After more than three years of waiting and disappointing false starts, the stalled $2.6-billion Baha Mar resort development project in Cable Beach, Nassau, is now about to happen. China has provided final approval for the participation of two Chinese companies, the Export-Import Bank of China and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, to fund and construct the project with developer Baha Mar Resorts Ltd.

The long-anticipated development is scheduled to open in 2014 and is expected to transform Cable Beach. It could also generate significant economic stimulus for the Bahamas, with a projected 2.3 million annual visitor room nights and an injection of $1.1 billion in spending and direct taxes into the Bahamian economy in the first year of operation. It could generate 11,000 Bahamian jobs overall.

The project represents not only a new era of touristic and economic development in the Bahamas but a transformation of the luxury real estate market on Cable Beach, a popular upscale luxury residential community in western New Providence.  The Baha Mar resort is within hours of most U.S. cities. It is less than 10 minutes from the Lynden Pindling International Airport and 12 minutes from the famous Nassau shopping area Bay Street.