Kerzner to sink us$ 100 million into Atlantis renovation in the Bahamas

The Nassau Guardian revealed last week how three of the resort's existing facilities, plus more activities for children, were on the cards and now George Markantonis, Kerzner International (Bahamas) managing director, has laid out the resort's exciting plans.

He said: "We are going ahead with $100 million worth of renovation and expansion, the potential to provide up to another 400 jobs. "That expansion is going to take place over the next two years, it is not Phase Four and it is not the Hurricane Hole development.

"The reality is we have to keep refreshing the product, it is similar to any destination and we have certain facilities here that we can do more with and provide, particular for our returning customers, alternatives - make it fresh.

"The 400 jobs primarily are going to be focussed in the food and beverage division. We are intending to create three more restaurants in the existing facility. Some of that good news is that one or two of those restaurants were phased down and closed after the economic debacle in 2008. We are now looking at redesigning and reopening them, but reopening them in a completely new fashion and under different banners."

The us$ 20 million to us$ 25 million restaurant plan includes: Reopening Fathoms which has been closed for 18 months with a celebrity chef from the U.S., creating an indoor outdoor venue to open in 2011.

It also includes the opening the Water's Edge buffet in Coral Tower with a celebrity chef coming from New York creating barbecue concept for families - this is at an the advanced design stage and again should open in 2011. Besides, the reopening the Great Hall of Waters in lobby of Royal Towers, creating a lounge concept serving teas, coffees sandwiches.

Another big plan is the upgrading of 110 suites in the Royal Towers, which first opened in 1998, to draw a more discerning client for the Atlantis casino. That work begins in September.

The resort is also spending us$20 million to us$ 25 million upgrading the casino itself, turning it into "a state of the art facilty" with a new high end gaming area and lounge, plus two the Atlas and Dragons facilities are to be revamped using outside designers.

This should help Atlantis satisfy the so-called 'whales' super-rich clients who travel the world spending millions in casinos. On top of that 60 suites in the Coral Tower will also be created. The Nassau Guardian revealed that the us$ 100 million plan had more facilities for children, and Markantonis revealed that in fact Kerzner intended to create the 'world's greatest teen club'.

He said: "The biggest new attraction we are building, and I think it's very exciting, is going to be a 1,114 sqm teen club, for the age of 13 to 17. The Atlantis Kids Adventure - AKA - has been a remarkable success, in fact such a success we've had teenagers asking why they can't attend?”

He added: "We do so much for the adults, we don't want to lose sight of another big chunk of our business which is the kids so this 12,000 facility is going to cost us between us$ 10 million to us$ 12 million. It doesn't exist today so that alone is going to bring on a very large workforce.We are going treat that age group as if they were adults. That facility we are hoping to have open by Christmas but because of the complexity it may delayed until February. The designs are complete, there are some features which frankly aren't even out in the market yet.”

"We've partnered with some organizations to be a Beta site for some of the newest and most advanced games in existence. These are the next step in technology where you are interacting with a screen without a controller. This is a big feature, this product has just been invented, one of the developers Microsoft is probably only releasing it November and December this year but we have already built it in and we will have a big part of the facility to do that. We are certain that when we have the world's greatest teen club open it's going to be a fantastic future for Atlantis. That's how many of these jobs are going to occur.”

Markantonis said the jobs would come on stream in the next nine to 24 months as the facilities were built - which in itself will provide a boost to the construction industry in The Bahamas. "We moving are very fast on them," he said: "As we always do in this company, there is no point letting moss grow under you."

Speaking to the marina development of Hurricane Hole he said that while this was not part of the current plan Atlantis did still want to pursue it one day. He said: "We still have Hurricane Hole and it is our intent to move forward with those plans at some point. I don't think we want to be premature and imagine that this economic instability will be over right away. We are going to things one step at a time.

"Phase Four is not the Hurricane Hole project, if we ever do a Phase Four it would be in the old Club Med facility but as yet we are not able to announce anything there," he concluded.