegas-based Harrahs Entertainment, Inc. calls itself the world’s premier provider of branded casino entertainment.
Harrahs Entertainment owns or manages through various subsidiaries more than 40 casinos in three countries, primarily under the Harrah’s, Caesars and Horseshoe brand names, the company says.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
