Well stated... I agree with everything you said. And it was Izmirlian's inexperience as a resort developer -- especially "the biggest in the history of the Caribbean" -- that led directly to some of the key problems you cite. But God knows the Christie government did its part to kill the project, too, through incompetence. All very sad. But also very real.

My sources -- including in the Bahamas -- are 100% reliable. And all of my articles were 100% accurate. If not, Baha Mar would have sued me. FYI, Neil Hartnell at the Tribune and I communicated frequently before and after I broke my big story in the U.S. March 24. He also helped me with fact checking so I knew I was accurate and in some instances, I referred him to my sources. he also cited me in one of his stories back then. Speaking personally, I could not care less if Baha Mar ever opens. But I love the Bahamas and have been coming there for 35 years (stayed at Cable Beach Hotel back in the day) and I appreciate the fact it will be an economic disaster for the Bahamian people if it does not open. My bet is that some big operator like MGM or Sol Kerzner pick it up for cents on the dollar and then open it -- probably under a new name since the brand has been killed with bad PR all over the world. The question is whether Christie can force the new buyer or operator to pay all the Bahamian contractors that got burned and the 2,000 redundant employees to keep food on their tables. I assume we'll all know that together by early next year.

All I can tell you is that I covered Baha Mar for Hotel News Now, the #1 hotel business website in the world, and did three major articles. They lied to me repeatedly, attacked the facts I reported in the last two stories, etc. And again, it is the developer's responsibility to manage a project. IF CCA did shoddy work, why did Izmirlian not disclose that and challenge them long before he cancelled the phony March 27 opening two hours after my March 24 story came out? And most of all, why has he never apologized to the thousands of innocent consumers he ripped off with the two phony opening dates? The facts speak for themselves. If you cannot see them, that is your problem, not mine.

There is apparently plenty of blame to go around on both sides. But based on the fact that as a journalist in the U.S., I scooped the whole world with my March 24 story at Hotel News Now that the alleged March 27 opening was a total scam by Izmilirlian and his totally incompetent PR team -- led by the infamous Sandy Sands and the equally incompetent and deceitful Alyssa Bushey from the U.S. -- the obvious question your question raises is : IF all that about CCA were true, WHY did Izzy remain silent until after t5he opening was canceled -- two hours after my story broke. And in the end, the developer is responsible for the performance of the contractor. Izzy simply did not have the experience to pull off Baha Mar. And Daddy's money alone was not enough. But the primary fault for the failure lies with him, not China, based on the facts that are known and not in dispute.

In fact, I am simply a journalist -- and the one that broke the story March 24 at Hotel News Now, the global hotel industry website published by Smith Travel Research (which every hotel in the Bahamas uses for market data). And I guess you missed my clear point that the Prime Minister could very l be killing any deal with his demands. IF a new buyer is found and the resort completed, then Christie deserves some credit. If NOT, which is certainly possible (the project was deemed too big and too expensive to operate from the start by objective experts in the U.S.), then he deserves much of the blame. But the fact is, Izmirlian blew it. Period. And he has paid the price for that now.

The Government is in a real bind now. IF ExIm Bank of China and its advisors cannot find a buyer or new developer/partner, the so-called "liquidation" process will mean nothing and go nowhere, because there will have already been "no deal."
And if the Prime Minister keeps making demands that a new partner or the bank guarantee the payment of local contractors and 2,000 old and now redundant 2,000 employees, that could easily kill any deal in the works. It wasn't China that burned all those folks. It was the grossly incompetent and deceitful Izmirlian "management team" Someone needs to explain to the Prime Minister that Baha Mar went belly up, the Izmiliran regime is gone, and old debt is old debt -- not part of any new deal.

Have they found Izzy's body yet? I'm pretty sure Daddy has had him killed.

It's official -- the Prime Minister of the Bahamas is a moron. Apparently he does not understand that old debt gets disposed of in a liquidation/foreclosure deal -- and in this case one that is only attracting interest in a disaster because it's available for cents on the dollar -- and that he has no power to force ExIm Bank of China and/or the new buyer to do anything they don't want to do. This is not politics. It's business.

It is incredible how clueless Christie is. The simple reason why so many major players are circling like rabid sharks is that whoever gets the deal and becomes new owner will have gotten a $3.5 billion resort that is almost completed for pennies on the dollar -- the deal of the century in the hotel business. And no matter what he says, there is no way the government can force the new owners to pay all the Bahamian contractors in full or guarantee employee salaries in a rehire until the place opens. That is sad, but true. China holds all the cards now, and they are relentless in business. Christie should just keep his mouth shut and hope for the best. That's all he can do. And no one knows what Izmirlian will do next. I find it hard to believe he will just surrender. My guess is the new buyer will throw him some table scraps in significantly reduced equity so Daddy's entire $900 million investment is not lost. But I could be wrong. The Chinese have plenty of justifiable reason to tell him to take a hike.

If this is accurate, Izzy is just trying a last desperate attempt to save his own a$$. And it's too late. The die is cast. China is in control and is acting accordingly after Izzy and his inept "management team" alienated ExIm Bank and China Construction. They will assume control of the project and then it will get completed, probably under a new name (the Baha Mar brand is dead -- murdered by horrendous PR and the cheating of many consumers with bookings for the March 27 opening) and possibly with one or more new hotel partners. The big question is how long it will take to get open.