As sea level rise, coastal storms, flooding, erosion, and subsidence increasingly threaten our coastal communities, many land use professionals have been innovating solutions. In this webinar, speakers from design, engineering, and finance backgrounds will feature case studies of coastal resilience strategies in real estate and land use.
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As climate-related events become more frequent and more costly, resilience has evolved from an environmental aspiration into a financial imperative.
For developers, investors, lenders, insurers, and public officials, the question is no longer whether to build resiliently—it is how quickly resilient design can become the new standard.
Few places illustrate this transformation better than Babcock Ranch in southwest Florida.
Often recognized as America’s first solar-powered town, Babcock Ranch is much more than a sustainability success story. It is a real-world demonstration that resilient planning, thoughtful engineering, and environmental stewardship can protect lives, preserve property values, and create stronger long-term investment returns.
The stakes could not be higher.
Nearly 80 percent of Florida’s 22 million residents live within 10 miles of the coastline, making the state one of the world’s most climate-exposed real estate markets. Hurricanes continue to increase both in frequency and financial impact. Hurricane Ian alone caused an estimated $84 billion in damages, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
As existing infrastructure ages and population growth accelerates across coastal regions, communities can no longer afford to rebuild using yesterday’s standards.
They must design for tomorrow’s realities.
Expected to house more than 50,000 residents at full buildout, Babcock Ranch has attracted worldwide attention not simply because of its approximately 800-acre solar energy installation, but because of how it performed when tested under real-world conditions.
When Hurricane Ian struck southwest Florida in September 2022 with sustained winds exceeding 100 miles per hour, the community emerged largely intact. Homes experienced minimal damage, underground utilities remained operational, residents were able to shelter safely in place, and the town even provided refuge for neighboring communities affected by the storm.
That level of performance was no accident.
It resulted from decades of intentional planning.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Babcock Ranch alongside Amanda Staerker, one of the project’s early land planners. Walking the community reinforced an important lesson: resilience is not created by a single technology or building material. It is the product of thousands of interconnected planning decisions.
From the outset, the development incorporated Florida Green Building standards, underground utility infrastructure, native landscaping, extensive stormwater management, preserved wetlands, and a master plan that works with the natural environment rather than against it.
Perhaps most importantly, Babcock Ranch demonstrates that sustainability and economics are not competing objectives.
They reinforce one another.
Resilient communities experience less physical damage, shorter business interruptions, lower long-term maintenance costs, greater insurance confidence, stronger investor interest, and higher long-term asset values. For developers, resilience is increasingly becoming one of the strongest drivers of financial performance.
As Syd Kitson, CEO of Babcock Ranch, observed in a recent Urban Land Institute article:
“Storm safety was absolutely at the top of our list… How could we convince people they could shelter in place? We knew if we did it right from the beginning, we could prove they could.”
That philosophy offers valuable lessons well beyond Florida.
Across the Caribbean, coastal communities face many of the same challenges: stronger storms, rising insurance costs, aging infrastructure, and growing demand for sustainable development. The principles demonstrated at Babcock Ranch—working with natural systems, preserving ecological assets, investing in resilient infrastructure, and planning for long-term adaptation—are directly applicable throughout the region.
At AG&T, we believe the future of real estate development lies at the intersection of resilience, sustainability, hospitality, and sound economics.
Building resilient communities is no longer simply about reducing environmental impact.
It is about protecting investments, strengthening local economies, preserving communities, and creating places capable of thriving for generations.
Resilience is no longer a feature.
It is the foundation of responsible development.
Miami, March 2022 — In front of more than 250 leaders from the public and private sectors, Governor Pedro Pierluisi announced that Puerto Rico had officially exited bankruptcy — one of the most consequential announcements in the island’s modern economic history.
The moment took place at The Puerto Rico Symposium, co-hosted by the Urban Land Institute Southeast Florida/Caribbean — chaired at the time by AG&T’s Adam Greenfader — and The Puerto Rico Builders Association, whose newly appointed president, Vanessa de Mari, was recognized as the first woman to lead the organization in its 70-year history.
The Symposium was dedicated to both milestones.
For AG&T, the Symposium reflected the firm’s long-standing conviction that Caribbean capital markets thrive when regional stakeholders and global investors sit in the same room.
Governor Pierluisi’s keynote highlighted the island’s economic recovery: the end of Puerto Rico’s population exodus, over 900 reconstruction projects underway, and — most notably — the formal end of the debt restructuring that had defined the island’s economy for the previous decade.
Attending government leaders included:
Moderated by Andrew Carlson, SVP Country Manager at JLL, the opening panel examined the island’s hospitality resurgence — more than 3,000 new or renovated room keys across El Conquistador, Grand Reserve (formerly Coco Beach), Sheraton, AC Hotels, and others.
Panelists included Federico Sanchez (Interlink Group), Dan Kodsi (Royal Palm Companies), Rafael E. Rojo (VRM Companies), and Brad Dean (Discover Puerto Rico), who noted that Puerto Rico had achieved record ADR and occupancy through COVID and was expanding demand across U.S. feeder markets.
Moderated by Ella Woger Nieves of Invest Puerto Rico, this panel unpacked the roughly $80 billion in federal recovery aid.
Manuel Laboy detailed the numbers: FEMA authorized $5 billion for temporary work and $21 billion for 9,000 permanent projects, with 800 currently under construction. Maretzie Diaz outlined the procurement process for private-sector participation, and Pamela Pautenade, former Deputy Secretary of HUD, dispelled misconceptions about relief-fund misuse.
Moderated by Nathan Whigham, Founder & President of EN Capital, the panel addressed Puerto Rico’s emergence as one of the world’s leading blockchain and fintech destinations.
Rodrick Miller, CEO of Invest Puerto Rico, framed the strategic shift: from marketing tax incentives to promoting the island’s labor quality, education system, and expertise in life sciences and biotech. Additional insight from Stephen Inglis(Importal) and Yael Tamar (SolidBlock) explored tokenized real estate and tax-credit monetization.
Moderated by Carla Campos, this closing panel with Jorge Ruiz Montilla (McConnell Valdés), Francisco Luis (Kevane Grant Thornton), and Rogelio “Roy” Carrasquillo (Carrasquillo Law Group) examined how tourism, manufacturing, life sciences, and agro-science tax incentives had translated into measurable job creation.
Speakers from Puerto Rico’s financial sector signaled renewed confidence in the island’s growth. Michael McDonnell, EVP at FirstBank — which had just re-opened its construction division — projected positive GDP growth for 2022, ending more than a decade of contraction.
Banesco USA, the only Florida- or Puerto Rico–based bank recipient of the U.S. Treasury’s $8.7 billion Emergency Capital Investment Program, also participated — a signal that federal capital was flowing back through island-connected institutions.
Natalia I. Zequeira, Commissioner of Financial Institutions, emphasized that International Financial Entities (IFEs) can now participate in special opportunity projects — a meaningful shift for structured capital.
One of the day’s defining moments was a high-level conversation between Adam Greenfader and Andrew Farkas, founder of Island Capital Group.
The discussion focused on the role of institutional capital in Caribbean recovery — how sustainability, ESG frameworks, and long-term investment strategies can help return economic migrants to their island homes and rebuild communities beyond hurricane recovery.
That conversation continues to shape how AG&T positions institutional capital in the Caribbean today.
The Puerto Rico Symposium underscored AG&T’s core belief: that Caribbean capital markets do not mature in isolation. They mature when regional developers, government leaders, institutional investors, and financial institutions build shared conviction in the same room, at the same table.
Announcements of this scale — a governor declaring the end of a decade-long bankruptcy in front of global institutional investors — do not happen by coincidence. They happen because someone, over years, has been convening the conversation.
For AG&T, that work continues.
Excerpts from the 2020 ULI | Heitman Report.
ULI partnered with Heitman, a global real estate investment management firm, to assess the potential impacts of climate change on the long-term viability of real estate assets. Derived from a series of interviews with leading institutional investors, investment managers, investment consultants and others, the report provides members with an inside look at how real estate investors are factoring climate risk into their investment decision-making and management processes.
See full report at : https://knowledge.uli.org/en/Reports/Research%20Reports/2020/-/media/b81db4bbc77845f7834f24b0e974dd7a.ashx
ULI publishes this updated report amid a global pandemic and economic uncertainty. For many, it may feel as if the priority of addressing climate change is dissipating as we face the immediate challenge of COVID-19. Although it is still too early to draw conclusions about the long-term implications of COVID-19 for our cities and the real estate industry, such a wide-scale humanitarian crisis throws the connections between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and our economies into sharper focus.
However, just as the coronavirus has exposed many weaknesses, it has also shown us that we have the ability to adapt and change our behaviors quickly and radically.
Globally, most major economic hubs are in coastal, river delta, or other high-risk areas. These locations present many advantages, relating to connectivity, trade, quality of life and placemaking. These cities house more than half the global population, with much higher percentages of residents in some regions. About 80 percent of U.S. residents live in cities, for example, 39 percent of the European Union population lives in metro areas with 1 million or more inhabitants.
In 2020 (as of October 7), there have been 16 weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States. These events included 1 drought event, 11 severe storm events, 3 tropical cyclone events, and 1 wildfire event. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 188 people and had significant economic effects on the areas impacted. The 1980–2019 annual average is 6.6 events (CPI-adjusted); the annual average for the most recent 5 years (2015–2019) is 13.8 events (CPI-adjusted).
Many of the most economically powerful coastal cities face significant climate risk. However, these cities offer some of the most attractive investment environments, meaning that the risk is worth the return. “We have a dilemma that some of the most attractive markets are also markets that are affected more by weather-related risks,” noted one real estate investment manager. However, a few investors indicated that they are beginning to suspend acquisitions or take steps to reduce their real estate footprint in city markets where they harbor climate-risk concerns. The phases after a big disaster, according to one interviewee, were to see the market buoyed up by subsidies and insurance, followed by rebuilding and speculative demand. This short-term “sugar high” of disaster support, insurance claims, and opportunistic investment likely masks underlying negative and fiscal impacts that could be exacerbated by future climate-related events (or other shocks).
The research found a number of misleading correlations, such as flooding having a positive impact on cash solvency and fiscal health, and hurricanes increasing budget solvency. However, the current model of contingencies will not be sustainable with the expected increase in the frequency and intensity of climate change impacts, as well as slow-moving stresses such as sea-level rise, which further exaggerate the effect of peak events. In other words, a weather-related event has not yet adequately “shocked” the system of contingencies as to break it. However, the COVID-19 crisis may prove to be the ultimate shock to the system that breaks it. What happens when that “extreme event” is no longer a geographically or temporally discrete event?
“There are three big mechanisms through which costs are likely to increase going forward: one is insurance, [and] the second area is . . . tax rates and the third is cost of financing as banks start to cost the added risk.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, made headlines in January 2020 when Larry Fink, the firm’s CEO, stated in his annual letter on corporate governance that “climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects,” and “we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” The BlackRock announcement signified an increasing industry prioritization of climate change mitigation, or efforts to prevent or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Most interviewees also expressed overall uncertainty about future insurance prices and the likely market impacts of shifting insurance policy. In an extreme scenario, some investors envisioned a future in which properties could not qualify for insurance at all and therefore became ineligible for loans. The annual insurance pricing structure can underpredict risk for longer hold periods, as well as for the underpinning infrastructure. The approach also assumes the long-term availability of underwriting capabilities, in terms of the affordability and availability of products. If sites are unable to obtain insurance, they will not be eligible for loans, leading to major potential valuation consequences.
Long-term focus: In lay terms, catastrophe models simulate “thousands of versions of next year,” not “thousands of successive years.”
All agreed that valuation is currently lagging behind recognition of climate risk and anticipate this changing in the near future. Valuation does not incorporate climate risks because it is “backward-looking”. Models typically do not allow a user to modify future climate conditions, and there are no established best practices to apply insights from climate science to catastrophic hazard risk modeling. Valuation has become more urgent for investors considering longer time horizons. Some investors have also informally discussed properties having “expiration dates” after which they may no longer be safe or suitable for residential or business use without extensive investment in surrounding infrastructure.
Anticipating steep declines in building value because of climate impacts runs counter to how buildings are currently valued. In the current model, value is derived from the residual value of the land and structure, plus discounted cash flows over time that drive net present value and cap rates. However, if dramatic changes lead the value of the structure and land to approach zero, cap rates would change significantly, with a steep decrease in value after purchase, and would need to be offset with increased cash flow and profitability to maintain net present value.
Several discussed efforts to design risk mitigation strategies for vulnerable assets and price these costs into deals. Some also spoke about resilient design as presenting opportunities to differentiate assets and enhance value. For example, one interviewee said they were exploring opportunities to create a “resilience zone” for entire neighborhoods.
Parametric insurance, where insurance payouts are linked to when predefined event parameters such as extreme weather events are met or exceeded, is an emerging option. Industry leaders note that parametric insurance may become more widespread, but it is not an appropriate solution for all scenarios. The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) is one example of a regional fund. #heitman
AG&T is committed to being part of the climate solution. AG&T joined over a thousand leaders from local governments, businesses, universities, and other institutions across the country as part of the “America Is All In” joint statement. To learn more click here.
AS PUBLISHED IN HOTEL BUSINESS BY ABBY ELYSSA ON
PONCE, PUERTO RICO—Ponce Paradise—a 900-acre resort, healthcare village and marina located here—is giving guests all the conveniences and amenities of mixed-use, but with a twist.
Master Plan Resort Destination
Adam Greenfader, managing partner, AG&T, the development firm behind Ponce Paradise, said, “There is a trend in hospitality development for travelers searching for a destination that offers a wellness package or amenities.”
Conceptualized by LandDesign and Winstanley Architects & Planners along with AG&T, the teams consulted engineering and aquatic architecture professionals to make the vision a reality, bringing together a mixed-use development and a wellness destination.
“Economies of scale seem to indicate mixed-use projects will be getting larger. The live-work-play concept is really taking hold as more people want to be in the center of it all,” Greenfader said.
Master Plan for Wellness City and Hospital
Ponce Hospital and Wellness City
Still in its early design and community involvement phase, Ponce Paradise will comprise a hotel and spa, wellness community, farm-to-table agricultural setup, a micro-grid, residential neighborhoods, a town square and a university medical center, with a total investment of approximately $1 billion.
Specifically, the 166-acre Wellness City will have research, university and care facilities, which will include a branded hospital, rehabilitation centers, outpatient, recovery rooms, assisted living facilities, nursing home, short-term residential units and condominiums. The wellness lagoon will have restaurants and retail, and a plaza will be home to a worship center, park and entertainment venue.
The development will not only promote health and wellness but sustainability as well. About 60% of the site is untouched and will remain in its natural state, according to the Puerto Rico Conservation Easement Law. Additionally, the developed area has acres of green space, waterways and parks.
“Wellness tourism has been estimated as a $563 billion industry in 2018,” Greenfader said. “Puerto Rico is ideally situated to capture a large part of this market due to its central location, airlift and cruise traffic, U.S. medical doctors and great infrastructure.
“There are many medical treatments that can be done in Puerto Rico for a fraction of the cost—and you get to enjoy an amazing Caribbean vacation experience,” he added.
There are, of course, some challenges. “Less than 7% of Puerto Rico’s GDP is tourism based. For a Caribbean island with great beaches, people and infrastructure, this in incredibly low. The city of Ponce, in particular, has a convention center, port and airport that are highly underutilized,” Greenfader said, highlighting the project’s necessity.
He said the first challenge is to get the Municipality of Ponce and the Fiscal Board controlled by the U.S. Congress to fully use its assets. The second challenge—which is common in any large mixed-use project—is to provide the right combination of uses.
“The last challenge is financing,” he said. “In Puerto Rico, there are $20 billion of Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Relief. We trust some of that will be allocated to critical projects such as Ponce Paradise.”
Following meetings with the municipality, major medical associations, cruise lines and community leaders—each with their own concerns—Greenfader is confident that they will be able to address each group while also honoring Ponce’s natural surroundings.
“Our job as project sponsors is to balance the concerns of each group with the stewardship of the environment,” he said. “The project must make economic sense but also be a valuable contributor to the local region, protecting and enhancing natural assets.”
Greenfader said that as hospitality as a whole faces its own challenges, differentiators like mixed-use developments are gaining more momentum.
“Airbnb and other disruptors have proven that the market is changing and that guests are seeking new experiences. Budget allocations, the desire to be together in large groups and ease of booking a reservation are just a few reasons the hotel industry is adding more residential units,” he said.
According to Greenfader, residential space generates revenue that can assist with the financing capital stack, while also creating a rental pool of additional units for the high seasons.
Ponce Paradise plans to offer three residential options: single-family homes, smaller vacation rentals and affordable “shotgun-style” housing, all with their own facilities and security.
Its attention to health, however, is the real differentiator, with nature serving as both the basis for its design and Ponce Paradise’s mantra.
“Everyone realizes that wellness is holistic; we don’t just treat the physical but the whole mind, body and spirit,” Greenfader said. “Doctors know that a patient’s success rate is often a result of a positive mental attitude. A cold, sterile room doesn’t necessarily lend itself to great health. Great architecture, beautiful landscaping, water vistas, amazing smells, community, etc., can make the difference between success and failure in a person’s treatment.”
Wellness extends far beyond simple offerings here. “Doing yoga with goats may not prove to have ‘legs,’ but resort wellness has just begun to take off. The reasons are simple: Industrialized nations are getting older, people are living longer, and with two billion new tourists coming from India and China, there are many more potential people for this market niche,” he said. “Some experts say the wellness resort industry is expected to double within the next 20 years and become a $1-trillion industry.”
The sustainability factor is also attracting hoteliers, especially in an area that’s been struck by natural disasters.
“Developers are starting to realize that a weather-related crisis can have a devastating effect on operational risk,” he said. “If a hotel cannot withstand hurricane-force winds, floods and mold, then it will suffer huge downtimes and repairs. In fact, hotels may not ever come back online at all.”
Greenfader said that hotel buyers are now evaluating their portfolios for climate risk and realizing that initially spending 15-20% more in construction costs to make a project resilient and sustainable makes good business sense.
“Developers also realize that if they can stay open during a crisis, their occupancy will be 100% or more,” Greenfader said. “During a relief and rebuilding period, hotels host thousands of relief workers, insurance adjusters and other critical workers. It’s a win-win to be resilient and sustainable.”
This couldn’t be more clear than at the current time, when Puerto Rico is beginning to recover from a series of earthquakes, which Greenfader noted had hit the south particularly hard—especially structures built before 1990, when codes were updated to bolster construction for seismic activity.
“The earthquake reaffirms that a project like Ponce Paradise needs to build a resilient infrastructure into its master plan and be forward-looking in its design,” he said. HB
It has become one of the defining economic and development challenges of the 21st century. For island nations throughout the Caribbean, climate adaptation influences everything from infrastructure investment and insurance costs to tourism, housing, transportation, energy, and long-term economic competitiveness.
Recognizing these challenges, Adam Greenfader with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) convened an international Climate Resilience Roundtable in the Netherlands, bringing together planners, architects, engineers, financial institutions, developers, investors, and public-sector leaders to explore how some of the world’s most climate-resilient communities can help shape the future of Caribbean development.
The discussion was particularly timely following the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas in 2019. These events highlighted the urgent need to move beyond disaster recovery and begin designing communities capable of withstanding the increasing impacts of climate change.
Few countries understand the relationship between water and urban development better than the Netherlands.
Rather than viewing resilience as an additional cost, the Dutch approach recognizes it as a long-term investment—one that protects communities, reduces future losses, and creates stronger, more valuable places to live and invest.
As Caribbean nations confront rising sea levels, stronger storms, coastal erosion, and aging infrastructure, these lessons have become increasingly relevant.
Representing the Caribbean perspective, Adam Greenfader, then Chair of the ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean Council and Chairman of AG&T, shared lessons learned from the ULI Advisory Services Panel for the Municipality of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico.
The multidisciplinary panel examined how one of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable municipalities could rebuild after Hurricane Maria while improving long-term resilience, strengthening economic opportunity, and reducing future climate risks.
Rather than focusing solely on reconstruction, the discussion emphasized creating communities that are stronger than those that existed before the storm.
This philosophy—often described as “building back better”—has since become a guiding principle for resilient development worldwide.
Joining the discussion was Henk Ovink, the Netherlands’ Special Envoy for International Water Affairs and one of the world’s foremost experts on climate adaptation and water management. Mr. Ovink discussed how climate resilience requires integrated thinking across government, infrastructure, finance, urban planning, and community engagement.
His work through initiatives such as Rebuild by Design, the Global Center on Adaptation, and Water as Leverage has demonstrated that resilience is most successful when architects, engineers, investors, policymakers, scientists, and local communities collaborate from the earliest stages of planning.
One of the most important themes of the roundtable was the distinction between recovery and regeneration.
Recovery seeks to restore what existed before.
Regeneration asks a more ambitious question:
How can we rebuild communities that are stronger, safer, more sustainable, and better prepared for future generations?
That philosophy extends far beyond engineering.
It includes resilient housing, renewable energy, modern infrastructure, nature-based solutions, flood management, resilient tourism, environmental restoration, and economic diversification.
Increasingly, these principles are also influencing investment decisions.
Since this discussion took place, climate resilience has become one of the most important considerations in global real estate and infrastructure investment.
Institutional investors now routinely evaluate climate risk alongside traditional financial metrics.
Insurance markets increasingly reward resilient design.
Hotels, resorts, airports, ports, hospitals, and mixed-use developments are incorporating resilience into their planning from the earliest stages.
For the Caribbean, resilience is no longer simply about protecting communities.
It has become a competitive advantage.
Destinations that invest in resilient infrastructure, sustainable development, renewable energy, and climate adaptation will be better positioned to attract tourism, institutional capital, and long-term economic growth.
For more than three decades, AG&T has viewed resilience as an essential component of responsible development throughout the Caribbean.
Whether advising hospitality projects, master-planned communities, infrastructure initiatives, or economic development strategies, we believe resilience should not be treated as a regulatory requirement or a marketing slogan.
It is an investment strategy. Projects that are thoughtfully designed to withstand climate risk, reduce operating costs, protect natural systems, and enhance community well-being create stronger long-term value for investors, residents, and governments alike.
The conversations held in the Netherlands reinforced an important principle that continues to guide our work today: The Caribbean has the opportunity not simply to recover from climate change—but to become a global leader in resilient, regenerative development.
By combining local knowledge with international best practices, we can create island communities that are stronger, more sustainable, and more prosperous for generations to come.
Some of the works discussed:
In 2019, one of the defining Caribbean hospitality transactions of the post-Maria recovery era was announced from the stage of the 41st NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference by the Governor of Puerto Rico himself.
The sale of the former Gran Meliá Hotel to a partnership led by Monarch Alternative Capital, together with Royal Palm Companies and Aimbridge Hospitality, and its rebranding as the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve marked one of the largest institutional hospitality investments in Puerto Rico’s modern history — and one of the earliest signals that global capital was returning to the island.
AG&T advised on the transaction.
The $120 million transaction repositioned a 486-key luxury property with 135 bedroom units and 14 additional acres of developable land — part of the Grand Reserve (formerly Coco Beach) peninsula in Río Grande.
The capital structure combined:
Of the total investment, approximately $100 million was earmarked for renovation and repositioning to Hyatt’s luxury standards.
What made the transaction significant was not its scale alone.
It was announced as Phase One of a ten-year master plan — one that would ultimately deliver six hotels, approximately 2,500 new hotel keys, and 1,500 new jobs across the Grand Reserve peninsula. Total planned investment: $1.5 billion.
At a time when many investors were still cautious about Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, Monarch’s willingness to double down — expanding its existing interests in the peninsula rather than exiting — sent a clear signal to the broader institutional community.
The Governor’s remarks at the NYU Conference reinforced the message: “Transactions such as these validate that our commitment to tourism is a successful one, and there is a positive environment for investment.”
The Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve deal represented several important firsts for Puerto Rico:
For AG&T, transactions of this nature reflect our long-held conviction: Caribbean real estate matures when institutional capital, global operators, disciplined development, and government partnership align around long-term vision.
We rarely discuss individual transactions publicly. But the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve deal — announced on one of the industry’s largest stages, by a sitting Governor, involving some of the most respected names in institutional real estate — has become part of the public record of Puerto Rico’s hospitality recovery.
Seven years later, it stands as a marker of what became possible when patient capital, sophisticated developers, and forward-looking government partners committed to the island’s long-term future.
The playbook it established — combining federal Opportunity Zone benefits, Puerto Rico’s tourism incentives, institutional equity, and global operational partners — has since become a foundation for how the most sophisticated Caribbean hospitality transactions are structured today.
At AG&T, our role is quiet by design. But conviction about the Caribbean’s institutional future is not.
AG&T is a Caribbean real estate capital advisor founded in 1998. Principal-led, AG&T has been involved in over 55 development projects across Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and other Caribbean markets — connecting institutional capital with regional opportunity. Contact us to discuss Caribbean hospitality transactions and capital structuring.
In 2018, less than a year after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the headlines focused almost exclusively on destruction, migration, and uncertainty.
At AG&T, we saw something different. While acknowledging the immense humanitarian and economic challenges facing the island, we believed Puerto Rico was entering a period of profound transformation. The combination of federal reconstruction funding, economic reform, tax incentives, private investment, and long-overdue infrastructure modernization created the foundation for what could become one of the island’s most significant economic renaissances in decades.
Several of the themes discussed in the interview have proven remarkably accurate. Puerto Rico experienced one of the largest reconstruction efforts in modern U.S. history, supported by tens of billions of dollars in federal investment for housing, infrastructure, utilities, schools, healthcare facilities, and resilience projects.
The discussion also anticipated the growing importance of Puerto Rico’s tax incentive programs, Opportunity Zones, and the island’s role as a gateway between the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
At the same time, many of the challenges identified remain part of Puerto Rico’s ongoing conversation, including housing affordability, infrastructure modernization, energy resilience, insurance costs, population dynamics, and creating economic growth that benefits all Puerto Ricans.
For more than three decades, AG&T has believed that Puerto Rico’s future extends far beyond disaster recovery. The island possesses exceptional long-term advantages, including its strategic location, U.S. legal and financial framework, highly educated bilingual workforce, manufacturing base, expanding hospitality sector, and unique tax and investment incentives.
Our work has consistently focused on helping connect these strengths with responsible private investment while promoting resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economic development.
The interview below captures an important moment in Puerto Rico’s history when rebuilding was just beginning and the island’s future remained uncertain.
The following article originally appeared in Bisnow South Florida and is reproduced here with permission/summary for historical context.
By Deirdra Funcheon as Published in Bisnow South Florida
Puerto Rico has been desperate for aid that has been too slow and insufficient following hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. But a few on the island say the attention followed might ultimately be a net positive for the commonwealth. “The bottom line is that Puerto Rico in the next two to three years is expected to see strong growth — 3 to 3.5% of GDP,” said Adam Greenfader, principal of Miami-based AG&T Development and Advisory Services. “It hasn’t had growth in 12 years. A depression is defined as negative economic growth for three quarters, so for all intents and purposes, Puerto Rico has been in a depression for 12 years.”
Greenfader married into a family that facilitates Section 8 housing throughout Puerto Rico. He then became a developer there himself. Currently, he serves as the liaison to the Puerto Rico Builders’ Association and the chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Caribbean Council. Greenfader points out that while last summer’s hurricanes devastated the commonwealth, jobs had already been scarce for more than a decade as the government faced a crippling debt crisis, owing $123B and declaring bankruptcy last spring. Though an estimated 150,000 Puerto Ricans fled to the U.S. mainland after the hurricanes, between 60,000 and 70,000 residents had already been leaving each year of the crisis. Puerto Rico’s current population is about 3.5 million, down from a peak of about 4 million, Greenfader said.
Turnaround efforts began years ago. Reforms enacted in 2012 enticed businesses and high net worth individuals to relocate to Puerto Rico by taxing corporate profits at a flat 4% and eliminating taxes on dividends, interest and capital gains for anyone who resided at least half the year in Puerto Rico. For anyone selling a company or large amounts of stock, these measures could result in saving millions of dollars on taxes. Famously, Putnam Bridge Funding CEO Nicholas Prouty invested more than $100M and relocated his family. Billionaire John Paulson bought several hotels. Michael E. Tennenbaum founded Caribbean Capital & Consultancy Corp. Goldman Sachs and various hedge funds moved in and bought distressed mortgages for pennies on the dollar.
Greenfader said that about 1000 high net worth individuals moved to the island, and about 200 are coming each year. Cottage industries sprung up to cater to these ultra-wealthy. Then last year’s hurricanes blew through, knocking out power and killing 64 people directly and 4,645 in total, according to Harvard University. Though the U.S. government responded painfully slowly, $18B in aid has been approved from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and billions more are expected, Greenfader said.
Recovery is slow, but happening. Tesla built a solar array to power a children’s hospital. Doctors are being offered tax incentives to stay in Puerto Rico. Private insurance companies have started to pay claims, so 60% of hotels are now operational, Greenfader said. He believes that when the economy improves, exiles will move back.
Publicity around the hurricanes certainly brought attention to the commonwealth. Immediately after the hurricanes, only about half of Americans knew that Puerto Rico was part of the United States; that number has since risen to 76%. Following the disaster, dozens of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs relocated to San Juan to buy hundreds of thousands of acres of land, take advantage of the tax structure and set up a “crypto utopia.” Greenfader suggested there is more opportunity for economic recovery: Puerto Rico’s tourism industry makes up only 6.5% of gross domestic product, whereas on many Caribbean islands, that figure is 50% or more. That is by design, he said; in the 1950s and ’60s, laws were structured to keep out the Mafiosos who ran Cuba. It could be increased substantially.
Furthermore, the island has long had a mishmash system of collecting property taxes, partly because so many homes are built informally or illegally — “People get a paycheck, buy [a] few beers, invite their friends and family over to build a wall at a time,” Greenfader said — and partly because the tax code hasn’t been revised since 1950s. “A property worth a million dollars might pay no more than $2K, $3K in taxes for a year,” Greenfader said. A better system of collecting taxes could be implemented to make the government more solvent. Although he is optimistic, Greenfader acknowledged the challenges.
While Puerto Rico is a diverse society, where rich and poor have long mixed freely, the influx of people taking advantage of the tax breaks is “adding an upper class the island never had before,” he said, and there has been some blowback. Workaday employees are facing pension cuts and austerity measures as Puerto Rico grapples with its debt. Currently, according to Democracy Now, 55,000 residents are in foreclosure and the government is turning to privatization as the solution for economic woes, which will enrich investors but hurt the working class. In a Bloomberg article Monday about the search for someone to buy the country’s beleaguered electric company, which goes so far as to ask potential buyers how they would like to be regulated, a Puerto Rico resident said, “We are tired of people coming here to get rich and take advantage of us.” Some grass-roots organizations have taken shape to resist Wall Street — forces that author Naomi Klein explores in a new book, “The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes On the Disaster Capitalists.”
Greenfader noted that insurance premiums will likely continue to rise, and the Jones Act, a shipping law that requires goods to stop in a mainland port, makes commodities expensive. Whatever economic policies prevail, at least new construction on the island should be more resilient. Greenfader said builders already adhere to codes that mirror Miami-Dade’s, which were made stronger after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. They use reinforced concrete and no wood. Going forward, he said, there is a commitment to using more sustainable designs, particularly in the energy space, such as solar power arrays and micro electric grids. Today, about 10,000 customers in Puerto Rico who lost electricity after last year’s hurricanes are still without power.
