The mile-long crescent behind the old Sandals is unusually still this year. No butlers wheeling carts across the sand, no wedding parties spilling out of the beach gazebos, no shuttle vans running the loop from the golf club. If you own at Grand Isle or one of the villas tucked into the interior lanes of Emerald Bay, you already feel the shift. The neighborhood has not gone quiet so much as it has changed which building holds its center of gravity.
That change is the story of 2026 here. The big resort is dark and will stay dark for a while. Grand Isle Resort & Residences has responded by expanding the parts of Emerald Bay that residents actually use. A new festival is landing in May. The golf course is still open. And the calendar, for the first time in a long time, belongs to the people who live here rather than to the resort next door.
The Half-Mile Next Door That Sits Empty
Sandals Emerald Bay closed to guests in August 2024 and is being rebuilt as Beaches Exuma, a family-branded property. The redevelopment carries a $100 million price tag, and the project went to tender in the first quarter of 2026 with construction mobilization targeted for the same period, and while a final completion date has not been set, the goal is to finish by the end of 2027. If you live here, treat late 2027 as the earliest realistic date the beach will feel occupied again on that end.
The scale of what is coming back is worth holding in your head as you plan the next two years. The reopened resort will feature 249 rooms, 12 restaurants, a Pirate Island Waterpark, a Red Lane Spa, and the Greg Norman-designed 18-hole championship golf course on 500 oceanfront acres. Occupancy math is changing, too. The project is expected to employ 450 people during construction and more than 900 once the resort is fully operational, and the redevelopment will increase occupancy from two people per room to 4.2. That is roughly a doubling of bodies on the shoreline from the pre-closure baseline, plus a waterpark, on a stretch that has been reading as a private beach for two years running.
For residents, the practical read is simple. The next 18 to 24 months will be a construction period on the west end of the bay. The three years after that will be a family-resort period, which is a different animal from the adults-only property most owners bought next to. Both phases are worth planning around, and neither is a reason to be anywhere else.
Grand Isle Filled The Vacuum
Grand Isle Resort & Residences has spent the closure period expanding its footprint into the space Sandals used to occupy in daily life. The most visible piece is the exciting new 23° North Beach Club, a luxurious indoor and outdoor space in harmony with the natural beauty of Emerald Bay, featuring a pool, bar, and restaurant. In practice, 23° North has become the room where the neighborhood gathers when it wants a table with a view. It is also where the biggest thing on the 2026 calendar is landing.
Taste of Exuma, May 14–17
The first-ever culinary festival dedicated to Exuma is running four days in the middle of May. Grand Isle Resort in Emerald Bay is hosting the inaugural Taste of Exuma, a four-day culinary festival running May 14–17, bringing together Michelin-star talent, Bahamian chefs, rum makers, and local producers for the island's first event dedicated entirely to food and drink, and the festival will unfold at Grand Isle and its adjacent beach club, 23 North.
| Dates | Anchor venues | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| May 14–17, 2026 | Grand Isle Resort, 23° North Beach Club | Nightly dinners, cooking demos, rum tastings, mixology, Exuma Marketplace |
Two details are worth pulling forward. The rum programming is being run by a name Nassau residents already know. The distillery is bringing its popular Nassau mixology experience directly to Exuma, with rum tastings and hands-on cocktail sessions led personally by co-founder Pepin Argamasilla, and events will take place at 23 North, pairing guided rum experiences with beachfront settings on Emerald Bay. And the festival is deliberately not a walled garden. Grand Isle's general manager, Shona Perry, says the goal is to create an event that appeals to both visitors and the wider Exuma community, including boaters and yacht crews moving through the area in May. If you own here, this is your festival too.
The programming is also structured to keep dollars on the island. Organizers say Taste of Exuma is designed to extend beyond the resort, and the event will partner with local farmers and fishermen, sourcing ingredients directly from the island and surrounding waters, while the Exuma Marketplace will give local vendors an opportunity to sell art, crafts, and goods to attendees. Which means the four-day window is a rare chance to meet the small producers you keep hearing about but never quite track down between Rolleville and George Town.
The Marina, Read Honestly
The Marina at Emerald Bay is still one of the more capable deepwater berths in the Family Islands on paper. This five-star, full-service marina handles any yacht up to 240 feet with 133 slips on Bellingham Concrete Floating Docks, and amenities include an 18-hole par 72 Greg Norman-designed golf course, bone and deep sea fishing, games room and multiple meeting rooms. Owners who use it every week already know the physical infrastructure has been aging faster than the marketing. Recent visitor accounts describe deteriorating signage, damaged dock boxes, and thin landscaping, with staff doing the best they can inside constraints. It is fair to expect that side of the property to get attention as the broader Beaches redevelopment moves through tender and mobilization in 2026. For now, plan for slower service seasons and keep expectations calibrated to the current owner's operating posture rather than the brochure.
Where Dinner Actually Happens Now
With the resort restaurants dark, the dinner map has thinned to a shorter, more locally weighted list. A few named anchors worth having in your phone:
- 23° North Beach Club at Grand Isle, for beachfront dining and the May festival programming.
- Salt at Emerald Isles Plaza, described on OpenTable as a coastal-inspired restaurant with fresh, locally sourced seafood and a curated wine list.
- Exuma Yacht Club (EYC) Restaurant and Bar, which residents rely on for a mid-week table and, on the right night, karaoke.
- Grand Isle Resort's own kitchens, which have carried more of the everyday load since 2024.
For a longer boat day, Highbourne Cay's dining room is the reservation to plan around. Guests are advised that there is often limited slip availability in the marina for lunch and dinner vessels, and if the marina is full, there is adequate anchorage surrounding Highbourne where vessels are welcome to tender in and tie up to the floating dock. Call ahead on 242-427-1003, tender in if you have to, and treat it as a full day rather than a stop.
The Golf Course, Still Yours To Play
One piece of the pre-closure Emerald Bay that has not gone anywhere is the golf. The Greg Norman-designed 7,001-yard, par 72 championship course rivals any oceanside course in the world, with fairways lining the ocean and prevailing southeastern trade winds; its first 10 holes wind through a mix of seaside dunes and mangrove preserves, while holes 11 through 16 play along the rocky peninsula offering unparalleled views. It is also the home of the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic, a PGA TOUR-sanctioned Web.com Tour event. Once Beaches Exuma is open, the course will be shared with a much larger family-oriented guest base. The next two seasons are the window in which residents essentially have a Norman course to themselves. Use it.
What To Plan Around In 2026
A short list of dates and calls that make the year easier if you live here:
Construction traffic on the west approach will pick up once mobilization is underway in Q1. Expect trucks on Queen's Highway between Ferry and the resort gate and a busier stretch near the golf club turnoff. Time your grocery runs and airport transfers accordingly, especially the 20-minute drive to Exuma International that most owners already know by feel.
The festival week around May 14–17 is the moment to have guests in the house. Rooms at Grand Isle will move first, and 23° North's evening seatings will fill faster than a normal shoulder-season week. Book both from the residence side early.
Between festival dates and construction ramp, the beach in front of your side of the bay will be quieter, not busier, this year. That is worth using deliberately, whether that means paddleboards at first light or the kind of long beach walks that have been harder to get during peak Sandals occupancy.
The picture that emerges from the year is not a neighborhood in decline. It is a neighborhood in a rare transitional window where the resort next door is offline, the residential community has stepped forward as the social center, and the calendar has room in it for the people who actually live here. Anyone who bought at Emerald Bay for the shoreline, the golf, and the villa-style quiet has, for the next 18 months, exactly the version of the neighborhood they paid for.
If you own at Emerald Bay and want to talk through what the redevelopment cycle means for your property, or you are weighing a sale, refinance, or rental strategy against the 2027 reopening, My Bahamas Realtor Properties is available for a private consultation. Schedule a private consultation and we will build the plan around your calendar, not the resort's.
