Frank Ranieri: FROM TRANSLATOR TO OWNER IN PUNTA CANA
Frank Ranieri.
Carmen Suarez / Clave Digital.
July 2009
SANTO DOMINGO, DN- Everything is ready for lunch at the office of hotelier Frank Ranieri. The main guest is the Secretary of Public Works with whom the team stumbles into the elevator.
In the lobby of the office of Ranieri, there are upholstered wall pictures with political leaders most prominent of the last 36 years. Precisely the age of Punta Cana, a project born from "nothing" that today is among the 10 companies that contribute most to the Treasury. And is that policy and activity business which goes hand in hand in the fragile framework of the institutional Dominican Republic.
Outgoing and sociable, the hotelier weighs in the new attempt at tax reform to the existence of a national development plan, "as I told Balaguer in 1986 at the American Chamber of Commerce. "
Ranieri, associated with Ted Kheel, a prominent U.S. labor lawyer since 1971, the couturier Oscar de la Renta and singer Julio Iglesias, since 1997, positioned his project to the height of the jet set internationally. Senator Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton, former U.S. President, have six consecutive years vacationing in Punta Cana
Then the conversation with Frank Ranieri, who confirms that he was blocked by industry peers
not to assume the presidency of the National Council Private Enterprise (CONEP), the main organization of Dominican Republic's business.
P. How the story begins for Punta Cana?
R. The lands were purchased by Americans in 1967 Merchant Seamen's Union called on President Johnson some land in a national park build a merchant marine school, because gave crude. They were at war in Vietnam.
President Johnson told them to come to Dominican Republic and find a site. He intended to help the Dominican Republic to overcome the effects of the civil war of 1965.
They came and photographed from the air all along the coast looking for an appropriate place. during one of the photo surveys were found the beautiful beaches of the East. They did not speak Spanish and I was hired as a translator because my uncle Oscar Imbert, who lived in Puerto Rico, was contacted.
I was a recent graduate, was 24 years old, and ran a little business of tractors and spray planes associated with Pedro Morales Troncoso Pastoriza and Sebastian. I believed that my future lay in agriculture.
P. How did they get the land?
R. They asked me to find out who the owners were. The first record found dating to 1938 was to the name Salvador Coiscou Ortiz and Eduardo Read Barreras. Then passed to Br?gido Perez and Eduardo Read Barreras.
The titles were passed from hand to hand until in 1964 Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, of San Pedro de Macoris, bought most of the 5,000 hectares, and Honorio Gonzalez Mateo, a furniture dealer, got 62 hectares in return for a bedroom set a higueyano had bought and had no way to pay those notes and paid by giving up his title.
From Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and Gonzalez we bought the land from via the Tourism Development Company
Residential and Industrial (CODDETRESA). We bought 5,788 hectares on December 18, 1969. There begins
Punta Cana These people wanted desperate to get rid of the land, there were no roads, no nothing.
P. How you met Ted Kheel?
R. Ted Kheel, a labor lawyer with a history of a 18 000 mediations in his career, gave a party in Miami attended by bankers and unionists. Amid the celebration, one of the people who had taken photographs of the beaches
of the East showed some photos, and announced that Dominican Republic were selling 15,000 acres (58
million meters) for 250 thousand dollars.
Ted, who had two drinks over, proposed that each of those present furnished $ 25,000 to buy them. Among which were the Tishman brothers, builders of the twin towers, Edmond Zafra, then president of the Republic Bank, John Dunlop, among others.
The unionists said they had no money but Kheel devised a method for financing and they agreed to not be left out of the business deal. Kheel asked the person that had obtained the photos-Keith-Treito to come to the Dominican Republic to buy the land and find out what to do with them.
As I spoke English Treito hired me to be his advisor.
I got through to Alfredito Mario Imbert who lent (rented) me the helicopter that was of Ramfis Trujillo. We Bought the land but it took 6 months and the project advance stalled.
P. Finally, how a translator becomes a partner?
R. I had read in a Life magazine article about a fishing village where it was to be shoot a film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
They said that after that movie was filmed, "The Night of the Iguana", Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, would become a tourism destination. When I traveled by jeep the area from Macao to Juanillo, I was struck by the area. The worm of hotel adventure running through my veins.
My grandparents had directed the best hotels of its time in 1900 Puerto Plata and Santiago.
When I attended a meeting with Ted Kheel at his office in New York at 280 Park Avenue, he was accompanied by about 30 members, all of whom were people with the ability to call the White House directly.
They began to ask what had been done and what was going be done and he, who had hired me, had no
answwers. I remembered what I had read in the magazine Life and said the first thing to do was to buy a tractor, build some cabins, a house Club, a small landing strip and two power plants.
Days later Kheel called to offer me work.
He wanted to do all that I said at the meeting in record time. With the boldness of my 24 years, I told him that I did not work for anyone, but as partner and I asked to be given some shares.
He asked how much I earned on wages. And I think that was the only time I lied to him. I told him
USD$ 800. He agreed to pay me $ 1,200 monthly and a percentage of the shares if I fulfilled all that I had said and the estimated cost price.
So Punta Cana began as I inaugurated the cabins on 24 October 1971. President Balaguer attended the
inauguration. The road was difficult. The country was not prepared for that and I was against the Central Bank with all staff to boot.
P. Why was it against? The impression we have is that you gain an alliance with all governments.
R. Quite the contrary. We never got included in the law 153 of tourism incentives. I opened my cabins in time,
on October 24, 1971 and in 1972 got opened Infratur. But instead of receiving support I find a State body totally against, because they said that if would invest in the country it had to be done where the
government said, not where Frank Ranieri wanted.
The law 153 Balaguer had issued was one which he had also maimed. The law only favored the tourist resorts of
Santo Domingo, Boca Chica and Puerto Plata. This delayed the tourism development in the region.
To build (1977 - 1980) the Club Med, with whom later we partnered, we had to commit to pay the Central Bank USD $ 20 per room. We were the only ones thus penalized by the state. We got qualified in 1986 when we were going to build Punta Cana Beach Resort, after years of struggle.
Frank Ranieri.
Carmen Suarez / Clave Digital.
July 2009
SANTO DOMINGO, DN- Everything is ready for lunch at the office of hotelier Frank Ranieri. The main guest is the Secretary of Public Works with whom the team stumbles into the elevator.
In the lobby of the office of Ranieri, there are upholstered wall pictures with political leaders most prominent of the last 36 years. Precisely the age of Punta Cana, a project born from "nothing" that today is among the 10 companies that contribute most to the Treasury. And is that policy and activity business which goes hand in hand in the fragile framework of the institutional Dominican Republic.
Outgoing and sociable, the hotelier weighs in the new attempt at tax reform to the existence of a national development plan, "as I told Balaguer in 1986 at the American Chamber of Commerce. "
Ranieri, associated with Ted Kheel, a prominent U.S. labor lawyer since 1971, the couturier Oscar de la Renta and singer Julio Iglesias, since 1997, positioned his project to the height of the jet set internationally. Senator Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton, former U.S. President, have six consecutive years vacationing in Punta Cana
Then the conversation with Frank Ranieri, who confirms that he was blocked by industry peers
not to assume the presidency of the National Council Private Enterprise (CONEP), the main organization of Dominican Republic's business.
P. How the story begins for Punta Cana?
R. The lands were purchased by Americans in 1967 Merchant Seamen's Union called on President Johnson some land in a national park build a merchant marine school, because gave crude. They were at war in Vietnam.
President Johnson told them to come to Dominican Republic and find a site. He intended to help the Dominican Republic to overcome the effects of the civil war of 1965.
They came and photographed from the air all along the coast looking for an appropriate place. during one of the photo surveys were found the beautiful beaches of the East. They did not speak Spanish and I was hired as a translator because my uncle Oscar Imbert, who lived in Puerto Rico, was contacted.
I was a recent graduate, was 24 years old, and ran a little business of tractors and spray planes associated with Pedro Morales Troncoso Pastoriza and Sebastian. I believed that my future lay in agriculture.
P. How did they get the land?
R. They asked me to find out who the owners were. The first record found dating to 1938 was to the name Salvador Coiscou Ortiz and Eduardo Read Barreras. Then passed to Br?gido Perez and Eduardo Read Barreras.
The titles were passed from hand to hand until in 1964 Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, of San Pedro de Macoris, bought most of the 5,000 hectares, and Honorio Gonzalez Mateo, a furniture dealer, got 62 hectares in return for a bedroom set a higueyano had bought and had no way to pay those notes and paid by giving up his title.
From Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and Gonzalez we bought the land from via the Tourism Development Company
Residential and Industrial (CODDETRESA). We bought 5,788 hectares on December 18, 1969. There begins
Punta Cana These people wanted desperate to get rid of the land, there were no roads, no nothing.
P. How you met Ted Kheel?
R. Ted Kheel, a labor lawyer with a history of a 18 000 mediations in his career, gave a party in Miami attended by bankers and unionists. Amid the celebration, one of the people who had taken photographs of the beaches
of the East showed some photos, and announced that Dominican Republic were selling 15,000 acres (58
million meters) for 250 thousand dollars.
Ted, who had two drinks over, proposed that each of those present furnished $ 25,000 to buy them. Among which were the Tishman brothers, builders of the twin towers, Edmond Zafra, then president of the Republic Bank, John Dunlop, among others.
The unionists said they had no money but Kheel devised a method for financing and they agreed to not be left out of the business deal. Kheel asked the person that had obtained the photos-Keith-Treito to come to the Dominican Republic to buy the land and find out what to do with them.
As I spoke English Treito hired me to be his advisor.
I got through to Alfredito Mario Imbert who lent (rented) me the helicopter that was of Ramfis Trujillo. We Bought the land but it took 6 months and the project advance stalled.
P. Finally, how a translator becomes a partner?
R. I had read in a Life magazine article about a fishing village where it was to be shoot a film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
They said that after that movie was filmed, "The Night of the Iguana", Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, would become a tourism destination. When I traveled by jeep the area from Macao to Juanillo, I was struck by the area. The worm of hotel adventure running through my veins.
My grandparents had directed the best hotels of its time in 1900 Puerto Plata and Santiago.
When I attended a meeting with Ted Kheel at his office in New York at 280 Park Avenue, he was accompanied by about 30 members, all of whom were people with the ability to call the White House directly.
They began to ask what had been done and what was going be done and he, who had hired me, had no
answwers. I remembered what I had read in the magazine Life and said the first thing to do was to buy a tractor, build some cabins, a house Club, a small landing strip and two power plants.
Days later Kheel called to offer me work.
He wanted to do all that I said at the meeting in record time. With the boldness of my 24 years, I told him that I did not work for anyone, but as partner and I asked to be given some shares.
He asked how much I earned on wages. And I think that was the only time I lied to him. I told him
USD$ 800. He agreed to pay me $ 1,200 monthly and a percentage of the shares if I fulfilled all that I had said and the estimated cost price.
So Punta Cana began as I inaugurated the cabins on 24 October 1971. President Balaguer attended the
inauguration. The road was difficult. The country was not prepared for that and I was against the Central Bank with all staff to boot.
P. Why was it against? The impression we have is that you gain an alliance with all governments.
R. Quite the contrary. We never got included in the law 153 of tourism incentives. I opened my cabins in time,
on October 24, 1971 and in 1972 got opened Infratur. But instead of receiving support I find a State body totally against, because they said that if would invest in the country it had to be done where the
government said, not where Frank Ranieri wanted.
The law 153 Balaguer had issued was one which he had also maimed. The law only favored the tourist resorts of
Santo Domingo, Boca Chica and Puerto Plata. This delayed the tourism development in the region.
To build (1977 - 1980) the Club Med, with whom later we partnered, we had to commit to pay the Central Bank USD $ 20 per room. We were the only ones thus penalized by the state. We got qualified in 1986 when we were going to build Punta Cana Beach Resort, after years of struggle.
