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Michael Ryan is the Owner and Developer of The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman and The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman resort. He is the majority shareholder in the Cayman Islands corporate entities for the hotel, condominiums and development firms, Hotelco Ltd., Condoco Ltd. and Humphreys (Cayman) Ltd.
I am originally from Hamilton and was born into a family active in the engineering, construction and development business. My father John J. Ryan was recognized for his skills at an early age when he was appointed as the youngest ever Chairman of the Planning Board for Hamilton. I grew up in the business and worked in various construction jobs during my school breaks.
One of the most interesting early projects was in Thornbury, Ontario on the shores of Georgian Bay where I oversaw the completion of construction on a mixed use condominium and marina project.
The first large project I worked on was the Mont Ste. Anne resort project just outside of Quebec City which was comprised of a 215 room hotel at the foot of the lifts, one hundred chalets and various other amenities all within the provincial park where the mountain is located. My father was one of the principal developers of this project, and my experience as general manager for the companies that he worked with was an invaluable lesson in mixed resort real estate development.
Returning to work in Toronto, I was involved in various commercial and residential developments including a project known as Burnamthorpe Square, a large five building commercial complex at the corner of the 427 and Brunamthorpe Road in Etobicoke. I was also part of a 234 townhouse project in Burlington known as the Brownstones as well as projects ranging from Ancaster to Oakville to Ajax.
After a number of years in Toronto I decided to move offshore in the early 90s to seek opportunities outside of the Canadian market, when its outlook was not very strong.
After much research, including visits to China, Hong Kong, Thailand and other exotic locales, I was introduced to Costa Rica which appeared to hold the correct balance of risk and reward for me. I resolved not to make a mistake I had seen many other foreign investors make which is to rush in and purchase a property in a foreign locale without doing the same due diligence and research that they would do for a purchase in their home country.
This resulted in a fourteen month effort to research the country, its laws, economic environment and real estate opportunities. I traveled over almost the entire coastline by air, water and land before settling on the Guanacaste region, an area on the northwest pacific coast, as the premier area for future development. Along the way I gained firsthand knowledge of the country and its people and had a number of adventures that one would not normally experience when prospecting for real estate in Canada.
During this research it became apparent that there was one piece of property that represented the finest location in the country for development. The challenge was that it belonged to the former President of Costa Rica Daniel Oduber who had assembled various parcels over decades to create a 235 hectare peninsula. The property had excellent proximity to the only international airport outside of the capital, San Jose, beautiful views from all areas, excellent – by local standards - paved roads and the finest beaches in the region.
As it turned out the wife of Mr. Oduber was a Canadian, Donna Marjorie Oduber Elliott. She and my Canadian connection enabled me to get an initial interview with Donn Daniel which eventually led to agreement on the purchase of the property. This transaction was complex, as I learned are many things in Costa Rica. One challenge was that Daniel passed away in the final stages of the closing, and we ended up settling with the estate, which included the longtime mistress who arrived at the closing with bearer shares. But persistence paid off, and to date over twenty million dollars has been invested in the property.
In order to test the market I joined with some local partners to develop a 110 villa project that was on the same site as a popular local hotel, just down the beach from the Cacique del Mar peninsula. These two and three bedroom stand alone villas featured plunge pools and hotel services, a new concept for the country at that time that has since proven very popular.
After selling out my interest in that project to my local partners, I commenced work on the Cacique del Mar site. I began with engaging in the complex process of obtaining approvals and after several years was able to complete the master plan, environmental impact study and obtain many permits including a museum permit to construct the golf course. This required a painstaking meter-by-meter inspection of the proposed site. During this process we uncovered some interesting Indian burial chambers, not surprising as this area is rich in pre-Columbian artifacts. In fact “Punta Cacique,” the local name for the site, means “Point of the Indian Chief.” This was a little bit ironic as my family refers to my father as “Chief” and he took much amusement in this. We preserved the sites and we were gratified to develop an excellent relationship with the archeological staff of the museum.
The topography of the site was uniquely suited to a multi-phase design. I commenced with a residential development known as Las Altos del Cacique which comprised 130 residential lots in a gated community.
We had to design, approve and build our own infrastructure, unlike North America where you can just hook onto the municipal services. This included four kilometers of high tension lines and over six kilometers of water lines and pumping stations. We made a special effort to bring a level of infrastructure to this development that was unprecedented in coastal Costa Rica. This included underground services, custom designed interlocking stone roadways and hand made artesanil stone gutters. A highlight was beautifully designed gates and entrances by local architect Ronald Zurcher, who has gone on to design the Four Seasons in Costa Rica and has been featured in Architectural Digest and other international magazines.
These lots were well received, and we ultimately sold nearly all of them. We also enacted strict building codes to ensure the quality of the structures to be built on the site. I am proud of the many beautiful homes that stand there today.
The next stage of the development was construction of the Greg Norman Golf course, clubhouse facilities and the hotel on one of the beach parcels know as La Penca. I completed designs for the hotel and clubhouse and Greg Norman’s group completed the golf course design and rough grading. Financing was secured through the regional development bank, and agreements were in place with Starwood, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, to invest in the property and provide management services through their Westin brand.
As we prepared to proceed with construction, we encountered one of the complexities with the Costa Rican system. Apparently there was a disagreement between the registry and the geographical institute as to the nature of the “birth” of this property. This dispute involved issues dating back to the early 70s but had not surfaced before this time.
The result was a potential cloud on the title which would in effect erase the bulk of the property relating to the peninsula; however, none of the lots in the Los Altos residential development were affected. This dispute disrupted the second phase of development. Financing and plans were put on hold while we tried to sort this disagreement out.
The smart move may have been to cut my losses and move on, but I have been accused of being tenacious to a fault. I felt, and still feel, a moral obligation to the people who have purchased lots from me. The Los Altos owners had contracted for and received the title to their lots, but I wanted to continue with subsequent phases of development, and I still believed in the potential for the country and the region.
For the next five to six years I worked to resolve this issue. Simultaneously I supported the residential development by paying personally for the bulk of the security, maintenance and services and in many cases the taxes as well.
In the end I enlisted the services of former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Robert Livingston who was able to get the appropriate people in the United States Government to take an interest. The issue was resolved and our clear title was restored. I am also honoured that Mr. Livingston chose to purchase three lots from me in the Los Altos development and still owns them today.
Subsequently the faith I had in the region has proven to be well founded if a bit premature. In the twelve years since I purchased the property, many resorts have been developed including the Four Seasons located across Bahia Culebra. This resort is proving to be one of the most popular destinations in the world. From the day when we first landed our small twin engined Aztec at a one room Customs shack, the region now has for a bustling international terminal with regular flights operated by American, Delta and Continental.
Certainly the best thing I received from Costa Rica is my three daughters who were all born there and speak Spanish much better than I could ever hope to.
While working in Costa Rica I was honoured to be asked by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC to consider developing a project for them in Grand Cayman. They recognized an opportunity to fill a market niche in the world’s fifth largest banking centre which catered to the very highest caliber of clientele yet was lacking a true five star resort facility.
We were able to acquire the most spectacular site on the island: 144 acres that stretches from sea to sea and occupies the prime spot on Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman’s most desirable real estate.
The $440 million project was set to open on 24 November 2004. We were on track and had booked millions of dollars in reservations when Hurricane Ivan hit us in September. We are now opening the Residences portion of the project beginning in June 2005 and the hotel and related amenities in October 2005.
A recent study on the economic impact of the project completed by Deloitte shows that when all phases are complete, The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman project will bring in excess of one billion dollars of economic activity to the island. The first phase, consisting of the 365 room hotel, Greg Norman golf course, spa, restaurants and related amenities, will be the second largest employer on the island and will contribute fully 7% of the country’s GDP.
In developing The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman I have been fortunate to be able to work with “the best of the best”, truly the finest names in their respective industries. This group was born with our financiers, The Royal Bank of Scotland and our insurers Mitsui Sumtomo. It has grown to include Greg Norman, whose firm is designing and building our golf course, Nick Bollettieri, who is crafting a tennis program, Lynne Florio, president of La Prairie who is opening her first Silver Rain Spa at the resort, Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, who is creating two restaurants for us and Jean-Michel Cousteau who is behind our Ambassadors of the Environment children’s program.
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