Two headlines came out of The Abaco Club this year that read like opposites. In April, Southworth announced a $350 million transformation of the 500-acre Winding Bay property, the kind of press release built around new buildings and grand openings. In July, a fire took out the club's spa and fitness center. One story is about what's coming. The other is about what's gone. Read them side by side, though, and they're not really two stories. The building that burned was already on a list of things the club planned to replace. The fire didn't interrupt the plan. It just got there before the contractors did.
That distinction matters if you already own here, or spend enough time on property that you'd notice the difference between construction dust and fire damage. Here's what actually happened, in order, and what it means for anyone walking around the club this month.
What burned, and what didn't
The fire broke out on a Friday evening in late July 2026, destroying the spa and fitness center along with an adjacent generator building. Volunteer fire departments from Marsh Harbour, Cherokee Sound, and Bahama Palm Shores responded and contained the blaze that night, according to Tribune242's reporting, which also noted a small flare-up the next morning that firefighters brought under control quickly. No injuries were reported. Bahamas Power and Light inspected and cleared the electrical equipment before restoring service that Sunday. The resort declined to put a number on the damage, though Tribune Business understood it could run into the millions.
Bill Chrysler, the club's vice president of operations, framed the response around the people rather than the property, saying the safety of employees, homeowners, and neighbors had been the priority throughout, and crediting the volunteer firefighters and the wider Abaco community for keeping the incident from becoming something worse.
That's the part of the story most outlets stopped at. The interesting part is what came before it.
The club had already put this building on the future list
Three months earlier, in April 2026, Southworth published the full scope of its transformation at The Abaco Club, describing it as the current phase of a ten-year investment plan. The announcement walked through everything that had already opened or was about to: The Bay Club as the new oceanfront centerpiece, a redesigned Cliff House, the Wake Field sports ground, the El Diablo putting course, an expanded racquet complex called The Stables. Buried near the end of that list was a line about what was still ahead. Future amenities planned for the club included, in the company's own words, a world-class spa and an expanded fitness center.
In other words, as of April, the spa and gym that existed on property were already understood internally as the old version, the one due to be replaced by something bigger as part of the same ten-year plan. Three months later, the fire removed the old version before the new one had broken ground. Members didn't lose a spa that was going to stay as-is indefinitely. They lost a spa that was already scheduled for retirement, just sooner and less gracefully than planned.
No public timeline for the replacement had been announced as of this writing. That's worth sitting with if you're currently a member weighing whether to wait it out or make other arrangements for wellness and fitness in the meantime.
What opened, and what's currently dark
| Amenity | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|
| The Bay Club (infinity pool, Horizon Lounge, cinema) | Open, opened fall 2025 |
| The Cliff House (redesigned) | Open |
| Wake Field | Open, completed late 2024 |
| El Diablo putting course | Open, completed 2024 |
| The Stables (tennis, padel, Horseshoe bar) | Open, completed October 2025 |
| Golf course | Open |
| Spa | Closed, destroyed by fire in July 2026 |
| Fitness Center | Closed, destroyed by fire in July 2026 |
The gap in that table is narrow but real. Everything Southworth built on purpose over the last two years is running. The one thing that burned happens to be the one thing the club hadn't gotten around to rebuilding yet.
What's still running this month
If you're on property or planning a visit, the day to day at The Abaco Club hasn't changed as much as the fire headline might suggest. The golf course is open. The club's own wellness program had already listed sunrise workout sessions on the beach as separate from the indoor fitness center's equipment, so that particular routine was never dependent on the building that burned. Flippers Beach Bar still runs its Wednesday evening rake 'n' scrape nights with barbecue, a beach bonfire, and s'mores. Tingum still serves tacos and grilled lobster near the fifth green. The Bay Club's pool, Horizon Lounge, and cinema room have been open since their fall 2025 debut.
August specifically is when the club's Lobster Fest happens, an annual event that's part of the social calendar independent of any construction or repair schedule. If you're reading this in August, it's likely already underway or just wrapped.
The golf calendar didn't skip a beat either. The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic, a Korn Ferry Tour stop, ran its ninth playing at the club in January 2026, the eighth specifically held at the Winding Bay course. Ian Holt won that event at 12-under 276, a one-stroke margin over a tightly packed leaderboard. The tournament's presence on the calendar is a useful reminder that the club's rhythms, golf especially, run on a schedule that predates this year's construction and this summer's fire alike.
The same name shows up twice
One detail threads through both stories in a way that's easy to miss. Bill Chrysler, the vice president of operations who spoke to the press after the July fire, is also named in the club's August 24, 2026 leadership announcement alongside two new hires: Tom Rubel, joining as senior vice president of development with more than 12 years leading luxury hospitality and real estate projects valued at over $1 billion combined, and Marc Carter, the new director of golf, who spent more than three decades in private club leadership including 20-plus years as general manager and head golf professional at Old Memorial Golf Club, with prior senior roles at Kiawah Island and Pine Valley.
The timing puts Chrysler in an unusual position. He's the person who managed the club through its worst month of the year, and a month later he's named as part of the team steering its next phase, which now includes rebuilding the one thing the fire took that the master plan hadn't gotten to yet. Rubel's development background and Carter's club leadership experience round out a team that's now managing two separate timelines at once: the planned expansion Southworth announced in April, and the unplanned rebuild the fire forced in July.
What this actually means if you're already here
For homeowners and members, the practical read is straightforward. Nothing about ownership at The Abaco Club changed structurally this year. The golf course, the dining venues, the beach club, the racquet facility, all of it is running on the same schedule Southworth laid out months ago. The one open question is timing on the spa and fitness rebuild, and as of now there's no published date to plan around.
If you're weighing a purchase in one of the club's newer neighborhoods, The Cays Reserve, The Green, or The Ridge Estates, that timing question is worth raising directly with the club's sales team before you commit, since it affects what's actually usable in the near term versus what's still on a future list.
If you already own here, or you're thinking about it, and want a second set of eyes on how a property fits into a plan like this one, that's exactly the kind of conversation My Bahamas Realtor Properties is built to have. Schedule a private consultation and we'll walk through it together.
