Baha Mar Development has yet to name the new resort, which it said will have a well-known hotel brand. It is planned for 2,700 rooms; Atlantis has 2,317.
Interest in the Bahamas has risen recently with discount airlines adding flights to Nassau. And there’s a strong tourism rebound throughout the Caribbean.
A spokesman for Kerzner International, owner of the Atlantis, said:
“We don’t consider it competition since there is room enough for all of us, and we welcome help in driving more business to Nassau as a favored destination.”
The planned casino with 75,000 square feet will outpace the Atlantis as the Caribbean’s largest place to gamble.
Baha Mara has already acquired other Cable Beach hotels, including the Radisson Cable Beach and the Wyndham Nassau.
Atlantis is separated from the mainland by a toll bridge. It is a self-contained vacation destination and Nassau’s most popular tourist spot.
“It (the new project) will make Nassau and Cable Beach more equally competitive with Paradise Island,” Basil Smith, communications director for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, told The Miami Herald.
“Their product on Cable Beach is in need of refurbishment, and this is the answer to that,” he added.
No timetable for the project was released.
Report by David Wilkening
