Presumably there will be bars, restaurants, a casino and shops.
This property is not large.
Curious about provision for parking, setback from beach, relocation and widening of road for auto, bus and pedestrian access, sewage treatment, etc.
Hoping that at some point a plan will be posted on TTOL.

This sounds like a 'win-win' situation for everyone. Better than looking at that bare piece of land there on Great Bay. And, bringing in a recognizable name like 'Planet Hollywood' may be a good thing (as long as the island doesn't get too many of these places).

Stayed at the Sonesta Great Bay on my first trip to St Maarten in 1999. All Inclusive and there was no way they made money on our group on the bar tab alone. I get a headache just looking at the picture. Ahhh to be young again. Good times. Glad they are doing something with the property.

Agree fully.

Hopefully they will address that smelly culvert across the road........

How did you manage to get drunk? Our first trip to SXM stayed at Great Bay Hotel and it took 40 mins to get a scotch on the rocks. And the bar wasn't busy. Infact we were the only 2 people there at that moment. We decided this must be what is meant by "on island time"

Pretty sad to see the open space, great beach too

We were not so refined then...beer was the drink of choice then. We were a group of 12 so there was constantly someone at the bar getting beer...

Permit granted.

Daily Herald article

Well that will fit right into the island landscape. NOT!!

Pat--That was what I was thinking. 14 stories?????????????? Yikes..

All I can say is UGLY !!!

I wonder how many rooms they had before? It sure seems that this is maybe twice as tall as the previous building?

Yea, looking at an old picture it looks like it was 7 floors and around 100 rooms.

So not a nice landscape for st maarten. Lots of jobs but ugly building as was the Westin IMO. Hope French side sticks with 3 floors high or 4 .

Can’t envision where there will be enough parking in the area to provide what will be needed. It was always congested in the past with the much smaller building.

WOW that is huge! Is it timeshares or just a hotel?

I believe it's just hotel. Sunwing bought the old place before Irma with plans to have a "charter" air/hotel/ AI.

It may afford employment (90%) locals but I can't see how other businesses, restaurants will profit since this place will be all inclusive with all you need to never leave the place. And ugly to boot!

I don't know what happened to them, but there WERE some timeshare units in the old hotel. Hopefully Sunwing didn't just tell those timeshare owners to take a hike, but it's SXM, so if they did, no one could do anything about it.

Slightly off the original topic but.........

We met a lovely Canadian couple a few years back who owned a year round unit at Sonesta Great Bay Resort and were very happy with it. Does anyone know what happened to people in the similar situation? First their actual home resort was sold but at least it was to a Canadian company so we hoped their ownership would carry over. But then the property was destroyed. We haven’t noticed any posts from them or from people in similar situations. I just hope things were resolved in their favor and they didn’t lose everything.

George, if you’re out there somewhere and should happen to read this, I hope you are both well and things re the condo worked out in your favor. We’re still doing our own battles with the Towers so I feel your pain. Again. And again. And again!

There's only an acre or so of land there....can't see 432 hotel rooms of people not wandering off.