By VERNON CLEMENT JONES, Guardian Business Editor, vernon@nasguard.com

Contractors are growing concerned about delays in start-up of construction at Kerzner's $200-million Hurricane Hole project — worries only amplified by the collapse of the Baha Mar project.

"We were told that construction was supposed to start in February," said one of the several Bahamian contractors luck enough to work on the hotel-condo complex and an accompanying Marina Village. "That start date has been pushed back, twice it seems, and we're hearing that construction won't start until the second half of the year. We hope."

That wish has grow more fervent since the pull-out of Baha Mar's minority partner, Harrah's Entertainment. The move may have put the kibosh on 2,000 construction jobs over the next four years, to say nothing of millions of dollars in business contracts for suppliers and service providers, alike.

Oddly enough the smaller Hurricane Hole project — centered on duplicated the combined success of Atlantis's Marina Village with that of its new hotel-condo, The Reef — may mean more to Bahamian contractors than the massive Cable Beach development.

Those local players are expected to oversee some 95 percent of the Paradise Island project, said the president of the Bahamas Contractors Association, Stephen Wrinkle. The majority position is in stark contrast to the minority share of the work they'd have likely enjoyed at Baha Mar.

The possibility of a protracted delay in accessing that income has some questioning whether Atlantis plans to proceed in the first half of the year or has, in fact, sidelined the project.

That worse-case scenario seems unlikely given the largely vacant shopping plaza, and the resulting impairment to rental revenue.

Kerzner spokesman Ed Fields was unprepared to provide comment Tuesday.

There are however two remaining tenants in the shopping plaza, which abuts Kerzner's Hurricane Hole Marina. Those long-term renters are also unable to explain Kerzner's shifting timeline.

"The rumors I'm hearing is that we'll probably get an extension until the end of June," said Mike Cahill, the owner of News Cafe, one of the two businesses still open in the existing shopping plaza. "Mostly everyone left in January ahead of a deadline for the end of that month. It was extended until the end of February and then the end of March.

"We'll probably hear by the 15th of the month if it will be extended to the end of April."

Kerzner closed purchase on the plaza early last year, snatching it up for an undisclosed amount from a consortium of local investors, including Nassau Guardian board members Emanuel Alexiou and Colin Callender. The developer bought the marina, along with some neigboring condos and 10 acres of land for a reported $23 million in 2005.

The combined site — marina and plaza — has been identified as ideal for what will effectively become phase four of the Atlantis development.

The company has suggested there will be some 200 to 300 fractional units, essentially condominiums that spend most of the year as hotel rooms.

"Over a real village, with living, breathing shops, six food and beverage outlets, a completely re-done, (will be a) renovated Hurricane Hole Marina that will be able to take the larger yachts as well as the smaller ones, the 150 and 200 footers," said Atlantis president George Markantonis last year. "We will probably go in the ground at the end of this year. It will be pretty accelerated.

"Of course, right now it takes second place because we have so much else we are announcing."

That earlier deadline has now come and gone.

With Sol Kerzner's move in 2006 to take the company private, his financing arrangements for the project have also become private. Still, the company's expanding reputation for developing winning resort properties here as well as in Dubai suggests backing for the Hurricane Hole project may not be the stumbling block — even in this poor global credit market.

Still, Kerzner may have more pressing commitments in other tourism destinations to contend with.

Just last month, it acquired a new partner for its $630-million Los Cabos, Mexico, property. The addition of Dubai developer Nakheel is expected to spur a round of fresh upgrades for the resort.