(Even former President Bill Clinton showed his support with a visit in 2012.) During those transitional years, Sea Island managed to retain its unbroken Forbes Five-Star rating, and by 2016, it was again under family ownership, this time the Anschutz family, who also owns The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Beach ClubĮmployees like Brannen Veal held on-and with him, many of the guests who had gathered at The Cloister for decades. Many wondered what would become of the beloved resort. In 2010, Sea Island filed for bankruptcy, and a partnership of equity firms purchased it in a fire sale. But no sooner had the paint dried on the resort’s three-year, $350 million transformation than the Great Recession began, leaving many of The Cloister’s $700-a-night guestrooms empty. The idea was to turn Sea Island from a regional escape into an international destination, and indeed, the resort played host to the G8 Summit in 2004. This new Cloister comprised 265 guestrooms, a 65,000-square-foot spa, and a sprawling Beach Club and pool complex. In its place a grander Spanish-Colonial compound arose. Bush-visiting the grounds.īut in 2003, fourth-generation owner Bill Jones III razed the aging Cloister. presidents, with seven of them-from Calvin Coolidge to George W. A visit to Sea Island even became something of a tradition among U.S. Families from across the South returned year after year to ride horses along five miles of private beach, fish the Black Banks River, and golf the championship courses.

Descendants of the original owners oversaw all expansions and improvements. From its founding in 1928 by auto magnate Howard Coffin until the early aughts, Sea Island and its Addison Mizner–designed inn, The Cloister, remained blissfully consistent. Most of those were changes no one saw coming. It’s this kind of continuity-along with decades-old resort traditions like family bingo (where players dress in their Sunday best) and seafood suppers on nearby Rainbow Island (no one skips the hush puppies)-that has held Sea Island together amid a string of dizzying changes. Indeed, ninety Sea Island employees have worked at the resort twenty-five years or more, a distinction indicated by the “Quarter Century Club” logo on their nametags. “I’m not alone in that sentiment,” he says. His four children grew up playing on Sea Island, and if he has his way, it’s where he’ll stay until retirement. Hired as a golf pro in 1996, the Macon native worked his way up to the head pro job before becoming director of golf in 2005. For the last quarter century, Brannen Veal has been a staff member at Sea Island, a Forbes Five-Star resort in Georgia’s Golden Isles.

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