Sarkis Izmirlian, who spent 13 years developing the $3.5 billion Baha Mar golf and casino resort in the Bahamas, has offered additional investments, including short-term funding, to prevent a full-blown liquidation, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Izmirlian allegedly made the offer last week to Bahamian government officials who are participating in five-way talks that also included court-appointed provisional liquidators, the state-owned China Construction America Inc. and the Export-Import Bank of China. Baha Mar was 97 percent complete when construction halted in April. The four-hotel complex had been expected to employ almost 5,000 people with an annual payroll of more than $130 million. That would represent 12 percent of the gross domestic product of the Bahamas, according to court papers.
