Wyndham Opening Caribbean Resort

BERMUDA-The former Sonesta Beach Resort Bermuda will re-open in June as the Wyndham Bermuda Resort & Spa Southampton Beach. The hotel has been closed since Hurricane Fabian tore through the region in September 2003. Owner Clifford Schorer is in the throes of a $38-million renovation and expansion of the Caribbean resort.The work includes two new guestroom buildings that will expand the resort to 311 rooms; three new pools with waterslides, swim-up bars and waterfalls; a full service spa; a 15-ft floor-to-ceiling reef aquarium in the lobby; and, three new restaurants. Much of the improvements will be open in June. The two new guestroom wings and the spa will open in March 2005. Although Wyndham is the largest hotelier in the Caribbean, its long-term management agreement with Schorer marks the Dallas-based hotelier’s first foray into the Bermuda market since it stopped running the Elbow Beach hotel 10 years ago. All told, Wyndham has some 40 hotels, including ten luxury resorts, the majority of which are in the United States.Hurricane Fabian hit Bermuda on Sept. 5, 2003, packing 150-mile-an-hour winds. It was the most destructive hurricane to hit Bermuda in a half century, knocking down some 20,000 trees, causing millions of dollars of structural damage and eroding of parts of the south shore.