D'Aguilar: Urge Atlantis to open more rooms

Former Tourism Minister Dionisio D'Aguilar

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Reporter

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Former Tourism Minister Dionisio D'Aguilar said the government should put pressure on the Atlantis to reopen hundreds of its vacant hotel rooms, which he said had been left “dead in the water.”

Mr D'Aguilar's comments came after the government signed an agreement in principle with Baha Mar to develop a 350-room luxury hotel at the Melia Nassau Beach site, which has been closed since 2021.

Mr D'Aguilar said concerns about tourism revenue could be allayed by increasing the room inventory.

He said 600 rooms at the Atlantis had been unused for some time.

It's unclear which rooms he was referring to, but Atlantis' 400-room Beach Tower has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, The Tribune Business reported that Atlantis had partnered with Grammy-winning musician Pharrell Williams and his business partner David Grutman to transform the Beach Tower into a 400-room property called Somewhere Else. The renovated and renamed Beach Tower was scheduled to open in January 2024 after extensive renovations, but no update has been provided since then.

“At the Atlantis, there are 600 rooms just sitting empty that nobody is dealing with and they're all dead,” Mr D'Aguilar said. “I think the government should really put pressure on to get those 600 rooms back in use. I mean, they obviously need to be renovated, but they're done. They're sitting there not being used. So it would be good to see what the plan is for them.”

Vaughn Roberts, senior vice president of government affairs and special projects at Atlantis, declined to comment yesterday.