New Cable Beach Resorts

New Cable Beach Resorts

New Providence's Cable Beach, a sleepy string of resorts on a white-sand beach west of Nassau, is getting a makeover so massive that it's expected to rival Las Vegas when everything is completed in 2010. A mammoth new $1.6-billion resort called Baha Mar will include six luxury hotels—a Westin, W, St. Regis, Sheraton, Wyndham, and Caesars Resort & Casino. The 3,550-room beachside complex—owned by the Baha Mar Development Company, Harrah's Entertainment, and Starwood Resorts—is the single largest investment in the history of the Bahamas.

Cable Beach's three current largest resorts—the Sheraton Cable Beach Resort, the Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino, and the Nassau Beach Hotel—are open and operating as Cable Beach Resorts during the building of Baha Mar. The company plans to spend $27 million renovating the hotels, which will continue to operate separately until at least 2009 (except for the Nassau Beach Hotel, which will permanently close at the end of 2008) as the rest of Baha Mar goes up. All guest rooms at the Wyndham will have flat-screen TVs and refrigerators; and two bars are being added to the casino. The Sheraton Cable Beach Resort, formerly a Radisson, opened in June 2007. Together, the current three resorts offer 1,941 guest rooms and suites, most with ocean views, 15 restaurants and lounges, a tennis complex, an 18-hole golf course, more than a half mile of gorgeous white-sand beach, and a variety of water-sport activities.

When finished, Baha Mar's attractions will include a 100,000-square-foot casino, a half-dozen spas, the West Bay Village shopping and restaurant complex, and entertainment venues—all connected by a series of canals and wide pedestrian paths—as well as a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. Michael Hong, known for his work on the $1.6-billion Bellagio Resort and Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, will lead the design team for Baha Mar, which will sprawl across 1,000 acres.

Across the harbor on Paradise Island, Kerzner International, the owner of Atlantis, is planning an $800-million expansion for 2009 that will include a new tower with 1,500 guest rooms—bringing the number of rooms at Atlantis to 3,855. The resort currently has a luxury spa, a 10-acre marina capable of holding yachts up to 200 feet, the world's largest outdoor aquarium, 11 swimming pools, and a waterslide that goes down the side of a replica Maya pyramid.

For more information on Baha Mar, visit www.bahamar.com or www.CableBeachResorts.com, or call 800/222-7466. For Atlantis updates, call 888/528-7155 or visit www.atlantis.com.