ISLAND
Calivigny Island
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FEVER When does the pursuit of paradise progress from buying a yacht or villa to possessing an island? Two yacht owners who took the next step tell Joanna Della-Ragione why.
“E
ven if money is no object it still takes a certain type of person to buy an island,” says Chris Krolow, founder of Private Islands Inc., a network of expert island brokers. “An adventurer, someone with a spark in their eye; someone who wants a project.”
A passion for superyachts, fast cars
and an extensive property portfolio
are complementary but by no means a prerequisite. Island hunters may have
special enough, but imagine having your own piece of the planet surrounded by water — nothing else compares.
“Usually the seed gets planted and they
all of the above but besides a high net
never shake the idea. I have one client who
willingness to take risks — that sets them
fifteen-year-old. Now he owns three islands
worth, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi — a
apart from regular property investors, for this is a market that’s unlike any other.
“There’s that cool factor associated with
used to write me letters as a penniless
and is probably my best client. Once you’re
bitten by the island bug it never leaves you.” And the island bug can bite when
having an island, it’s a masculine thing, the
you least expect it. In 2000, French
island,” says Krolow.
Grenada with his wife, Martine, looking
idea of spending time on your very own “For some clients, it’s a childhood
dream they’re able to fulfill; for others,
it’s a project. Buying a piece of property is
businessman Georges Cohen traveled to to buy a vacation home. “We went to the Caribbean every winter and rented a
yacht for many years. We decided we liked
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Grenada, so we began to look for a home,” recalls Cohen. What they ended up with, in fact, was quite different.
“Someone told us there was an island for sale off the coast of
Grenada. We went just to have a look and immediately knew this was the place.”
Its name was Calivigny Island, and it comprised more than 80 acres
of lush green foliage and six white sandy beaches — a rugged piece of
island paradise in the Caribbean Sea. It was love at first sight, and they purchased the island for $5 million.
“I bought it from an American woman who’d inherited it from her
late husband, but it wasn’t being used. Because it was privately owned and I used a local broker, there were no problems,” says Cohen.
What followed, though, was a huge operation and more than a
decade of hard graft to create not just a livable island but a luxury
boutique resort with Balinese and French-colonial style residences and cottages, a marina and an array of what Cohen calls “toys” — speedboats, fishing boats, Jet Skis and quad-bikes galore.
Leaf Cay
“It was a long process because the island had been totally
The Bahamas
abandoned,” he recalls. “We had to work out logistics for getting water, electricity and build roads and after this we started to build houses.
“At that time, Grenada was considerably less developed than it is
today. It wasn’t easy to buy construction materials; we had to import everything from Europe and the U.S. and China. I used a French architect and his wife who came to live in Grenada for eight years and they oversaw the construction.
We employed three hundred and fifty people to work on Calivigny for eleven years. Some we brought over
from Europe — masons, carpenters and other skilled people — and they trained the locals to build at our
high European standards. What we constructed was solid and hurricane-proof, utilizing eco-friendly, natural materials.”
The initial sum of $5 million to purchase the
freehold of the island is a metaphorical drop in the ocean compared to the fortune Cohen has
invested in its development, more than $250 million to date, not to mention the annual running costs
SALE
of $5 million.
“There is, of course, the possibility of constructing
more properties and selling villas but for the
Walker’s Cay
moment, I want to enjoy the island by myself without
any neighbors,” says Cohen, who splits his time between Geneva, the
The Bahamas
Grenadines and his 174-foot Perini Navi sailing yacht, Atmosphere.
While monetizing the island is not a priority right now, on occasion
Calivigny in its entirety is rented out to wealthy individuals for private use for between $500,000 to $1 million per week.
“The last person who rented it was Justin Bieber. He had his twenty-
first birthday party there,” says Cohen.
And it’s not just Bieber who is tapping into the island rental market,
according to Farhad Vladi, whose company Vladi Private Islands has facilitated more than 2,600 certified island sales.
“Nowadays, the super-rich — I’m talking the Forbes list — don’t buy
because they have security issues,” says Vladi. “They prefer to rent and
that’s why the rental market is so strong right now. Bill Gates has rented islands in the Seychelles, but he’d never buy an island that the public
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SALE
Bonefish Cay The Bahamas
IN THE MARKET?
Tips for prospective buyers from Bahamasbased island broker Kevin Cross
LOCATION IS KEY Always choose somewhere within easy reach of the mainland where a foreigner can purchase the freehold without restrictions.
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THINK ABOUT RESALE
(could locate). Johnny Depp did buy an island in The Bahamas, but he’s not building on it; instead, he goes there with his yacht and enjoys the island for two weeks and he moves on.
“That is the trend for the super-rich right now. Those in the bracket
below still buy to develop. The majority are fifty-plus because the very young prefer not to own and have the responsibility of running an
island. They also prefer to rent so they can give it back after two weeks and have no concerns.”
One person who has bought to develop is Peter Vazquez of Island
Time Ventures, a yacht management company based in The Bahamas. He purchased 15-acre Leaf Cay in the Exumas with the vision of creating a boutique, private island retreat resort with overwater
bungalows and a fully functioning 24-hour marina in the same vein as those found in the Maldives and Seychelles.
“It has been a long, arduous process,” admits Vazquez. “I tried to
buy the island seven years ago when the previous owner was alive,
but the deal fell apart. Then when I was on a charter with a client, I got a call to say it was back on the market, the owner had died and his widow was selling it.
“I asked my charter guests to take a tour of the island, and they came
with me and instantly fell in love with it just as I’d done. They asked me what I wanted to do and if I wanted a partner, and after knowing this
guy for five nights, we became partners in this unique island project.” “This guy” happened to be Roger Cardinale, president of Chuck E.
Cheese, and together with a third minority partner, the sale was closed in 2011 for around $8 million.
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Restrictions on foreign nationals purchasing islands make resale much more difficult. In The Bahamas you need a permit, but this is obtained with relative ease following background checks.
USE AN EXPERIENCED BROKER There are all sorts of processes to traverse when you buy an island, but dealing with an experienced broker makes things easier. Often there’s a “way” of doing things that only someone experienced can understand. Typically, a broker will take five or six percent commission.
CHECK OUT THE HIGHS AND LOWS Be sure to consider water depth and elevations; these are important due to concerns about sea levels rising.
BEACHES MEAN VALUE The more sandy white beaches the better.
STORM PROTECTION Look for something sheltered with other landmasses between it and the open ocean. There are some islands that the sea goes right over when a hurricane hits.
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“Leaf Cay is one of the few islands in The Bahamas that is freehold,
ninety percent are leaseholds,” says Vazquez. “But the most unique part of our island is the two-mile underwater power cable to the mainland,
Little Whale Cay The Bahamas
the others all have generators which equates to millions of dollars.” Construction has just started and Vazquez hopes to have the
marina up and running by mid-2016, but the planning process has been lengthy to say the least.
“There was a law in The Bahamas banning the building of
overwater bungalows, and it took me two years to prove it was a
successful niche to the Bahamian government,” says Vazquez. “Then when the administration finally gave us the okay, the prime minister
came out and said we should use Leaf Cay as a pilot project. There were lots of hoops to jump through.”
Unlike the Cohens, Vazquez’s dream is very much business-
oriented. “Return on initial investment will be fairly immediate.
We have presales ready to go with overwater bungalows priced at
close to $1 million and private villas ranging from $2.5 million to $5 million-plus.”
Surprisingly, the recession actually re-stabilized the island market.
“There was a time before the recession started that everyone was
buying islands, the rich saw celebrities investing and wanted them,
too; prices were talked up and the market was chaotic and overpriced,
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and so the recession forced prices to collapse,” says Vladi. “The
Caribbean market is now very stable. If prices are done on the right
Over Yonder Cay
basis, islands are selling.”
The Bahamas RENT The problem is it’s often difficult to quantify what an island
Calivigny Island Grenada
should cost. “Islands are different to real estate and condos; there are no two islands the same so often nothing is comparable,
which makes pricing difficult,” says Vladi. “We had an example
with an island in Florida that was on the market for $24 million for years unsold, until the owner realized he’d overpriced it. He
recently sold it for $11 million.”
Ron Sutherland, president of real estate advisory group
Hemisphere, agrees. “There were lots of instances where islands had asking prices of $100 million in the recession seven years ago that
you can get now for less than half of that. Accessibility is obviously a big thing. The Bahamas is ideal because it’s very close to the U.S., thus, very easy to get a chartered air service and bring in your own
planes. The northern part of the Caribbean tends to have more of an
CELEBRITIES BITTEN BY THE ISLAND BUG
Necker Island, BVI Richard Branson bought this island — uninhabited until the late 20th century — for a mere $180,000 in 1978. Since then, Princess Diana, Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela have been guests.
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Spanish Water Cay Curaçao
Little Halls Pond Cay, The Bahamas Johnny Depp discovered his island paradise while filming “Pirates of the
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Caribbean.” He named two of its six beaches Gonzo and Brando, in honor
IMAGINE HAVING YOUR OWN
PIECE OF THE PLANET
of his mentors Hunter S. Thompson and Marlon Brando. The rest are named after members of his family.
American connection while the southern part tends to have more of a British connection.”
So where do you get the most bang for your buck?
“The Bahamas still has good opportunities, and there are also
select opportunities in the Grenadines and British Virgin Islands,” says Sutherland. “They are generally fairly easily to navigate, but if you’ve never purchased an island before, you’ll need professional
help. Bermuda, The Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua are
among the easiest to deal with and have established protocols and a
single point of contact within the government to help go through the requirements you’ll need to buy a piece of property.”
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Bonds Cay, The Bahamas Colombian singer Shakira teamed up with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters to buy this €13 million white-sand-fringed island. The aim is to turn it into a low-density, carbon-neutral, luxury destination that will be an inspirational retreat for artists.