Chow Tai Fook’s long-awaited Baha Mar resort officially opened its doors on Friday but it will be another month before guests can actually stay, it was revealed.
Baha Mar, the US$3.5 billion Bahamian mega-resort first imagined more than a decade ago, fulfilled its promise to open by 21 April this year with a lavish launch party attended by staff and a selection of invited guests. It follows 10 disastrous years that ultimately saw its original developer file for bankruptcy and construction shut down in 2014 before Chow Tai Fook bought the property in late 2016.
However, despite promising to open this month, it appears guests will have to wait a bit longer to experience all Baha Mar has to offer with Graeme Davis, President of Baha Mar, noting the property’s first batch of hotel rooms would be operational on 29 May. Until then they will be available for media, travel agents and VIPs, although Bahama’s Prime Minister Perry Christie is adamant the resort will live up to its original grand billing.
“Baha Mar’s opening is not a mirage,” he said, claiming that Baha Mar will add US$700 million in direct annual economic output and US$45 million in taxes. “It is not some ostentatious effort of misrepresentations. It is real and it is the most significant economic event ever to occur in a single phase in the Bahamas and in the Caribbean region.”
CTFE’s Mr Davis described Baha Mar’s launch as the fulfilment of a vision.
“This magnificent structure you see before you is a testament of the vision conceived over 14 years ago … through the strength and spirit of the Bahamian people and the commitment of the Cheng family, Baha Mar is the result of what happens when great minds, great hearts and human determination come together. Mountains can be moved, structures rise from the ground.”
Baha Mar also opened its Jack Nicklaus-designed Royal Blue golf course, Espa spa, a convention center, casino and five of its 40 restaurants and bars on Friday.
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