Gateway to Bahamian wonders

December 11, 2024 - Located on the Grand Lucayan Waterway, Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama is the gateway to all that the island has to offer – seclusion, a vibrant community, direct canal or beach access, and unspoiled charm.

Warm climate, even warmer welcome

Located less than 60 miles from Florida, Grand Bahama has long attracted sunworshippers and pleasure-seekers. In its 1960s and 70s heyday, the “Magic City” of Freeport sparkled as brightly as the bejeweled guests testing Lady Luck in the casinos.

In its prime, the exuberant Xanadu hotel was a hideaway for the era’s Hollywood jet set, where you’d just as casually find Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. mixing jazz with a Jack Daniels at the bar, as Cary Grant or Lucille Ball splashing around in the pool. 

But to focus solely on its tourism does Grand Bahama a disservice, as is to overlook the fascinating and complex chapters of its past. Its history does not start in 1492 with Columbus, simply because this was the first time a European wrote about the islands. A walk along the shores of Deadman’s Reef uncovers secrets about the island’s earliest inhabitants, the Lucayans, who set up home as early as 830 CE and whose heritage forms the inspiration behind the masterplan for the resort, spa, and branded residences at Six Senses Grand Bahama.

Living life in technicolor

For its people, Grand Bahama has always been more than just an island. Beyond the aquamarine waters flanking the golden sun on the nation’s flag, look to the black triangle and you’ll see a symbol of the vigor and force of a united community. You’ll see it in the radiant smile of your neighbor as your boats pass by port-to-port. You’ll feel it in the upbeat Goombay rhythms and soul-lifting summer Junkanoos. And you’ll taste in in the flavors of the cuisine layered with a rich history. Here, no one is a stranger. This sense of familiarity extends an inclusive embrace, whether joining the mid-week William’s Town Fish Fry or gathering on your porch with a locally inspired Six Senses cocktail.

Remoteness and natural beauty

Our upcoming development in partnership with Weller Development Partners and Pegasus Capital Advisors is an opportunity to go off the beaten track into the raw and wild side of the island. The Grand Lucayan Waterway – known as the Venice of the Caribbean – runs alongside the property and offers swift passage to a multitude of wonderous experiences on this magnificent island without encountering so much as a car.

You can’t experience Grand Bahama without getting your feet wet. Whether speed or sail, yachting runs in the island’s veins. To the north lie the bonefishing grounds of Walker’s Cay and the deep water shelf and corals are a diver’s delight, where conch jostle for position with colorful parrotfish, angelfish, and snapper among the barnacled shipwrecks. The only frustration ever voiced by boat owners is the lack of mooring availability, which gives the private boat slip as a Six Senses resident that little extra appeal.

From canal slips to ocean blues

The 18 canalside residences and 10 beachfront residences that make up Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama have been designed by Seattle-based architects Olson Kundig and sited around generous, native, landscape buffers.

Offering four to six bedrooms and no usage restrictions, these branded residences offer full maintenance and upkeep while integrating owners into a year-round Six Senses resort community with 24-hour services, marina, beach club, and devoted dining and wellness facilities.

With their private boat slip and calming views, canalside residences front the waterway and turn inward to frame a central courtyard and inner gardens with the reintroduction of indigenous tropical planting and screening. Beachfront residences come with a tang of salt on the air as they turn to face a breathtaking ocean view, with the yin and yang experience of an inner sanctuary for dining or relaxing by the pool. 

When designing the residences, Design Principal Tom Kundig was keen to achieve an ultimate equilibrium between social and seclusion, while marrying the island’s Lucayan heritage with the smart home technology needed to meet owner expectations and sustainability credentials. 

It was important to consider how the project felt, with the tactile, textural understanding of how the breezes flow and water moves and how the indoors could be opened to the outdoors to engage the connections to the wider landscape and dunes. 

A new era of coastal and community resilience

Weller Development Partners and Pegasus Capital Advisors are both triple-bottom-line businesses. This means the joint development and investment team are focused on the local community, creating sustainable development models, and profitability. Together with Six Senses and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR), the vision is to achieve economic revitalization and job creation by demonstrating a transformative model where a low-impact, low-footprint tourism can still be profitable and beneficial for the environment and coastal marine resilience.

The development team and GFCR are also collaborating with local organizations such as the Blue Action Lab, creating climate solutions for coastal and ocean resilience, and Coral Vita, an Earthshot Prize-winning coral farm and regeneration operation on Grand Bahama that grows coral species that are resilient to changing ocean conditions. The end goal is to expand and enhance Marine Protected Areas too.

Just a boat cruise or puddle jumper from the Florida shores

Just under 60 miles off the coast of South Florida, Grand Bahama can easily be reached by boat or air.

Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport provides regular, scheduled international services (Miami 40 minutes, Toronto 3 hours, New York, 2.5 hours, Los Angeles 5 hours). Domestic flights to Nassau provide seamless access to direct flights to and from Europe, enhancing global accessibility. The West End Airport and the Freeport Airport welcome private aircraft, catering to visitors from both nearby and distant locations.

Find out more about Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama.

The properties described herein are not owned, developed, or sold by InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, Six Senses or any of their affiliates (collectively “IHG”).  The independent developers of each property use the “Six Senses” name, design, logomarks, trademarks and related marks under a limited license from IHG.