After Event Report CHICOS 2025: Alternative Capital Panel Summary
At CHICOS 2025 in Curaçao, our Alternative Financing Panel opened with a simple five-word challenge: “Why Alternative Finance for 2025?” The answers were fast, sharp, and unanimous… traditional capital stack is gone.
Across the Caribbean, hotel development today requires more innovative, more global, and far moremulti-layeredcapital stacks than ever before. Rising construction costs, constrained regional bank capacity, resilience requirements, and the need for long-tenor funding have reshaped how deals get done. And this year’s conversation made it clear: the future of Caribbean hospitality finance will come fromhybrid capital, cross-border flows, fund-linked investors, and digital assets.
Chicos 2025
A region where traditional financing can’t go it alone
Every panelist echoed the same theme. The Caribbean is growing fast, but capital availability has not kept pace.
Natalie Leibowitz,Senior Director of Finance and Investments at Altree Development, described firsthand how developers now assemble funding across multiple layers: senior bank loans, private credit, DFI participation, pre-sales, and structured equity. Her comments about the Vie L’Ven Hotel and Resort project in Sint Maarten summed it up well:“It takes creativity to close the gap.”
Developers now face intense competition for both cost and timing. As Natalie noted, even strong brands and experienced teams are forced to think beyond the traditional senior-plus-equity model to make a hotel pencil.
Cross-border capital and the rise of the Dutch connection
Natalie Leibowitzreminded us that the Caribbean does not operate in isolation. The Dutch Kingdom has emerged as one of the most influential capital sources in the region, especially for Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba.
Dutch-linked investors, pension structures, and private wealth vehicles increasingly look toward the region for yield, diversification, and familiar legal frameworks. Natalie’s Sint Maarten example demonstrated how cross-border capital, combined with flexible private debt, can unlock residential and resort development that would otherwise stall.
Natalie Leibowitz, Senior Director of Finance at Altree Development
Her message was clear:European liquidity is becoming a structural part of Caribbean development financing.
Where traditional bank debt ends, alternative credit begins
Frank Lammersco-founder of (PYGG) highlighted how alternative credit bridges the gaps left by traditional lenders. Banks remain important—but cannot shoulder the full burden of a US$200–300 million capital stack.
PYGG’s cross-border financing perspective underscored several advantages: • quicker deployment • higher leverage availability • complementary support beside bank loans • appetite for construction and pre-stabilization risk • ability to work across multiple jurisdictions
Frank emphasized that these tools are no longer optional. They are central to getting large hospitality transactions to be “bankable.”
Tokenization and digital equity: From theory to practice
One of the strongest reactions came duringAlex Magloire’s(Osmium Finance) segment on tokenization. He outlined how digital assets can democratize investment in real estate—especially large-scale Caribbean hospitality.
Key takeaways from Alex’s insights:
- Tokenized equity can lower minimum investment thresholds dramatically.
- It can attract Dutch, diaspora, and digital-native investors simultaneously.
- It introduces potential liquidity into an asset class long defined by illiquidity.
- Governance, SPV rights, and legal frameworks matter more than technology.
- Yes, this can work for new construction—but requires careful regulatory alignment.
- No, the Caribbean isnot fully readylegally, but key jurisdictions (including Curaçao and Sint Maarten) are advancing rapidly.
Alex stressed that tokenization will not replace traditional finance. Instead, it willexpand the universe of who can participateand reduce the equity burden on the sponsor.Adam Greenfadermade the bold statement at CHICOS 2025,
“Within five years 25% of every new development will have a digital asset as part of its capital stack.”
Alternative Financing Panel
The landowner has become a critical capital partner
In the most candid moment of the panel, we addressed a topic often ignored:the landowner’s role in financing hotel development.Given rising costs and thin construction margins, landowners and financiers likeOlivier Cojot-Goldberg (Titan Capital)can make or break feasibility. Whether through:
- land leases
- phased transactions
- equity contributions
- subordinated positions
- or performance-based participation
a willing landowner can materially de-risk the deal and improve bankability.
Today, land is not just an asset, it is a financing tool.
This shift is especially visible in the Caribbean, where high-quality sites, stable governance, and complex legal systems favor shared-risk partnerships between developers and landowners.
A more complicated capital stack is the new normal
One of the strongest conclusions from the panel was this:A typical five-star resort in the Caribbean now requires 5–7 capital sources.
A realistic US$250 million stack may look like:
- 40 percentsenior construction debt (regional banks)
- 15 percentDFI “green” tranche tied to sustainability
- 10 percentprivate credit or mezzanine
- 15 percentfamily-office/impact equity
- 10 percenttokenized equity
- 10 percentsponsor equity
This multi-layer model can push the blended cost of capital toward ~10 percent pre-tax and support levered IRRs in the 18–25 percent range depending on underwriting.
Alternative Finance Panel Chicos 2025
Resilience, sustainability, and the next wave of opportunity
We also explored examples of green and resilience-based financing, from hurricane parametric coverage to resource-efficient systems.
The message: Resiliency in 2025 is not a cost. It is a source of capital.
DFIs, multilaterals, impact funds, and even tokenized investors increasingly demand credible sustainability frameworks, and will reward them with better pricing, more flexibility, and longer tenors.
Final reflection: A new era demands a new lens
The biggest insight from our Alternative Finance Panel CHICOS 2025 is that Caribbean hotel development can no longer rely on one or two financing channels. The future belongs to those who can:
- design smarter capital stacks
- integrate diaspora capital
- embrace tokenized equity
- collaborate with landowners
- and structure Resiliency as a performance tool
Who We Are: AG&T and Adam Greenfader
AG&T, based in Miami with deep roots across the Caribbean and Central America, is a hospitality and real estate advisory firm specializing in capital structuring, development, and asset disposition/acquisitions. Our team has supported more than US$1.8 billion in projects, with a focus on public–private partnerships, alternative capital, and Resiliency-aligned developments.
Adam Greenfader, Chairman of AG&T, has worked on 55+ Caribbean and Latin American projects over 25 years. He served as Chair on the ULI Caribbean Council, is an advisor to governments, public-private partnerships, and private developers. His book, “Why Puerto Rico Now” (available on amazon), is a best-selling case study for Caribbean developments in 2025 and beyond. Adam is a leading voice in alternative finance, climate resilience, and large scale hospitality development across the region.
If you are exploring a resort development, seeking to restructure your capital stack, or interested in tokenization models for Caribbean hospitality, AG&T is here to help. Let’s build the next generation of Caribbean hospitality together.
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Originally published on LinkedIn on November 16, 2025.
Adam Greenfader is Chairman of AG&T, a Caribbean real estate capital advisory firm with more than three decades of experience structuring and executing real estate development projects across the Caribbean and Latin America, with over two billion USD in aggregate value.