Bahamas Super Resort Stalled in Bankruptcy

NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS—CCA Bahamas Ltd., the general contractor for the $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort project, has retained services of four law firms and a private bank after the bankruptcy announcement of Baha Mar Ltd., the developer of the delayed super-resort project.

News broke earlier this week that the developer of the delayed super-resort, Baha Mar Ltd. plans to file for bankruptcy protection in US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Island Capital Group, a private real estate merchant bank, led by Andrew Farkas, has been seleced by CCA Bahamas as its exclusive restructuring and financial advisor in relation to the Baha Mar project. CCA Bahamas also has retained the law firms of Shearman & Sterling LLP; Peckar & Abramson; Squire Patton Boggs in the US and McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes here to represent it in connection with all of its affairs in the pending U.S. bankruptcy proceedings and in the Bahamas. 

"CCA Bahamas is committed to holding Baha Mar Ltd. accountable for its improper actions and failed commitments to the Bahamian government, the people of the Bahamas, and all of its creditors. We look forward to working with the financial community and the Bahamian government in order to complete this important project," the engineering firm says.

CCA Bahamas, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited, says Baha Mar is responsible for the pending failure of the massive project.

"Baha Mar Ltd.'s decision to file for bankruptcy protection is the direct result of its failure to secure adequate financing and its mismanagement of the design of Baha Mar resort project,” the CCA Bahamas statement reads. “The vast majority of the Baha Mar debtors are organized under the laws of the Bahamas, the Baha Mar project is in the Bahamas, and the Bahamian people are deeply invested in the future of the project so Baha Mar Ltd.'s decision to file for bankruptcy protection in the US was misplaced and calculated to benefit the project's developer over the interests of the Bahamas and its people."

The China-owned firm acknowledged in the statement that Baha Mar has blamed CCA Bahmas for delays in the project, but called those charges “misleading.”

"Baha Mar Ltd.'s recent public attempt to shift responsibility away from itself and blame CCA Bahamas and our subcontractors for the delays in the project's completion is misleading and dishonest," the company says. "It is insulting to the many talented and hardworking employees and subcontractors that work for CCA Bahamas and harms the interests of the people and government of the Bahamas that are represented by this landmark project."

The contractor says that since February 2015, CCA, it has performed—along with subcontractors—nearly $72 million of contract work for which they have received no payment.