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TheBahamasInvestor.com
Saturday, March 21, 2020 Saturday, March 21, 2020 |
Pictured: Hotel tycoon and former owner of Atlantis Paradise Island, Sir Sol Kerzner. (Photo courtesy Atlantis Paradise Island)
Hotel tycoon and former owner of Atlantis Paradise Island, Sir Sol Kerzner has died of cancer at the age of 84.
Kerzner, who purchased the landmark Paradise Island property in 1994, passed away at his home in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday night.
“Always a maverick, Kerzner was a titan of the hotel and resort industry who redefined the scale and scope of integrated destination resorts worldwide,” said Kerzner family spokesman Ian R Douglas.
A key player in The Bahamas’ tourism industry for many years, Kerzner took over the Paradise Island Resort from Merv Griffin’s Resorts International, expanding and transforming the bankrupt hotel and casino before re-opening as Atlantis, Paradise Island in 1998.
Together with his son Butch, who pre-deceased him in a helicopter accident in 2006, Sir Sol created the One&Only brand and had a portfolio of luxury properties around the world including South Africa, the Maldives, Dubai, and Mexico.
Both Atlantis and the One&Only Ocean Club resort on Paradise Island were sold to Brookfield Asset Management in 2011 and Sir Sol stepped down as CEO of Kerzner International the following year.