On Jamaica’s south coast, Jakes Hotel has always existed slightly outside of time: a bohemian cluster of seaside cottages, verandas, and saltwater rhythms built on creativity, community, and the pioneering spirit of founder Sally Henzell, her kids, communitarian Jason and producer Justine, and her husband, the late Perry Henzell, the genius behind ‘The Harder They Come‘ with the late Jimmy Cliff. 

After Hurricane Melissa passed through the region in late October, Treasure Beach felt the storm’s sweep, but not its devastation. Today, the village’s spirit is intact, the hotel’s heartbeat is strong, and Jakes is set to reopen on December 18, with renewed optimism and its signature charm.

The social heart of the South Coast

Though peaceful by nature, Jakes is also one of the most socially vibrant corners of Jamaica. Mornings begin with strong coffee and sea breezes; afternoons unfold across the seaside pool, farmers’ fields, small coves, or bike paths; evenings shimmer with local music, conversation, and the glow of Jack Sprat Bar & Restaurant, the legendary beachfront hub known for its jerk chicken pizza, fresh fish from the boats, and easy camaraderie.

It is a place where writers edit manuscripts under almond trees, filmmakers gather after a day of shooting, and locals and guests mingle without hierarchy. You feel it instantly: this is a real community, not a manufactured escape.

Reopening with intention, not urgency

Jakes will reopen with 30 accommodations available, while four suites remain offline for final enhancements. The landscape, currently in a natural phase of renewal, is being reimagined with native planting and resilient design. What could be framed as post-storm repair is instead becoming a thoughtful, long-term investment in the land, with the Henzell family and community members leading the work.

Visitors will find the Jakes they love — the sunsets from the dock, the breezy verandas, the driftwood paths, the stillness and sea — but with refreshed vitality.

A visionary founder & a design language all her own

Long before “sustainable design” became a global movement, Sally Henzell was practising it intuitively. In the early days, she built Jakes room by room with local hands, reclaimed materials, and a joyful disregard for convention. Empty colored bottles embedded in concrete walls created stained-glass mosaics. Broken china, shells, driftwood, found objects from the sea — nothing beautiful was wasted, everything was transformed.

Her palette is the Caribbean itself: turmeric yellows, bougainvillaea pinks, sea-washed greens. The architecture isn’t architecture as much as it was sculpture — an invitation to live inside colour, shadow, breeze, and memory. Her touch still defines Jakes today: every room feels personal, crafted, and soulful, as if the house itself is telling a story.

This creative lineage continues: the Henzell family remains deeply involved in the hotel, ensuring Jakes evolves without losing its essential poetry.

A community anchor: BREDS Treasure Beach Foundation

To understand Jakes is to understand Treasure Beach, not as a resort area, but as a culturally alive village of fishermen, farmers, artists, coaches, storytellers, and families.

BREDS Treasure Beach Foundation, co-founded by Jason Henzell in 1998, represents this ethos. What started as a request from local youth for a basketball court has grown into a major community engine raising US$5 million since its inception. The funds are used in support of education, youth sports, sustainable farming initiatives, and environmental conservation, with Jakes contributing through its “Dollar-A-Night” programme and ongoing collaborative projects.  

And now, post-hurricane, BREDS has raised US$400,000 from donors around the world. With the island in a period of post-storm stabilisation, the work of BREDS has never been more important. Guests don’t just visit Jakes — they actively support a community strengthening itself from within.

Literary heritage: Treasure Cot & Calabash

Jakes has long attracted creative thinkers — not just because of its beauty, but because of its atmosphere: contemplative, elemental, generous with solitude and story.

Treasure Cot, one of the area’s simple, beloved early cottages, holds a particularly luminous chapter in literary history: it is here that Alex Haley wrote ‘Roots‘, drawing on the quiet of the village, the cadence of fishing boats, and the unbroken horizon to shape what would become one of the most influential books of the century. The cottage, which was built by Sally’s father in 1941, the year she was born, is a reminder that great ideas often require a place that offers great stillness.

That legacy extends to the internationally acclaimed Calabash International Literary Festival, founded by poet Dr Kwame Dawes, novelist Colin Channer and producer Justine Henzell.

Every two years, Treasure Beach becomes a world stage for literature, performance, music, and global storytelling. Writers from across the diaspora and around the world gather under open skies, reading to an audience of locals, travellers, and book lovers.

Why now

Visitors looking for an escape that is real — not polished, not staged — will find Jakes fully itself. The hotel reopens at a moment when the village is ready to welcome guests back, when community-supported work is thriving, and when optimism, music, and south-coast sunlight feel particularly meaningful.

Treasure Beach was not hit as hard as other regions. The atmosphere is warm and confident, and the return of Jakes signals something larger than a reopening: a reaffirmation of place, culture, and the power of a tourism model that gives back rather than takes.

Guests arriving via Kingston will find the improved 2.5-hour drive an easy, scenic approach — a long exhale into one of the Caribbean’s most singular enclaves. 

Jakes remains what it has always been

A place built by artists. Sustained by community. Guided by creativity. Open to all who seek beauty, depth, humour, discovery, and a slower, more soulful way of being. On December 18, the doors reopen.