An amended agreement with the Government of the Bahamas has enabled Kerzner International Limited to host a groundbreaking ceremony on Paradise Island to mark the next major phase of development at the Atlantis. A previously proposed hotel tower with 1,500 rooms will now become a 600-room luxury all-suite hotel next to one of the best available beach sites in the Caribbean. In addition, a 400-unit condo hotel will be built for a cost of $200 million, in partnership with one of the top real estate development and property management companies in the United States, Turnberry Associates.

Other components of the Phase III agreement have remained unchanged and include a considerable expansion to Atlantis’s water attractions, further group and meeting facilities, the Marina Village and additional timeshare property. Kerzner has stated that it has made the changes to the original agreement, in consultation with the government, after reviewing its customer base and seeing the need to encourage new, more affluent tourists to the Bahamas.

The 600-room all-suite hotel is to be substantially completed by December 2006 and the condo-hotel during 2007. The previously announced golf course on Athol Island and the condo-hotel will bring casino tax concessions to Kerzner as well as a joint marketing contribution from the government. Should the plans not go ahead then the concessions and contributions would be reduced from 2009.

Atlantis, Paradise Island has the largest casino in the Caribbean and the world’s largest open-air marine habitat. Three interconnected hotel towers are built around a 7-acre lagoon and provide 2,317 rooms for visitors to the ocean-themed destination resort. Kerzner International also has casino interests at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino in the USA, and a licence for a casino development in Northampton, UK. The company’s nine One & Only resort hotels feature some of the top-rated properties worldwide and are located in The Bahamas, Mexico, Mauritius, the Maldives and Dubai. Further One & Only properties are under development in South Africa and the Maldives. Kerzner’s flagship brand is Atlantis.

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