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Sarkis’ deal with CCA ends Nassau hotels wind-up threat • Settlement ‘meets expectations’ of Baha Mar founder SARKIS Izmirlian’s deal to settle his multi-billion • Payout discount hinted but damages award against Baha Mar’s main contractor will still likely well over $1bn end the threatened winding-up of two other major Nassau resorts, it was revealed • Decade-long battle ‘cast yesterday. shadow’ over Chinese firm The Lyford Cay-based By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
developer, who conceived and executed the Cable Beach strip’s $4.2bn transformation into today’s mega resort complex, disclosed that the “resolution” struck with China Construction America (CCA) “meets our expectations” although neither unveiled the sum that Baha Mar’s original developer will now be paid to end their decade-long fight. However, papers obtained by Tribune Business reveal that - provided the settlement
is approved by the New Jersey federal bankruptcy court at a December 2, 2025, hearing all legal battles between Mr Izmirlian and the Chinese state-owned contractor will cease provided the deal is implemented in full. The documents confirm that, apart from ending CCA’s bid to overturn Mr Izmirlian’s now-$1.8bn damages award by the New York state courts, the settlement will also halt
his own bid to wind-up the immediate parent entity for downtown Nassau’s British Colonial and Margaritaville Beach resorts before the Bahamian Supreme Court. Newspaper advertisements published last week disclosed that Mr Izmirlian’s petitions to wind-up CCA (Bahamas), which holds both resorts, as well as its CSCEC (Bahamas) affiliate, were due to be heard before Justice Simone
First Baha Mar developer ‘vindicated’ by settlement By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SARKIS IZMIRLIAN Fitzcharles in less than two weeks’ time over a three-day period between December 9-11. CSCEC stands for China State Construction and Engineering Corporation, CCA’s immediate Chinese parent. That threat has now been averted by the deal struck
PETITION - See Page B8
Merchant’s online ‘salvaging’ aids double-digit sales growth By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN home improvements merchant yesterday revealed that retail and construction trade sales for 2025 to-date have both increased by double-digit percentages year-over-year with its e-commerce platform “salvaging a lot more” transactions that would previously have gone overseas. Brent Burrows II, CBS Bahamas’ vice-president of retail and sales, told Tribune Business that the amount of sales “originating” via its website have tripled - rising to 15
percent from around 5 percent when it was launched two-three years ago - to help this nation retain business formerly directed to the likes of Amazon and Home Depot. He suggested that this growing trend, as well as the growing traction the retailer’s Robinson Road-based Pro Store is gaining among Bahamian contractors, has helped to drive a year that has been better than 2024 with the upcoming festive season forecast to be little different than the prior months. Mr Burrows told this newspaper that CBS Bahamas, which is the ‘anchor’ merchant in Carmichael Road’s
Restaurant chain’s costs jump from 37% to 60% of revenue By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN restaurant chain continues to target expansion to downtown Nassau, the Family Islands and other Caribbean nations despite challenges posed by its cost of goods increasing from 37 percent to 60 percent of revenue. Chef Kevin Culmer, chief executive of Tropical Gyros, which successfully financed its development via a
crowdfund raise through the now-defunct ArawakX platform, yesterday said he is still receiving interest from potential franchisees in locations such as Andros, Eleuthera, Exuma and Bimini as the restaurant opened its latest franchise location in Delaporte on New Providence. “We'll probably maybe go Downtown if there's a person who wants to put a franchise Downtown,” Mr Culmer said. “We did open in Freeport. We did
PURCHASE - See Page B9
Airport hotel developer in early 2026 selection By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net LYNDEN Pindling International Airport’s (LPIA) operator is set to name the developer for its planned airport hotel in the 2026 first quarter, it was disclosed yesterday. Vernice Walkine, the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) president and chief executive, said interested parties have been given until February 2026 to submit proposals for the revived effort to develop a hotel with up to 240 rooms at Nassau’s main gateway.
VERNICE WALKINE Speaking to Tribune Business, Ms Walkine said a selection committee will review submissions before making a final decision and announcing the chosen developer.
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South-West Plaza, is “not doing” any Black Friday specials for the second consecutive year given the belief that people are “losing interest” in the event. However, he added that the work the retailer has done on ensuring it is fully stocked, with the products, prices and quantities demanded by customers, has also paid off through the year-over-year sales growth enjoyed to-date. “Year-to-date, our retail sales are up 14 percent versus 2024,” Mr Burrows told Tribune Business. “We attribute a lot of that growth to the
INCREASE - See Page B4
• CBS Bahamas in 14% retail jump, 21% contractor hike • Daily sales volumes originating on website triple to 15% • Not doing Black Friday as shoppers ‘are losing interest’
A FORMER Baha Mar director yesterday asserted that the settlement with China Construction America (CCA) has “vindicated” Sarkis Izmirlian by “clearing his name” and giving him “just rewards” for the wrongs he suffered DIONISIO when ousted from the D’AGUILAR project more than a decade ago. Dionisio D’Aguilar, the ex-minister of tourism and aviation who sat on the Baha Mar Board prior to the development being plunged into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at endMay 2015, told Tribune Business that the deal struck with the Chinese state-owned contractor was a tribute to Mr Izmirlian’s “tenacity and doggedness” to pursue redress for the project’s missed opening. While the compensation payout for Baha Mar’s original developer was not disclosed, and was ‘blacked out’ in legal documents, Mr D’Aguilar - who sat on the project’s Board prior to becoming a Cabinet minister in the Minnis administration - suggested that “calmer heads prevailed” at CCA and its affiliate entities after they realised Mr Izmirlian “wasn’t going to walk away until vindicated”. He added that the $4.2bn Baha Mar development only exists today because of the original developer’s “vision” and “desire to build an incredible facility”, and argued that all the “naysayers”, critics and doubters who have attacked Mr Izmirlian over the failure to complete the project on time, and on budget,
CLEARED - See Page B7