By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said the government should pressure Atlantis to reopen hundreds of its vacant hotel rooms, which he said have been left “dead in the water”.

Mr D’Aguilar’s comments came after the government signed a Heads of Agreement with Baha Mar for the development of a 350-room luxury hotel at the Melia Nassau Beach site, which has been closed since 2021.

Mr D’Aguilar said increasing room inventory could address concerns about tourism revenue.

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

It is unclear which rooms he was referring to. However, Atlantis’ Beach Tower, which has 400 rooms, has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, The Tribune Business reported that Atlantis had partnered with Grammy Award-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 rebranded Beach Tower was projected to open in January 2024 following extensive renovations, but no update has been provided since.

“There are 600 rooms over to Atlantis that are just sitting vacant, that no one’s doing anything with and they’re all dead in the water,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “I think that the government should really bring pressure to bear to bring those 600 rooms back online. I mean, they obviously need some work, but they’re constructed. They’re sitting there and they’re not being used. So, it would be good to see what the plan is with that.”

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