Fabulous Crown Pigeon Island: The Latest Celebrity Must Have

Crown Pigeon Island in the Bahamas offers a cleverly designed golf course and eleven acres of luxe, private resort type amenities. What more could a multimillionaire desire?

Larry Ellison has Lanai. Johnny Depp has Little Hall’s Pond Cay. David Copperfield has Musha Cay, and Richard Branson has Necker.

Now a buyer whose fantasy runs to fairways rather than fame can have Crown Pigeon Island and Cays, an 11-acre private island in the Bahamas with three oceanfront villas, three beaches, a protected marina and its own golf course, which plays as up to 21 hole configurations.

Crown Pigeon recently hit the market for $39,500,000, and is listed by Colleen Carey and Lana Rademaker of Bahamas Sotheby’s International Realty. It is a rarity in a market full of golf-fronting estates: a property where the island itself is the course.

Celebrity Greens designed and built the layout, working it into the island’s natural contours. Designer Mark Phillips gave it three greens and multiple tee positions. Those combine into up to 21 different holes, so the island offers a fresh routing every morning.

It isn’t a traditional course but a bespoke experience made for this one site. Gather the family for six holes before breakfast, then reshuffle the tees and play it all again after lunch.

Crown Pigeon Island — ultra luxe accommodations

The residences are equally well considered and accommodating.

Villa One is a refined two-bedroom home with a pool, outdoor bar and expansive entertaining deck. Two guest cottages add suites, a home office and laundry.

Villa Two is a grand five-bedroom residence designed for gatherings, with a pool, a generous oceanfront deck and a swim-up bar over turquoise water.

Villa Three is the quiet one: four bedrooms, including two primary suites, plus two detached guest cottages for hosting in complete privacy.

In all, the island offers 15 bedrooms, 15 full baths and five partial baths across roughly 12,000 square feet. Shaded verandas and pool decks are made for alfresco dinners and sunset gatherings.

The celebrity set knows the appeal of an island of one’s own. Ellison bought 98 percent of Lanai in 2012 for around $300 million, and his holdings include two luxury resorts. The deal also took in two golf courses.

Depp’s island is far more modest. He bought the 45-acre Little Hall’s Pond Cay in the Exumas in 2004 for a reported $3.6 million. Its six beaches are named for his family and friends, including Marlon Brando and Hunter S. Thompson.

It was the Pirates of the Caribbean shoot that sent him looking for a hideaway in the area. Crown Pigeon offers three beaches, from calm, sheltered sands to sweeping oceanfront stretches.

Hospitality is where the celebrity playbook gets interesting. Copperfield reportedly paid about $50 million in 2006 for Musha Cay and turned it into an exclusive destination. He hosted Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wedding there in 2007.

Branson’s Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, doubles as a resort and is where he makes his own home.

Crown Pigeon Island has the bones for that kind of second act. There’s a charming beach club with a bar and barbecue area, and additional oceanfront homesites are ready for more residences or a boutique resort concept.

Building that infrastructure from scratch is the hard part of island ownership. Faith Hill said that she and Tim McGraw set out to build a house on their Bahamian island and ended up building a little town. The couple owned it from 2003 to 2021.

Crown Pigeon Island has done that work already. Power arrives by underwater line from the mainland, and there is high-speed internet, a state-of-the-art potable water system, organic composting and backup generators.

On the leeward side, a fully protected four-acre harbour offers more than 600 feet of dockage, three large slips, a hauling ramp, two boat lifts and a floating dock. A well-appointed two-bedroom staff residence sits near the marina.

The location is a strength too. The island sits 1.6 miles from Harbour Island, one of the Caribbean’s most coveted addresses, and three miles from North Eleuthera International Airport, which has full-service FBO facilities.

Owners can arrive by private jet, continue by helicopter to the island’s private helipad, then take a short golf cart ride to a villa.

The surrounding waters are known for their abundant turtle population and offer direct access to famed bonefish flats. World-class deep-sea fishing lies just two miles offshore.

The Hollywood crowd shows the range of what an island can be. Mel Gibson owns Mago Island in Fiji. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blackadore Caye in Belize has been tied to plans for a sustainable eco-resort.

Crown Pigeon Island suits several visions: a private family compound, a legacy estate or an ultra-luxury resort development. It also reflects the growing focus on experiential amenities in the ultra-prime market. Buyers at this level increasingly want something to do, and a course that reinvents itself daily is hard to beat.

And here’s the kicker! Its price was recently improved!

A September 2024 report says the island was previously listed at $44,495,000 and is now being offered at $39.5 million.