By Kimberly Toms / Summer 2008
So, you want to retire on your own private island?
Let’s think about that, for a moment. You buy the island. Then what? It is uninhabited, as it is your island, meaning only for you, right?
Now, how will you build your house? Ship all of the materials in, bringing them by rowboat or helicopter to the shore? Or, will you go to the expense of building a private airstrip to fly everything in (including the manpower), first?
Hmm. Logistics, logistics, logistics. Oh, the bane of your existence on your beautiful private island, those logistics!
Additionally, when you need to borrow a cup of sugar or feel like sharing a cocktail over stimulating conversation, who will you call upon, on that very private island?
Perhaps you should rethink your retirement dream. How about a semi-private island, meaning you share it with a select few of your new best friends, and you start enjoying ownership immediately, versus at the ripe old age of late retirement?
Turks & Caicos Sporting Club’s private jet strip.
By doing that, there are no logistical worries, as the jet strip is built. The sporting club is ready to host you for personal training or gourmet dining. You don’t really have to worry about crime, as everyone on the island is a property owner or club employee. And, the best part? That would be that there is no annual property tax.
Heaven. It is turquoise-oceaned, sandy-beached, iguana-inhabited, tax-free Heaven-on-Earth, for only a select few people who think just like you. Well, those who think like you and can afford a minimum $600,000 for a home site on this island of gorgeous, unspoiled beauty.
This “Heaven” is Turks & Caicos Sporting Club at Ambergris Cay, British West Indies.
Turks & Caicos Sporting Club is one of the recent residential sporting communities developed by DPS Sporting Club Development Company of the United States. For over fourteen years, DPS has been creating private, luxury residential communities and equity sporting clubs in locations of both breathtaking scenery and historic significance.
Located at the southern end of the Bahamas, 575 miles from Florida, the natural elements of Ambergris Cay’s eight miles of pristine views, white sand beaches, world class fishing, snorkeling and diving meet structural additions, such as the longest paved private jet strip in the Caribbean, a beach club, deep water marina and yacht club, member’s lodge and fitness center, tennis courts, squash courts, climbing wall, bowling alley and movie theater. The environmental and the manmade also converge, through Zen-appreciative luxuries such as yoga and Pilates studio, double ocean view spa with private treatment rooms and Japanese soaking tubs, as well as an environmental learning center and staff naturalist.
Beyond luxury is the conservation-based planning that protects Ambergris Cay from human overuse. One third of the island is preserved, namely for the wildlife that includes the largest population of the Turks & Caicos rock iguanas (Cyclura carinata), as well as the highly fertile fish habitat that is protected through a strict catch and release policy.
In fact, Turks & Caicos Sporting Club partnered with San Diego Zoo’s Dr. Glenn Gerber of the zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, in order to ensure iguanas are able to peacefully live and thrive with humans co-habiting on the island. To protect the iguanas, the only motorized vehicles allowed at Ambergris Cay (beyond jets utilizing the runway) are animal-friendly golf-style carts.
Although personal transportation will not include Hummers or convertible Bentleys, homes are generally of Anglo-Caribbean architecture that combines British colonial formality with the breezy, relaxed style of the West Indies. Integrity of the island’s development, as well as the ongoing obligation to minimize the footprint of human inhabitants while affording luxury and structural beauty, falls in the hands of an Architectural Review Board, also protecting residents’ investment at Ambergris Cay.
Yes, we are all dreaming bigger these days. No longer are executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities and the financially prosperous dreaming of simply owning a “vacation home.” That has given way to the now more common response to the age-old question of, “If you could have anything you want, what would it be?” Now that the answer of, “To retire young on my own private island,” is a reachable goal, what is next?
