China's Caribbean plans muddled by delays in US$3.5b Baha Mar resort

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

THE US$3.5 billion Baha Mar luxury resort in The Bahamas, long a dream of the Swiss-Bahamian Izmirlian family, was nearly a victim of the Great Recession when investors started pulling out in 2008. Then China came calling.

Thanks to a US$2.4 billion loan from China's export-import bank, 4,000 imported workers and US$150 million in equity for a new developer, the project was salvaged. For the Chinese, Baha Mar was a potential showpiece, a calling card as it set out to expand into the Americas with mega-resorts and massive construction projects, including a planned US$50 billion waterway in Nicaragua to rival the Panama Canal.

Now, repeated delays in the opening of Baha Mar have cast a pall over China's Caribbean plans and forced the resort to miss the peak winter travel season. Disputes between the builder, China Construction America Inc, and the Izmirlians have devolved into a public sparring match in The Bahamas, where officials are counting on the resort to lift an US$8.4 billion economy th…