Request for Qualifications- Caneel Bay

The National Park Service has the opportunity you’ve been waiting for on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The NPS is excited to offer this once in a generation opportunity for the right company to lease, develop, and manage a premier resort on 74 acres within Virgin Islands National Park.

Is your company ready to help reimagine eco-tourism and destination travel? For the first time in decades, this iconic luxury property, located on 74 acres of Virgin Islands National Park, is available to be reimagined. Caneel Bay is located on the northwest side of the island and was developed by Laurance Rockefeller beginning in 1956. Initially, Rockefeller donated over 5,000 acres of land to the National Park Service and reserved the 150 acres, what has been Caneel Bay Resort, for the Jackson Hole Preserve, a Rockefeller family land trust. In 1983 Jackson Hole Preserve donated the 150 acres of land to the U.S. government for inclusion within the Virgin Islands National Park. The preserved land was transferred to the NPS with a 40-year retained use estate (RUE). This property offers the right team a tremendous opportunity to engage and provide meaningful employment opportunities, while operating a premiere resort.

This is a unique chance for the right developer to invest in the U.S. Virgin Islands community, with an unprecedented 60-year lease term, on 74 acres of the Virgin Islands National Park. Competition for this lease is a straightforward two-step process, where bidders submit their qualifications to the NPS during the request for qualifications (RFQ) process. Those bidders found eligible through the RFQ will then be given the exclusive opportunity to submit a detailed proposal on how they would develop and manage an eco-friendly destination resort that commands the level of customer service expected in the U.S. Virgin Islands, while also becoming an integral member of the community on St. John and throughout the Virgin Islands.

Interested in the opportunity to submit during the RFQ process?

The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will be released on October 22, 2024, and this is your first step to engage in this important process.

UPDATE - Submission Period Closed

The submission deadline for this RFQ was extended and closed at the end of February 2025:

Intent to Submit Due: February 07, 2025
Response Due: February 28, 2025

Interested parties should be aware that both Federal and territorial tax incentives may be available.
For more information please see: Historic Preservation Tax Incentives (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) and Tax Incentives – USVIEDA

Request for Qualifications- Caneel Bay flyer

NEXT STEPS - Reviewing Qualifications

Now that the RFQ process deadline has been closed the next steps of this process will be to review the qualifications. After which the Request for Proposals (RFP) process will begin at a time TBD.