“As we’ve outlined in our heads of agreement with the government we are committed to attract qualified Bahamian professionals in many disciplines and in particular as we focus on the developmental phase of our project we’ve focused our attention to the areas of project management, construction management, quantity surveying and design management in particular,” explained Robert Sands, senior vice president of administration and external affairs.
“To date, we have hired a number of Bahamian professionals as well as supplemented with expatriate professionals, but have given the opportunity to Bahamians to apply for these positions and in many cases [they] have been hired to fill them.”
Mr. Sands said Baha Mar hopes that once the current phase is successful it will pave the way for an additional phase “which will hopefully secure the future employment of these Bahamian professionals on an ongoing basis.”
“I think it is significant in as much as it brings to the employment opportunity a wider dimension of job opportunities and it’s not just focused on the administrative/hospitality side,” he added.
“I think that is significant because certainly not all Bahamians are interested in just administrative type work, but they also have an interest in the practical side. So, it creates some dimension and also it acts as a wide net in terms of job opportunity creation for a wide variety of Bahamian academics as well as professionals.”
Baha Mar officials signed a heads of agreement with the government for their project nearly a year and a half ago. Since then, they have projected that the value of the development will be $2 billion.
Baha Mar is a joint venture between Baha Mar Development, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. In July, the group announced that it was embarking on an $80 million transformation of the Radisson Cable Beach Resort, which was government owned prior to the development deal being sealed.
Speaking about the Radisson work, Mr. Sands informed, “It is progressing to plan and certainly as we committed we certainly should meet our committed timeline for total completion of this project which we said would take 15 months.”
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
