Ready for the Next Vision
Following a destructive hurricane in 2017 the Lighthouse Bay Resort property underwent significant site cleanup and preparation, leaving the next developer with a valuable head start. Today, the site retains accommodations capable of housing approximately 20 construction and development personnel, along with essential infrastructure including diesel-powered electrical generation, a reverse-osmosis system for producing fresh water, and Starlink satellite connectivity. These existing assets provide an important operational base from which a new project can begin, particularly on an island where establishing utilities and workforce accommodations can be a significant undertaking. Most importantly, the property offers approximately one mile of pristine, virtually uninterrupted beachfront—an extraordinary canvas for creating a new luxury resort, residential community, or mixed-use destination on one of the Caribbean’s most beautiful and increasingly sought-after islands.
Four existing structures provide the next developer with a valuable base of operations and the ability to accommodate personnel on-site from the earliest stages of development. The Owner’s House is a spacious four-bedroom, five-bath residence with a full kitchen, dining room, and living room, making it well suited for project executives, management, or key personnel. A second residential building contains three separate one-bedroom, one-bath apartments, each with its own kitchen and living area, while a former spa building possibly could provide a dedicated office and administrative space for managing construction and development activities. Most significantly, a fourth building which was part of the original hotel contains four former hotel suites that can be repurposed as comfortable workforce accommodations, creating a centralized on-site housing facility for contractors, construction crews, engineers, and other personnel during the development process. Together, these existing structures offer a substantial head start, providing the housing, administrative space, and operational infrastructure necessary to establish a functioning development headquarters without having to build those facilities from the ground up.
While Hurricane Irma caused devastating damage to the former Lighthouse Bay Resort, the developed resort area occupied only a relatively small portion of this expansive property. These aerial views put that scale into perspective: beyond the former resort site stretches more than a mile of largely untouched, undeveloped beachfront, offering an extraordinary canvas for future development. With brilliant turquoise Caribbean waters on one side and the tranquil Codrington Lagoon on the other, the property combines remarkable natural beauty, privacy, and an increasingly rare amount of contiguous beachfront. Rather than being defined by what was lost to the hurricane, this property should be viewed for what remains—an exceptional stretch of pristine Barbuda coastline with the space and setting to create an entirely new world-class resort, residential community, or luxury destination.
Lighthouse Bay Resort Layout Before the Hurricane
The result of Hurricane Irma was deadly – a Barbudan child died - and much property was damaged such that the entire was evacuated for many months, but it was also very telling. For example, at Lighthouse Bay the hotel, clubhouse and utility plant suffered major destruction – they had been built too close to the sea and too low to the ground. But virtually all of the other structures which were built later to modern hurricane code survived very well. Additionally, these buildings which were destroyed maintained their roofs with full integrity through this terrible storm. Those roofs were designed to modern standards.
The siting of the hotel and clubhouse, their foundations and their deck heights were completed before the developers were able to complete an overall engineering review of the site. The two structures which served as management housing and the resort’s spa building were built to the modern code. They were impacted by flying debris but have been in use since shortly after the hurricane.
The silver lining is that with the correct foundational design (auger piles), correct setbacks from the Caribbean (30 meters – the same as Naples FL), correct design floor levels (10 foot deck heights so water flows below the main living quarters without exerting upward pressure on the floors), and correct hurricane resistance measures (“straps” between roofs and walls, and anchor bolts between external walls and the foundation) structures can be expected to successfully survive even such a large storm as Hurricane Irma.
Even with things in great disarray on the island, Lighthouse Bay will have Trevor Manor (5 bedrooms), Kelvin Flat (3 bedrooms) and Suites 26-29 (4 bedrooms) available for their construction people for housing. It is possible that (temporarily) Suites 23-25 can be salvaged for an additional 2 bedrooms. These suites, depending on the developer’s interest might also serve as temporary lodging for prospects. Quite frankly, the interiors still look great.
A Rare Development Opportunity in an Emerging Luxury Market
Barbuda is emerging as one of the Caribbean’s most compelling destinations for thoughtfully planned luxury development. In a July 2026 feature, Travel + Leisure described the island as one of the Caribbean’s “best-kept secrets” that is quietly becoming a significant luxury real estate destination, citing the combination of extraordinary beaches, privacy, low-density development and major new investment. Recent infrastructure improvements—including Barbuda’s new international airport with a 6,100-foot runway and private jet terminal—have substantially improved access to the island, while high-profile projects such as Robert De Niro and his partners’ 400-acre Beach Club Barbuda and the 900-acre Barbuda Ocean Club demonstrate growing confidence in the island’s luxury hospitality and residential market. Against this backdrop, the opportunity to develop a substantial beachfront property on Barbuda offers something increasingly difficult to find elsewhere in the Caribbean: significant acreage, exceptional shoreline and the ability to create a distinctive low-density resort or residential destination while Barbuda is still in the early stages of its evolution as a world-class luxury market.
