Would-be operators of Caneel Bay’s next iteration have more time to get their bids in. The National Park Service has extended bidding for the $442,462 annual lease from July 8 to Aug. 10.
The hurricanes of 2017 hammered the roughly 150-acre property, ravaging its once-idyllic holiday resort complex. Park officials estimated it would take $100 — and possibly much more — to return Caneel Bay to its historic mid-20th-century splendor.
The Parks Service was blunt about the constraints of rebuilding: limited space, scarce resources, and logistical challenges inherent to island environments.
In a 2025 assessment, the Parks Service found many of the former-resort structures, including the Caneel Bay pier, were structurally unsound and would need to be torn down and entirely rebuilt.
Other structures, despite dramatic dilapidation since 2018, were salvageable, according to the report. Concrete framing and many load-bearing walls were intact despite water damage. Much of the wooden elements of the cottages and common areas were rotted and collapsed, however.
Winners of the 60-year lease would be permitted to offer overnight accommodations, dining and bar service, merchandising, water sports equipment rental, nature tours, educational programs, retail sales, spay and wellness services, sports and entertainment events, kids club activities, administrative offices, and employee housing.
The name Caneel Bay Resort and the logos were trademarked by Ataraxia Hospitality LLC. A new lessee would have to negotiate with the trademark owners if they wanted to use the familiar name and symbols. Likewise, the National Park Service asserted trademark protections over place names and other identifiers associated with the park.
The lease would require public access to the property’s seven beaches up to the high-water mark, like all Virgin Islands beaches, and prohibit the lessee from damaging the property’s historic ruins.
A May 7 request for proposals for the lease outlines what the National Park Service expected:
“The NPS aims to create an overnight guest experience that reflects The Resort’s original mid-20th-century design, in recognition of its eligibility as a Historic District on the NRHP. The NPS would like guests to understand that the design of The Resort’s landscape holds deep cultural and historical significance. Visitors to the Park should refrain from damaging or disturbing any part of it — including the remaining historic resort buildings, the land itself, the Durloo Sugar Plantation ruins, Heritage Trees, turtles, or other resources.”
Sensitive flora and fauna within the area include sea turtles, coral, sea grass, native plant species, birds, and other wildlife.
“Any redevelopment project will need to take into account the impact it will have on the coastal marine environment, tidal zones, the flora and fauna of the Leasehold Premises (including the cultural landscape that may have been created through ornamental plantings and design elements), and other wildlife that exist on the landscape and more specifically within the Leasehold Premises,” the RFP said.
The Parks Service hopes to have a leaseholder selected by autumn or winter of this year.
Earlier attempts to rebuild the property sputtered in 2025.
