Some resort developers like to start small and expand organically. Not Baha Mar.
Currently the largest tourism project under construction in the Western Hemisphere, this $3.5 billion development is massive in scope, and while most American travelers have never heard of Baha Mar, they will - and soon. It is scheduled to open in a huge way this month (March 27, 2015) and will likely change the entire landscape of Bahamian tourism.
An integrated gaming resort in Nassau’s Cable Beach, Baha Mar includes the largest casino in the Bahamas or Caribbean Basin, a Vegas-style spectacle spanning 100,000 square feet of gambling and entertainment, but that is just the tip of a very large iceberg.
The development also includes five distinct and fully-featured upscale resort hotels, launching with offerings from luxury veteran Rosewood (behind Mexico’s superlative Mayakoba and Las Ventanas al Paraiso), SLS out of Los Angeles (and Vegas and South Beach), and the huge Baha Mar Casino & Hotel with 1,000 rooms and 105 suites and villas.
That’s just the beds. Baha Mar also has the first Tournament Players Club (TPC) golf course in the Bahamas or Caribbean, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design. The TPC network is owned and operated to very high standards by the PGA Tour. There’s a world-class tennis facility with clay, hard and grass surface courts and instruction by Peter Burwash International. There is an extensive nature preserve with boardwalks and sea kayaking through a series of interconnected mangrove forests and lagoons. A 30,000 square foot flagship ESPA (a world-class spa operator) facility next to the casino hotel will be a pampering centerpiece, but some of the individual resorts will also have their own spas.
Between the five hotels and the rest of the resort, Baha Mar will boast a vast and varied slate of 40 restaurants, bars and lounges. Highlights include Katsuya, a contemporary Japanese eatery with locations in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, South Beach and Dubai, a large nightclub designed by singer Lenny Kravitz, and oddly, Deuce, the second location of Atlanta’s most venerable steakhouse, the 36-year old Bone’s. The rest of the offerings will range from formal Chinese to Bahamian and everything in between. The development includes Waterside Place, a series of promenades with a mix of retail boutiques and Bahamian arts and crafts galleries, all surrounding an elaborate fountain show. In both public spaces and multiple galleries, Baha Mar will exhibit the largest collection of Bahamian art in the Bahamas with works on display from the National Art Gallery and the country’s two largest collectors.
This is the islands after all, so water and sun are a big part of the appeal, and Baha Mar boasts more than half a mile of uninterrupted sandy beachfront, along with elaborate “pool experiences” in “the Sanctuary,” 20-acres of beachfront aquatic bliss making a grand statement from the water side of the development, with lagoon pools, other pools, and streams linked by paths through lush landscaping of Bahamian flowers and trees.
In short, Baha Mar rivals the largest Las Vegas mega-resorts, many of which now contain multiple hotel options, for size, variety, entertainment and facilities, all transported to the tropics with golf, tennis and watersports. It’s too early to rate the service and food, but there is little doubt we will be hearing a lot more about Baha Mar, the highest profile resort opening in the world for 2015.
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