Just a heads up for those interested:
Two new resort hotels have recently been announced to be built on the old Bonaire Sunset Beach Resort property located along the oceanfront between Eden Beach Resort and Den Laman condos.
Back in November it was announced that a new 197 room resort called Chogogo Resort, will begin construction on the site in the second half of 2017. ("Chogogo" is the local word for flamingo.)
Additionally, in the January 2, 2017 edition of the Bonaire Reporter newspaper it was announced that
"Another new resort next to the existing Eden Beach Resort is in the planning stages. The Domingo brothers, the present Eden Beach Hotel owners, obtained the government OK to build a $12 million, 60- room hotel adjacent to Eden Beach on the site of the former Bonaire Beach (Sunset Beach) Hotel." A timeline for construction of this hotel wasn't mentioned. The article did also confirm plans for the larger hotel mentioned above.
I clipped the image below from an article in the Feb. 2, 2015 edition of the Bonaire Reporter discussing future plans for the site. I suspect the plans may have changed since then, but think it's worth noting that the government owned the property until recently and it appears that there were plans to continue providing for public access on the northern end of the property adjacent to Den Laman. (Apologies for the poor image quality, it's the best I could do with the article posted online.)
A little history about the site:
Bonaire's first purposely built hotel, Bonaire Beach Hotel (later renamed Sunset Beach Hotel) operated on this site from 1962 to 1998. Captain Don Stewart operated his second Bonaire dive operation, called Aquaventure, there after leaving Flamingo Beach Hotel (the former WW II internment camp that is now Divi) and prior to opening his Habitat resort in 1976. Bruce Bowker of Carib Inn fame also worked here for a few years in the early 70's.
The remnants of the concrete pier destroyed by hurricane Lenny i 1999 still sit in the shallow water at the north end of Sunset Beach, near the public entry at the southern end of Bari Reef. It's a popular snorkeling attraction sometimes called The Aquarium by Bonaire snorkelers. Sunset Beach Hotel was eventually burned after closing and the remnants hauled away. What to do next with the vacant property was an oft-discussed local topic for the past 16+ years. According to the Bonaire Reporter the island government took ownership of the land in 2006.
This property is currently the location of Coco Beach bar and restaurant, built in 2015. The north end, adjacent to Den Laman, is also the current public parking and diver access point for Bari Reef.
With both of these new hotels, plus the recently completed 140 room Courtyard By Marriott near the airport, that's a total of 400 new hotel rooms scheduled to be built on the island in a relatively short period of time. It will be interesting to see how they will fill them. The most recent statistics for Bonaire accommodations I could find online were in this 2010 report posted by the Bonaire Tourism Corp, which indicates about 2100 total units of all types available for overnight rental on the island. These 400 new rooms are around a 19% increase of that number.
That's all I can think of to share. Fell free to opine, correct my mistakes, or ignore entirely to suit your whim. It's been another ridiculously rainy morning on the island (one of many in our past 3 weeks here) and I had some time on my hands this morning. So I thought I'd share some it with you.
Two new resort hotels have recently been announced to be built on the old Bonaire Sunset Beach Resort property located along the oceanfront between Eden Beach Resort and Den Laman condos.
Back in November it was announced that a new 197 room resort called Chogogo Resort, will begin construction on the site in the second half of 2017. ("Chogogo" is the local word for flamingo.)
Additionally, in the January 2, 2017 edition of the Bonaire Reporter newspaper it was announced that
"Another new resort next to the existing Eden Beach Resort is in the planning stages. The Domingo brothers, the present Eden Beach Hotel owners, obtained the government OK to build a $12 million, 60- room hotel adjacent to Eden Beach on the site of the former Bonaire Beach (Sunset Beach) Hotel." A timeline for construction of this hotel wasn't mentioned. The article did also confirm plans for the larger hotel mentioned above.
I clipped the image below from an article in the Feb. 2, 2015 edition of the Bonaire Reporter discussing future plans for the site. I suspect the plans may have changed since then, but think it's worth noting that the government owned the property until recently and it appears that there were plans to continue providing for public access on the northern end of the property adjacent to Den Laman. (Apologies for the poor image quality, it's the best I could do with the article posted online.)
A little history about the site:
Bonaire's first purposely built hotel, Bonaire Beach Hotel (later renamed Sunset Beach Hotel) operated on this site from 1962 to 1998. Captain Don Stewart operated his second Bonaire dive operation, called Aquaventure, there after leaving Flamingo Beach Hotel (the former WW II internment camp that is now Divi) and prior to opening his Habitat resort in 1976. Bruce Bowker of Carib Inn fame also worked here for a few years in the early 70's.
The remnants of the concrete pier destroyed by hurricane Lenny i 1999 still sit in the shallow water at the north end of Sunset Beach, near the public entry at the southern end of Bari Reef. It's a popular snorkeling attraction sometimes called The Aquarium by Bonaire snorkelers. Sunset Beach Hotel was eventually burned after closing and the remnants hauled away. What to do next with the vacant property was an oft-discussed local topic for the past 16+ years. According to the Bonaire Reporter the island government took ownership of the land in 2006.
This property is currently the location of Coco Beach bar and restaurant, built in 2015. The north end, adjacent to Den Laman, is also the current public parking and diver access point for Bari Reef.
With both of these new hotels, plus the recently completed 140 room Courtyard By Marriott near the airport, that's a total of 400 new hotel rooms scheduled to be built on the island in a relatively short period of time. It will be interesting to see how they will fill them. The most recent statistics for Bonaire accommodations I could find online were in this 2010 report posted by the Bonaire Tourism Corp, which indicates about 2100 total units of all types available for overnight rental on the island. These 400 new rooms are around a 19% increase of that number.
That's all I can think of to share. Fell free to opine, correct my mistakes, or ignore entirely to suit your whim. It's been another ridiculously rainy morning on the island (one of many in our past 3 weeks here) and I had some time on my hands this morning. So I thought I'd share some it with you.
