Paradise Island in the Bahamas

Friday, 29 November 2019 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Hotels
Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - Derek Key/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Derek Key/cc-by-2.0

Paradise Island is an island in the Bahamas formerly known as Hog Island. The island is located just off the shore of the city of Nassau, which is itself located on the northern edge of the island of New Providence. It is best known for the sprawling resort Atlantis with its extensive water park rides, pools, beach, restaurants, walk-in aquarium and casinos. Paradise Island is connected to the island of New Providence by two bridges that cross Nassau Harbour. The first was built in 1966 by Resorts International, and the second in the late 1990s.

A small airstrip existed on the island from 1989 to 1999 to serve the resort. Prior to 1989 the airport was a seaplane base with a ramp for aircraft to leave the water. In 1989 a 910-metre (3,000 ft) runway was added to the airport. Both Paradise Island Airlines and Chalk’s International Airlines were the main tenants of the airport. The STOL capable de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprop operated by Paradise Island Airlines as well the Grumman G-73 Mallard amphibian aircraft flown by Chalk’s International Airlines both served the airstrip which closed in 1999. The airfield and runway have since been removed and replaced with an 18-hole luxury golf course surrounded by one of the wealthiest neighborhoods on the island. The area goes by the name “Ocean Club” with property prices as high as 40+ million dollars.

© flickr.com - YoTuT/cc-by-2.0 © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 Map of Paradise Island © Jamaicajoe/cc-by-sa-3.0 Atlantis Lagoon © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 Atlantis Lost World Aquarium © Fred Hsu/cc-by-sa-3.0 Atlantis Resort © James Willamor/cc-by-sa-4.0 Colonial Beach Lighthouse © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 Paradise Lake © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 Royal Towers, seen from Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 Royal Towers © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 The French Cloisters © Art davis/cc-by-sa-4.0 View from Royal Towers © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0 © Drumguy8800/cc-by-sa-3.0 Atlantis Paradise Island marina © D Ramey Logan/cc-by-sa-3.0 © flickr.com - Derek Key/cc-by-2.0 © flickr.com - Navin75/cc-by-sa-2.0
<
>
Royal Towers, seen from Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge © panoramio.com - Bohao Zhao/cc-by-3.0
Huntington Hartford, the A&P supermarket heir, arrived on Hog Island in 1959. Hartford bought Hog Island from Axel Wenner-Gren and changed the name to Paradise Island. He hired the Palm Beach architect John Volk and built the Ocean Club, Cafe Martinique, Hurricane Hole, the Golf Course, among other island landmarks. He also acquired and installed the Cloisters, a 14th-century French Augustinian monastery originally purchased in Montréjeau and dismantled by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s. He hired Gary Player to be the golf pro and Pancho Gonzales to be the tennis pro. His opening of Paradise Island in 1962 was covered in Newsweek and Time magazines. He hired the staff from Eden Roc at Hotel Du Cap to work off season at the Ocean Club. He had the fireworks for the opening party flown in from the South of France. He had a flag and Paradise Beach was featured on a Bahamian three-dollar notes in 1966 (introduced as a close equivalent to the Bahamian Pound, which was replaced at the rate of $1 = £7, so $3 = £21).

Huntington Hartford met James M. Crosby (1927–1986) through Huntington’s bodyguard Sy Alter. Sy Alter met Jim Crosby at the Colony Club in Palm Beach. Huntington Hartford obtained the gambling license for Paradise Island and included Jim Crosby as an extra investor. Jim Crosby and Jack Davis then formed a company, Resorts International, to continue developing Paradise Island. Recognizing the business potential of the Bahamas, they were the first to establish major resort development, and often offered above-average salaries to Bahamanian employees. The two continued to develop Paradise Island. They built the bridge to Nassau and the first large-scale resorts. Paradise Island was purchased in the 1980s for $79 million, then sold to Merv Griffin for $400 million. It was last sold for $125 million to the current owner, Sol Kerzner. The current estimated value of the island is about US$2 billion.

Read more on Nassau Paradise Island, Atlantis Paradise Island, Wikivoyage Paradise Island and Wikipedia Paradise Island (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.






Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Salerno on the Amalfi coast

Salerno on the Amalfi coast

[caption id="attachment_160762" align="aligncenter" width="590"] seen from Canalone © Giaros/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Salerno is a city and comune in Campania (south-western Italy) and is the capital of the province of ...

[ read more ]

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

[caption id="attachment_26505" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Datastat/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed free trade agreement between the European Union...

[ read more ]

The Robinsón Crusoe Island

The Robinsón Crusoe Island

[caption id="attachment_153947" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Lestercl[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Robinson Crusoe Island, formerly known as Más a Tierra (Closer to land), or Aguas Buenas, is the largest island of the Chilean Jua...

[ read more ]

Jingdezhen, China's Porcelain Capital

Jingdezhen, China's Porcelain Capital

[caption id="attachment_216475" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Shanghai Museum - Underglaze blue lotus-shaped dish with Sanskrit inscriptions, Jingdezhen ware, Wanli Reign, 1573-1620 © Gerbil/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]...

[ read more ]

Port Phillip Bay in Australia

Port Phillip Bay in Australia

[caption id="attachment_153657" align="aligncenter" width="590"] The memorial at Sorrento marking the site of the first British settlement on Port Phillip Bay in 1803 © Adam Carr[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Port Phillip (also commonly ...

[ read more ]

The seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea

The seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea

[caption id="attachment_153941" align="aligncenter" width="590"] End of the Southend Pier © geograph.org.uk - Julieanne Savage[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, ...

[ read more ]

The Lake Zurich

The Lake Zurich

[caption id="attachment_151631" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Roland zh/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Zürichsee is strictly the name of the part of the lake downstream of the dam at Rapperswil, mostly located within th...

[ read more ]

ANU - Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv

ANU - Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv

[caption id="attachment_224753" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © www.anumuseum.org.il/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, formerly the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, is located i...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Chateaux of the Loire Valley - Château de Chenonceau

Theme Week Chateaux of the Loire Valley - Château de Chenonceau

[caption id="attachment_153159" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Aerial view © Lieven Smits[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Château de Chenonceau is a manor house near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire départeme...

[ read more ]

Place Dauphine in Paris

Place Dauphine in Paris

[caption id="attachment_227911" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Chabe01/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Place Dauphine is a public square located near the western end of the Île de la Cité in the first arrondissement ...

[ read more ]

Gorky Park in Moscow

Gorky Park in Moscow

[caption id="attachment_209905" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Gorky Park main portal © A.Savin[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure is a central park in Moscow, named after Maxim Gorky in 1932. In Au...

[ read more ]

Le Havre in the Haute-Normandie

Le Havre in the Haute-Normandie

[caption id="attachment_153648" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Le Havre Beach © Urban[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-we...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top