Cisneros believes in D.R. luxury

MICHES, Dominican Republic – Long-time developer but first-time hotelier Adriana Cisneros learned a valuable lesson early on in her protracted process to create a never-seen-before $212 million, luxury Four Seasons resort project in under-developed Miches, Dominican Republic: tune out the noise.

The daughter of late legendary Latin entrepreneur Gustavo Cisneros and now CEO of the family’s Cisneros Group –  owners of media, entertainment, real estate and consumer products – has been developing under Cisneros Real Estate the undulating, 1,353-acre beachside Tropicalia site since before COVID, and during her early days faced a lot of skepticism and resistance.

“It’s really hard to stay true to your vision when the market doesn’t want to believe that it’s possible,” Cisneros told Hotel Investment Today in a mid-March interview. “I knew what I wanted to do, and I knew that it was possible. But I really had to take my time educating a lot of people so that they could see that it was possible.”

Aerial view of the Tropicalis site in Miches, Dominican Republic

You see, in the Dominican Republic, no one had ever built a luxury resort (with the exception of a small Aman). No one ever built at more than $300,000 a key and most projects were Spanish-led all-inclusives, while Cisneros was talking about a project north of $1 million a key with rates at $2,000 a night. So, her initial conversations with the banks went nowhere. They didn’t think she would succeed.

“It just took us a while to convince them of how incredible the D.R. was and the fact that it had every single element that you needed to succeed,” she said. “It just needed somebody to come and raise the bar and fly the flag of Four Seasons… Now it’s a different story.”

While COVID postponed her plans and her initial financing for a project solely owned by Cisneros Group, Adriana eventually did make a deal with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and she said with a bit of glee that the likes of Rosewood, Ritz-Carlton and other luxury operators are following.

“We kept at it, and instead of being annoyed, we just educate them,” Cisneros continued. She found comps from Puerto Rico and Mexico and continued the conversations about the wonder and beauty of D.R. beaches.

At the same time, the president of country decided to make tourism his number one priority, which has led to increased airlift at four airports. “Punta Cana has more airlift than Cancun,” Cisneros exclaimed. “There are flights from every country in Europe directly into the D.R. The country has invested a lot of infrastructure in hospitals and all these things that you really need to be able to have a big brand say, ‘okay, this is great. Let’s go do it.’”

Stamina, forethought

Apparently, stamina is a long suit for Cisneros, who said it will likely take some 30 years to develop the entire Tropicalia project, which will include a second and complimentary hotel beside a golf course still to be built.

It just took us a while to convince them of how incredible the D.R. was and the fact that it had every single element that you need to succeed. It just needed somebody to come and raise the bar and fly the flag of Four Seasons… Now it’s a different story.

Adriana Cisneros

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For now, Tropicalia is Cisneros’ only focus, but she did admit to having talks with other potential developers, and don’t be too surprised if more deals are announced at some point because she seems to really like the hotel business and its challenges.

With the 95-key, 25-residence Four Seasons Resort and Residences Dominican Republic at Tropicalia – a sustainable, low-impact, low-density development being built on Cisneros land on Samana Bay’s southern coast set to open in late 2026 – the lessons learned by a rookie hotelier have been many. But she is an experienced developer and far from a shrinking violet.

Cisneros also has forethought. Before even putting a shovel to dirt at Tropicalia, she knew the local Miches community had to understand her plans and buy-in. She has spent nearly a decade focused on just that and said she will keep community engagement a priority.

“We needed to listen and understand who the community was, figure out what their perceptions were about what was going to happen,” Cisneros said. “We knew that we were going to change that area of the Dominican Republic forever. It was completely isolated, and those communities felt like they had been left behind. What we were coming with was the tsunami, and we wanted to get it right.”

Her team spent two years listening to understand what the community needed and devised a plan to get them ready to accept and receive Tropicalia.

In her research, she discovered that the local girls were not becoming educated, not graduating high school – likely a bare minimum for a potential career at Tropicalia.

As a result, they founded Fundación Tropicalia, an empowerment program to help girls in Miches finish school, instill self-confidence and better know their rights. A program for boys is now in development, at the community’s request.

They also created Soy Niña Soy Importante (I’m a girl; I’m important), a summer program that works with all of the at-risk girls between the ages 9 and 18 to teach them that they should go to school and graduate. The camp gives them the tools to help them develop self-agency. They provide sex education and teach them to speak up if they are abused. Now, an after-school program is being developed to make sure the young women continue to thrive and learn skills for careers.

“A lot of them now end up going to college, and all of them would potentially be able to work for Tropicalia,” Cisneros said. “That was that was a huge challenge, and I think we actually came up with a solution. This camp will forever be part of our DNA and part of the work that we do in the D.R.”

To date, Cisneros said her group has invested about $5 million in the program and some 3,300 girls have attended the camp.

Maintaining value

The other challenge Cisneros had the tenacity to attack were related to local infrastructure – specifically water, electricity, waste management, security and road health.

Not having the pressure of having to do a hot sale of all the properties was great because the prices that we’re asking for now are unheard of in the Dominican Republic, which I knew, because I’m building something that doesn't exist in the Dominican Republic but are really competitive worldwide.

Adriana Cisneros

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“I was very worried about those things because I’ve traveled so much and seen that go wrong in so many places, including all over the Dominican Republic,” Cisneros said. “I realized that I shouldn’t be worried by myself and have to find a way of making this a concern of all my neighbors, and that I shouldn’t try to solve it only for my benefit – that we actually needed to solve it for the entire neighborhood.”

While not the sexiest story, Cisneros said she is most proud of creating a partnership between everybody that has an economic interest in the coast. It is called ProMiches and working with the government they were first able to build an aqueduct to guarantee access to water without having to deplete the watershed system. They also put in place a waste management program with more work ahead.

“This is probably going to be what’s going to help us maintain value,” Cisneros continued. “The greatest of all the invisible things that we’ve done – that’s probably the most important.”

Right partners

Completely self-funded in stage one of Tropicalia’s development, Cisneros said she wants to bring in investment partners as the project progresses.

“It’s about to get quite significant, and I don’t think I want to do it alone,” she said.

And from the start, the neophyte hotelier has been surrounding herself with the right people to make the initial phases a success.

She said the Four Seasons team helped her think through the ideal site and product mix. “They were a dream to work with us as thought partners and not just as the management company,” she added.

Cisneros also brought in world-class land planners EDSA, who has 50 years of experience in Latin America, to create a plan for land that has undulating mountains, a lake in the middle, surrounded by mangroves, as well as a “crazy coastline,” which includes the Samana Bay.

“It wasn’t obvious at the beginning how we could connect it all because there were no roads,” Cisneros said. “EDSA started coming with me to read the lands. We were literally moving around on donkeys and motorbikes trying to even see how the property would flow. Now, our plan seems extremely obvious. It wasn’t obvious.”

One of the other experts that Cisneros brought to the table was Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld, who’s the architect and interior designer for the Four Seasons.

“My mission was to find an architect who I didn’t have to explain what living in the tropics was about,” she added. “Someone that understands that it’s really about the shadow and not about the light to give you that sense of rest when you’re inside, and has a great sense of how the air should flow so that you’re not relying on air-conditioned spaces all the time.”

Cisneros found that in Weinfeld. “I don’t have to explain anything to him, and that is amazing when it comes to figuring out the right design for the property.”

It is amazing that there’s still so much beautiful land available. It is a pleasure to be able to work with the government of the Dominican Republic, who are very straight, who are supporting responsible development with gusto, and who have made tourism their number one interest for economic development of the country. There’s rule of law; it’s a proper country.

Adriana Cisneros

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For the 25 residences that are “selling like hotcakes,” there is a mix of flats and villas, ranging from about $5 million up to $18 million, and Cisneros said half have already sold with about $60 million under contract.

Even better, the project was created so the residences didn’t have to sell before the hotel could be built.

“Not having the pressure of having to do a hot sale of all the properties was great because the prices that we’re asking for now are unheard of in the Dominican Republic, which I knew, because I’m building something that doesn't exist in the Dominican Republic but are really competitive worldwide.”

She said there are buyers from California, Europe and, as expected, the East Coast. “The fact that people from California are choosing to come to the D.R. instead of just going to Hawaii or Baja, I think it’s fascinating,” she said.

What also fascinates Cisneros is the age of the buyers. “They’re so young. These young people have made so much money, so much faster than what we would have seen 15 or 20 years ago… We’re catering to a younger group that’s multi-generational. We’re thinking about the little kids and the grandparents. The property just lends itself to that very well.”

Exciting moment

With Tropicalia gaining more attention, Miches is growing as a development destination.

“We’re the hottest place. Everybody wants in,” Cisneros said.

But the way Cisneros helped the government zone the area only allows for low-density, high-end products.

Rendering of the Four Seasons residential flats at Tropicalia

“That was sort of rare in the D.R. and I'm so happy that we were able to do that way before anybody started doing a master plan because I think if not, we would have ended up with huge buildings and high density. And that’s just not possible,” she said.

Club Med is one of the first resorts open in the community. “It’s full. It’s low key, green and full of French people,” Cisneros joked.

There is also a Zemi Miches Punta Cana All-Inclusive Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton opening in a few months with a price point of about $600 a night, according to Cisneros.

More are likely coming to the area, including more luxury brands such as Rosewood in other beach areas of the Dominican Republic.

When asked what message she would impart to the hotel investment community, Cisneros said the D.R. has everything in place already to become the number one luxury destination in the Caribbean.

“It is amazing that there’s still so much beautiful land available. It is a pleasure to be able to work with the government of the Dominican Republic, who are very straight, who are supporting responsible development with gusto, and who have made tourism their number one interest for economic development of the country,” Cisneros said. “There’s rule of law; it’s a proper country.”

Cisneros added that every time she visits, she goes swimming and said it cannot feel more remote. “And yet, we’re two hours from Miami or three and a half hours from New York. That’s amazing as you literally could feel that you are in the Maldives after an 18-hour flight. It has everything going for it that that should really make it into a number one destination.”

She continued with Rosewood and Ritz-Carlton coming to the D.R., there will be a luxury story to tell, as well. “It’s a pretty exciting moment.”