Hospitality & Resorts
Development management, owner's representation, and advisory for hotels, resorts, and branded residences, from the first site visit to the first guest.
A hotel is a business under construction.
A hotel or resort is not finished when the building is. It is finished when the brand has signed off, the operator has taken the keys, the rooms are furnished and staffed, and the first guest arrives on the date the pro forma promised. Every decision along the way answers to an owner, an operator, a brand, and a lender, each with its own standards and its own approvals. Aventra works only for the owner, and brings to that seat the experience of having delivered this product type at scale, on the mainland and in the islands.
Owners and sponsors of hotels, resorts, and branded residences; family offices entering hospitality; lenders and investors in hospitality assets; owners facing a PIP, an expansion, or a rebuild.
Brand approvals at fixed milestones, an operator with a voice in design and budget, FF&E and OS&E as a second project, an opening date that cannot move, and island logistics.
Feasibility, brand and operator strategy, design management and brand approvals, procurement, construction and FF&E oversight, and pre-opening, as development manager, owner's representative, or advisor.
Fees are a fixed fee or a monthly retainer for a defined scope and duration, quoted in writing before the work starts. Aventra takes no percentage of construction cost and no fee from any contractor, vendor, or consultant on the project.
Six Senses Belize, Ocama Retreat, and Mayaguana North Beach today; The Setai St. Maarten, Barbuda Ocean Club, and Grand Reserve under the leadership's prior tenure.
One conversation about the site, the brand, and the pro forma. No obligation.
Who we serve
- Owners and sponsors of hotels, resorts, and branded residences, from a single boutique property to a destination-scale program.
- Family offices and private investors entering hospitality for the first time, or adding a hotel to a mixed-use or residential project.
- Lenders and investors in hospitality assets who need independent construction monitoring, draw review, and cost-to-complete analysis.
- Destination developers and cruise lines building private islands, resort villages, and port-side experiences.
- Owners of operating hotels facing a brand-mandated property improvement plan, an expansion, a repositioning, or a hurricane rebuild.
- Brand development teams who want an owner they have signed to be represented by someone who has delivered to brand standards in the islands.
Why hospitality projects are different
- Brand standards. Design, materials, and building systems must satisfy the brand's technical services review, with approvals at fixed milestones. A late or incomplete submission costs weeks.
- The operator's voice. Hotel management and technical services agreements give the operator a say in the design, the budget, the FF&E, and the opening. Someone has to manage that relationship on the owner's behalf, every week.
- FF&E and OS&E. Furniture, fixtures, equipment, and operating supplies are a second project running inside the first, with their own budget, procurement, freight, warehousing, and installation.
- An opening date that cannot move. Marketing, reservations, and staffing are committed against a date. Pre-opening readiness has to be planned as carefully as construction.
- Revenue on the line. A renovation or expansion happens with guests in the building. Phasing, noise, life safety, and the guest experience are planned around occupancy, not the other way around.
- Islands. Much of our hospitality work is in the Caribbean, where logistics, labor, resilience standards, and government relationships decide whether a schedule holds. How we deliver in the Caribbean.
What we do for hospitality owners
- Site, program, and feasibility: key count and mix, program, order-of-magnitude cost, and schedule, tested against the pro forma before capital is committed.
- Brand and operator strategy: brand outreach and positioning, support through brand and operator selection, and owner-side support, alongside the owner's counsel, in hotel management and technical services negotiations.
- Design management and brand approvals: direction of the architect, interior designer, and specialist consultants; coordination of the brand's technical services reviews; design held to the budget at every stage.
- FF&E and OS&E: budget, specification coordination with the designer, purchasing agent selection, logistics, warehousing, and installation, sequenced to the construction schedule.
- Pre-opening and turnover: commissioning, brand inspections, punch list, operator turnover, training, and closeout documents, all timed to the opening date.
- Renovations and property improvement plans: scoping, phasing, and delivering brand-mandated PIPs and repositionings in operating hotels.
- Hurricane recovery and rebuild: damage assessment, insurance claim support, and management of the reconstruction.
- Acquisition due diligence and lender monitoring: property condition, budget and schedule validation, and construction monitoring for hospitality acquisitions and loans. Construction monitoring for lenders and investors.
Branded hotels: from term sheet to first guest
A branded hotel answers to four parties at once: the owner, the brand, the operator, and the lender, each with its own standards and its own approvals. Aventra works only for the owner, and manages the other three relationships on the owner's behalf so that brand approvals arrive on time, the budget survives the design, and the hotel opens on the date the pro forma promised.
The discipline is the same whether the flag is luxury or select-service. Our leadership has delivered brand-standard hotels from a 238-key luxury resort in the islands to select-service and lifestyle hotels on the mainland, and we bring the same controls to a boutique conversion, a 150-key select-service hotel, or a destination resort.
Where Aventra sits at each brand milestone
Site and feasibility
Key count and mix, program, order-of-magnitude cost and schedule, tested against the pro forma before capital is committed.
Brand and agreements
Brand and operator selection, and owner-side support alongside counsel through the franchise, management, and technical services agreements.
Design and brand approvals
Direction of the architect and designers; submissions through the brand's design and construction review at each milestone; design held to the budget.
Procurement
Delivery method, contractor prequalification, bid leveling, contract negotiation, and early purchase of long-lead and imported items.
Construction and FF&E
Cost, change order, schedule, and quality control; draw review before the lender pays; FF&E and OS&E procured and installed to the construction schedule.
Pre-opening and opening
Commissioning, brand inspections, punch list, operator turnover, training, and closeout, all timed to an opening date that cannot move.
Branded hotel delivery
- The Setai St. Maarten238 keys
Indigo Bay, Sint Maarten · Setai · Preconstruction leadership † - Six Senses Belize40 keys + 16 residences
Ambergris Caye, Belize · Six Senses · Development advisory, current - AC Hotel by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach171 keys
Fort Lauderdale, Florida · Marriott · Project executive, construction ‡ - EVEN Hotel by IHG Miami190 keys
Miami, Florida · IHG · Project executive, construction ‡
† As an executive of DCK Worldwide. ‡ As Project Executive, Civic Construction Company. Both before founding Aventra.
Asset types
Luxury and ultra-luxury resorts; private-island resorts; branded residences and resort residential; boutique hotels and villa retreats; hotels within mixed-use developments; cruise line destinations and port-side experiences.
Experience
Three Caribbean resort and branded residential projects are in development with Aventra today, in the Dominican Republic, Belize, and The Bahamas. Before founding the firm, Aventra's leadership directed landmark hospitality programs across the Caribbean as an executive of DCK Worldwide.
Current engagements: Ocama Retreat (Samaná, Dominican Republic), Six Senses Belize (Ambergris Caye), and Mayaguana North Beach (The Bahamas). Prior leadership experience, as an executive of DCK Worldwide: Grand Reserve in Puerto Rico, The Setai St. Maarten, Barbuda Ocean Club, and destination projects for a top-five cruise line. The full Caribbean project list.
Built to the brand's standard. Delivered on the owner's terms.
The brand protects its standards. The operator protects its opening. The lender protects its capital. Aventra protects the owner: the budget, the schedule, and the date the doors open.
Hospitality projects, answered plainly.
What does a branded residence design engagement typically include?
A branded residence adds a second set of standards to the project: the brand's residential design requirements and approvals, on top of the hotel's. On the owner's side, the design engagement typically covers the architect's and interior designer's scope for the residences and shared amenities; the brand's design reviews at each milestone; the split between hotel and residential areas, including shared services, back-of-house, and how operating costs will be allocated; the finish and specification schedules referenced in purchase agreements; and model units or a sales gallery timed to the sales launch.
Aventra manages that process for the owner, coordinates the brand and the design team, and holds the design to the budget and the pro forma.
Who manages resort development for owners in the Caribbean?
Owners typically engage an independent development manager or owner's representative who works only for them, alongside the brand, the operator, the architect, and the contractor. Aventra provides development management, owner's representation, and predevelopment advisory for hotels, resorts, and branded residences across the Caribbean, with current advisory engagements at Six Senses Belize, Ocama Retreat in the Dominican Republic, and Mayaguana North Beach in The Bahamas. Our leadership's prior work includes The Setai St. Maarten, Barbuda Ocean Club, and Grand Reserve in Puerto Rico.
When should a hotel or resort owner engage Aventra?
Before the brand and operator are selected, if possible. The brand's standards and the operator's agreement shape the program, the budget, and the schedule, and the owner's position is strongest before those commitments are made. We are also engaged after a brand is in place, and mid-project when cost, schedule, or brand approvals are drifting.
Do you negotiate hotel management and technical services agreements?
We support the owner and the owner's counsel on the technical and operational terms: technical services scope and fees, design approval rights and timing, FF&E and pre-opening budgets, opening date obligations, and the owner's rights during construction. The legal terms remain with counsel.
Do you manage renovations and PIPs in operating hotels?
Yes. We scope the property improvement plan against the brand's requirements, negotiate what is required against what is proposed, and phase the work so that rooms come out of inventory in the smallest blocks for the shortest time, with the operator's input built into the schedule.
Do you handle FF&E and OS&E procurement?
We manage it: budget, specifications with the interior designer, purchasing agent selection, freight and logistics, warehousing, and installation, sequenced to the construction schedule. Aventra does not sell furniture and has no purchasing interest in anything specified.
Is Aventra a general contractor?
No. Aventra does not build. We lead the design team and the contractor on the owner's behalf. Our leadership includes a Florida Certified General Contractor, which is why we read drawings, bids, and pay applications the way a builder does; the firm itself holds no construction contracts.
Is your hospitality work only in the Caribbean?
No. Our home markets are South Florida and the Caribbean, and our deepest experience is Caribbean resort development. We take on select hospitality engagements elsewhere in the United States where the project calls for that experience.
See it in practice.
Development advisory for a private-island resort: 40 overwater villas and 16 island residences.
Predevelopment advisory expanding to development management for a villa retreat on the Samaná Peninsula.
Why delivering in the islands is a different discipline, and where we have worked.
Why a residential-led resort moves the sponsor's risk into design and construction.
Open on the date the pro forma promised.
Tell us about the project. We respond within one business day.