Pass through the gates, past the guardhouse, and the noise of the world falls away behind you. The entry road winds through vegetation so lush it seems to have grown expressly to hide what’s ahead: towering trees sway, giant leaves wave in a balmy breeze, a hummingbird stitches through the shade, and somewhere a peacock stands sentry over grounds too beautiful to be entirely believable. Then, seemingly without warning, the trees part, revealing The Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences, Bahamas, and beyond it, the ocean, that impossible arc of blue and white that has been drawing people to this stretch of Paradise Island for nearly seventy years.
Set along one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated beaches, The Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences, Bahamas comprises just 67 oceanfront homes built to custom-home standards and finished by Champalimaud Design. Owners enjoy full access to The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, while returning to private spaces reserved exclusively for residents, combining the privacy of a home with the legendary service of one of the world’s most celebrated hospitality brands.
Life at the Residences is designed to feel like a natural extension of The Ocean Club itself. Owners have access to every amenity at the resort, including the Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, Har-Tru tennis courts, the Balinese spa, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten‘s Dune, where the Bahamian conch salad spring roll has inspired pilgrimages for more than twenty-five years. A concierge team that has curated unforgettable stays for generations of families is equally on hand to arrange everything from private dinners to bespoke experiences across the island.
Residents also enjoy spaces reserved exclusively for owners, including a private library and lounge, boardroom, owner’s cellar with private lockers for wine, spirits and cigars, a dedicated restaurant and bar, beachfront lounge, adult pool, and spa and fitness center just steps from home. A dedicated Four Seasons team, led by a Director of Residences, handles everything from housekeeping and maintenance to reservations and personalized lifestyle services, and can even curate rentals to resort guests when owners are away.
Beach Villa Renderings
“The Ocean Club Residences offer a pristine, private escape from the rest of the world that is remarkably accessible via nonstop flights from many destinations,” says Reid Boren, Managing Partner and Founder of Two Roads Development, which is spearheading the project with Access Real Estate. “Residents will find a place to connect with family and friends while making memories enjoying the property’s exquisite grounds, amenities, dining and sport offerings.” It is, he adds, “the most elevated, high-touch experience on the best stretch of Bahamian beach,” pairing Four Seasons service with an unbeatable location.
And while the residences are still in construction, there are serious advantages to purchasing early, as owners can start enjoying exclusive privileges and full access to The Ocean Club well before their home is complete, becoming part of the community from the outset.
To understand what makes life at The Ocean Club so distinctive, it’s worth going back to where it all began. The story starts nearly seventy years ago with Huntington Hartford.
In 1959 he was, by most accounts, one of the richest men in America: heir to the A&P grocery fortune, a man who could, and did, buy almost anything he wanted. What he wanted that year was an obscure, mostly uninhabited strip of land the locals called Hog Island. The first time he saw it, he was completely transfixed. “I thought Hog Island was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen,” he later recalled. “I said, ‘This is paradise.'”
And so he renamed it Paradise Island. Determined to transform it into an international resort destination, he commissioned John Volk, the Austrian-born architect whose work helped define Palm Beach, including the Royal Poinciana Plaza, to design a resort as elegant as the setting demanded.
Over the next several years, Hartford spent millions bringing that vision to life. He imported the staff of the Hotel du Cap, then the most glamorous address in Europe. He hired Gary Player, the world’s number one golfer, to oversee his golf program, and Pancho Gonzales, the world’s number one tennis player, to run his courts. He shipped a 12th-century Augustinian cloister from the Pyrenees, stone by stone, and set it among terraced European gardens. Hartford was a lifelong lover of the sea and everything that lived along its edges, and Paradise Island was, before it was anything else, an act of devotion to a place he believed was too beautiful to disturb. He wanted the gardens dense and alive with birds. He wanted the beach left exactly as astonishing as he’d found it.
In 1962, he threw the party to end all parties, the Bal du Paradis, opening The Ocean Club to more than a thousand friends, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Zsa Zsa Gabor, dukes, ambassadors, and socialites, while Benny Goodman‘s orchestra played and fireworks technicians brought over from Monaco lit up the Bahamian sky for days.
The resort Hartford created became one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated addresses and the place where Sean Connery swam these waters as Bond in Thunderball, where the Martini Bar later poured Vespers for Daniel Craig‘s Casino Royale, and where generations of travelers have returned. Since becoming steward of the property two decades ago, Four Seasons has carefully preserved what made The Ocean Club exceptional while thoughtfully building on Hartford’s original vision.
Hartford believed he had discovered one of the most beautiful places on Earth. More than sixty years later, that conviction still defines life at The Ocean Club, where a new generation of homeowners can now experience that legacy through The Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences, Bahamas.
Residences currently start at $7.5 million. Learn more on their website or contact the sales team at sales@theoceanclubresidences.com
