Back in 2008, Mark Holowesko, an investment management CEO who once managed portfolios overseen by the legendary Sir John Templeton, was one of seven owners of Highbourne Cay, a private island at the northern gateway to the Exuma Cays.
Then an oilman from Texas came calling with a plan to put 100 homes on the 500-acre private island in the Bahamas.
“That just sort of threw me smack at what the Exumas, particularly Highbourne, is all about,” Holowesko told Fortune in an exclusive interview.
So the families bought him out instead, “basically to stop it from being massively developed,” he added. That’s quite contrary to other luxury spaces across the globe that continue to expand and overdevelop rapidly.
Now, they’re putting a piece of the island on the market. Highbourne has quietly launched sales on just nine fully furnished oceanfront villas starting at $18 million and 10 estate homesites starting at $12 million, each spanning at least 10 acres with a minimum of 430 feet of beachfront property.
That’s 19 chances for homeownership on one of the most exclusive islands in the Bahamas, spanning 500 acres. But the rest, the owners say, will stay as it is.
The math of scarcity
For Holowesko, whose day job is still running global equities at the firm he founded in 2001, the logic is that of an investor.
“For us, value is scarcity versus density,” he said. Essentially, the most valuable thing about Highbourne is how little of it will ever be built on. “We bought out the other owners, myself and two other families, and to basically stop it from being massively developed.”
That philosophy was tested when an unnamed luxury brand wanted to develop on the island. The operator toured the island, took meetings, and was, by the Holowesko family’s account, “super interested.”
But the numbers didn’t work.
A luxury resort like that would need at least 60 keys, said Mark’s son, Peter Holowesko, who has led the master-planning effort—and roughly four to five staff per key.
“There was no way we could really have 300 staff on the island,” he told Fortune. “That would really change the nature of the island.”
Because Highbourne sits about 90 minutes by boat from Nassau, every staffer has to live on the island. Unlike closer-in developments, there’s no easy way to commute. So the family passed on the offer from the luxury brand, and bet instead on a handful of large lots for buyers who, as Peter put it, “loved the island for what it was.”
Conservation as a strategy
A major influence on the Holoweskos’ decision to keep development contained is a dedication to conserving the island as much as possible.
Each estate lot runs eight to 20 acres, with a 150-foot setback from the high-tide mark to preserve the natural dune, strict limits on clearing, an approved plant list, and homes capped at a single story.
“If there were 10 more homes like this on the island, you wouldn’t even notice that they’re there,” Peter said.
The family’s connection to the island and its wellbeing also dates back a while. Mark’s mother, Lynn Holowesko, spent 13 years as head of the Bahamas National Trust and helped turn the nearby Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park into a no-take zone. He and Peter also grew up banding pigeons and turtles in those same cays.
“We kind of feel like we’re just caretakers in many respects, trying to pass it on to our kids and our grandkids,” Mark said.
Other conservation efforts include a program run by Bahamian naturalist Elijah Sands, who has documented more than 300 species of plants and wildlife on the island. The team has eradicated every invasive casuarina pine, the Australian import whose needles poison the native plants beneath it, along with invasive sea grapes that chew up the dunes.
They’re also working to protect surrounding reefs from stony coral tissue loss disease and to safeguard other natural rarities, like a 1.7-mile beach studded with stromatolites, among the oldest living organisms on Earth and carbon-dated to some 3 billion years.
Exclusivity as a value proposition
Their bet is also the emptiness, the dunes, and the fish you can catch and hand to the restaurant to cook; it also comes with a value proposition. Buyers get the seclusion they want without the burden of owning their own island. Plus they’ll still have a place to keep their massive yachts, a general store to get some coffee, an open-air restaurant, and, eventually, a beach club with a pool, racquet courts, and a gym.
“They have the financial means to go out and buy their own island,” Peter said of early prospects, but a private island alone can be a lonely, high-maintenance thing.
So what Highbourne is selling is the island experience, minus the isolation.
“It’s really sort of barefoot luxury,” he said. “It’s not flashy or anything like that.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Recent Comments