By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar’s owner is seeking to completely demolish the former Melia Nassau Beach Resort before the 2023 winter tourism season starts, it was revealed yesterday, although it has not determined what will replace the hotel.

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, confirmed to Tribune Business that demolition of the seven-acre, 694-room property that was shuttered more than two years ago in early 2021 began earlier this week.

“I can say that the demolition has, in fact, started and we hope to have it completed certainly before the start of the winter season,” he said. “The entire resort is being demolished. The only plans we have right now is to ensure it’s demolished.”

Asked about the timing of the move, Mr Sands told this newspaper: “Now is as good a time as any because it’s not being used at the moment. It’s been ongoing now, I would say, since the beginning of the month.” As for what Baha Mar’s owner, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (Bahamas), plans to do with the former Melia site, he added: “There has been no determination yet.

“We’ve no plans for what is going to go there. Our current position is we’re just announcing the demolition of the Melia and the proposal to remove the entire building.” Mr Sands said the Melia building was around 45 years old, with construction having begun in the late 1970s so that it could host the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting that took place in Nassau in the early 1970s.

Heavy equipment was yesterday starting the tear-down of the physical buildings that comprised the Melia, with the demolition site now boarded and fenced-off. The demolition comes three months after Baha Mar’s president, Graeme Davis, said plans to redevelop the still-closed Melia resort will be unveiled imminently.

“[There] are ongoing discussions with the Government on our Melia project next door,” he told a Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) directors meeting. “We look forward to hopefully announcing that very soon so stay tuned for our next report.”

Mr Sands subsequently told Tribune Business that an announcement may come even sooner. Declining to provide specifics on CTFE’s plans, he said: “Hopefully he’ll [Mr Davis] be able to make an announcement on that in the next week or two. It is imminent.”

It is unclear, though, whether a demolition will have been desired by the Government although it has presumably agreed to the move. The Davis administration has been pushing owners of still-closed New Providence resort properties, especially the Melia and British Colonial, to re-open as rapidly as possible and relieve the island’s present room inventory shortage which has resulted from post-COVID demand exceeding present capacity.

The room inventory shortage has helped drive up rates and yields, but Dr Kenneth Romer, the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation’s deputy director-general, recently revealed it has been impossible to find beds for passengers on flights that have either been diverted to, or delayed in, Nassau.

CTFE, also Baha Mar’s owner, was behind on the initial renovation schedule it set out for the Melia when it announced the property’s closure in mid-February 2021. It said then that the resort will close for two years to undergo a $100m renovation via a project that was to create some 150 construction jobs.

It added that the seven-acre, 694-room resort, which also featured 32 suites, was to undergo “a complete transformation” with rooms, common areas, restaurants and bars, and outdoor spaces including three freshwater pools included in the renovations. The property was to re-open in 2023, which will now clearly not happen.

Mr Davis, speaking earlier this year on Baha Mar’s 2023 first quarter performance, said: ““We’ve had an extraordinary first quarter here at Baha Mar across all our brands. I’m pleased to announce that, certainly from a first quarter standpoint, we’re up 45 percent year-over-year.”

Mr Davis conceded that the first three months of 2023 were up against slightly weaker prior year comparatives because of the Omicron COVID variant “break-out” that occurred in early 2022, but added that Baha Mar has “seen a significant amount of demand” for each of its Grand Hyatt, Rosewood and SLS resort properties.

“We hit in March an all-time record for the property,” he explained. “Just 90 percent would be the round-up for occupancy across all three brands, with the Hyatt actually exceeding [that]. Again, a record month. The pace for the rest of the year looks very strong. We’re right now up 20 percent year-over-year in volume for 2023 over 2022.

“Our restaurants remain strong. We continue to see group business and the bookings, even for next year into 2024, are well over any prior years. Looking at the future, 2024 is still quite strong on the group booking side. The leisure business, it’s not seeing any slowdown, particularly with the summer months. We’re starting to see that window of bookings come in. There’s a little bit of a slowdown in May but nothing concerning. The summer looks very bright.”