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[email protected] EDITORIAL China Beach T he largest gaming resort under contruction in the Western Hemisphere is slated to open in the Bahamas the end of this year. It’s Chinese money paying for it and Chinese labor building it, and it will rely heavily on Chinese gamblers to fill it. The US$3.5 billion Baha Mar, the brainchild of Bahamian entrepreneur Sarkis Izmirlian, will tower 25 stories over sun-kissed sands on the main island of New Providence, not far from the capital of Nassau and within sight of the 3,400-room Atlantis resort complex just across the water on Paradise Island. It will cover more than half a mile of beachfront and encompass 1,000 acres in all, where it will bring together hotels run by Grand Hyatt, Mondrian, Rosewood and Meliá. There will be 30 restaurants and bars, a performing arts center, a 30,000-square-foot ESPA spa, a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus and 200,000 square feet of convention and meeting space. The centerpiecewill be the 1,000-roomBahaMar Casino&Hotel,more specifically, its 100,000-square- foot gaming floor, which will feature 1,500 machine games and 150 live tables run by William Weidner’s Global Gaming Asset Management. “A lot of focus will be on the gaming aspect,” says Robert Sands, a senior vice president with Mr Izmirlian’s Baha Mar Resorts Ltd— and it’s a sizable unknown, though one the Export-Import Bank of China is willing to risk; they’re providing the bulk of the financing, $2.4 billion. China State Construction Engineering Corp., the country’s largest construction company, is investing $150 million and is the general contractor. Thousands of Chinese workers are employed at the site. Theirs is not the first investment in the Caribbean’s potential as an international gambling destination, but it is far and away the largest to be undertaken in a single go. It’s unique, too, in that it plans to target the China market. This is Chinese investment chasing Chinese tourism outside of China. In that respect, too, it is unprecedented. It’s also not a market where the Bahamas has been strong ever. Nearly 80% of visitors come from the United States. Even Genting, which has enjoyed considerable success rowing against the historical West-to-East tide of gaming investment, has been careful out on the westernmost edge of the islands to point its Resorts World Bimini in that direction, mainly to the close-in south Florida market and the large population around Miami. On the other hand, the last few years have seen Chinese money pouring into this part of the world to a degree that it now figures prominently in its economic future. China pledged US$1 billion in loans for development in the Caribbean in 2011 alone—not including Baha Mar—and its investment in the larger Latin American region is now believed by some sources to top $89 billion. Baha Mar represents about 2.5% of that total. It’s a big number. Certainly the Bahamians and their government see it that way. Some $600 million worth of Baha Mar’s contracts have been set aside for bids by local companies and 2,600 residents are working on the contruction. London-based Oxford Economics says the project accounted for 5% of the islands’ gross domestic product in both 2011 and 2012 and forecasts that once the resort is operational it will account for almost 13%. It will provide some 8,000 permanent jobs at that point, and that’s another big number for a nation where unemployment runs in excess of 16%. “It’s called transformation,” says Mr Sands. “Baha Mar is expected to generate literally billions of dollars in economic benefits,” says his boss, the gutsy 40-year-old whose family businesses extend to commodities trading, manufacturing, real estate and investments in the public markets. “This creates real opportunities for Bahamians,” says Mr Izmirllian—“jobs, training, entrepreneurship and economic mobility.” Realizing them will depend in no small measure on expanding air links, and the country recently completed a $400 million renovation and expansion of its international airport. “That helps a lot,” says Scott Brush, a hospitality industry consultant. “A lot depends on people’s ability to get there.” The Bahamas Tourism Ministry also is courting visitors from Brazil and Russia and hopes to be able to announce additional airlift from some of these markets by June or July, which happens to be around the time Genting will open Resorts World Bimini’s first hotel, a luxury offering featuring 325 rooms. A lot, of course, also depends on how well Baha Mar can market, whether they can convince Asian travelers “the destination is worth the trip,” as Mr Brush put it. To that end the company has opened a business development office in Hong Kong and plans also to reach out to wealthy Asians living in North America (and Europeans and Latin Americans). The government has committed $20 million to marketing the resort next year. In January, it sealed an agreement with Beijing allowing mainland Chinese residents visa-free access for up to 30 days. Last month, Tourism Minister Obediah Wilchcombe traveled to China to beat the drum personally.