Ophir Sternberg and Ricardo Dunin spent millions trying to turn a resort into a swanky ecotourism hot spot. They failed.
THE REAL DEAL | By Kieth Larsen and Katherine Kallergis | Feb 2022
Miami developers Ophir Sternberg and Ricardo Dunin spent about four years and millions of dollars trying to turn a resort on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast into a swanky ecotourism hot spot. They failed.
Left behind was a detritus of debt, unpaid taxes, missing funds, unpaid vendors and unfinished construction. The American retirees, outdoor enthusiasts and animal lovers who owned the villas were forced to clean up the mess.
All the while, an ownership dispute with Armel González, a local businessman, has only made it more difficult for villa owners to sell their units. One key contention: some of the owners say they were threatened by machete-wielding laborers. That never happened, according to González.
“There’s definitely several significant concerns when developing abroad,” said lawyer George Breur of the Miami law firm Mark Migdal & Hayden. “If the project goes bust, what recourse would I as an investor have to sue a contractor or developer?”
Buying property in developing nations carries plenty of risks, from sudden currency devaluations that can topple governments to endemic corruption and somewhat imperfect enforcement of the rule of law.
In Nicaragua, protests against President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian rule, which included the killing of unarmed activists by the police, ultimately upended Sternberg and Dunin’s plans. The situation got worse when a global pandemic disrupted international travel for more than two years.
Among the many questions left unanswered is a big one: No one will claim ownership of the entity that controlled the common areas, as well as outstanding debt to the government amounting to more than $1 million, according to villa owners.
Investors say they were misled all along by Lionheart Capital, led by Sternberg and at the time, Dunin. They say they bought into a glittering track record that included a luxury condo development in Miami Beach, the Ritz-Carlton Residences, that Lionheart completed in 2019.
These days, only Sternberg is left of Lionheart’s principals. The pair split after the Nicaragua debacle. Sternberg is leading a $33 billion — yes, billion — SPAC with John Ruiz, a Miami healthcare trial attorney, to take Ruiz’s healthcare litigation business public.
The saga of Aqua Wellness Resort is a cautionary tale of how human hubris collided with emerging-market real estate. More than that, it’s the tale of what happens to small-time investors when swaggering Miami developers decide to cut their losses and leave.
A $45 million bet
Lionheart’s big adventure began in 2014….
