It’s one thing to dream of utopia; it’s another to actually invest in one. That’s what Boykin Curry (MBA ’94), a New York money manager, has accomplished by convincing an A-list of successful friends to buy into what he calls a “Creative Person’s Utopia” on the north shore of the Dominican Republic (The New Yorker, March 20, 2006). At the moment, his would-be utopia is an undeveloped 2,200-acre tract — nearly three times the size of Central Park — acquired for $50 million. Aiming for a highbrow clientele, Curry wrote in one pitch letter: “We are going to keep it Bohemian, and not filled with dentists who got lucky on the stock market.”

The development plan calls for a golf course with villas, a luxury boutique hotel, farms, a nature preserve and science research center, and a beach village with a nearby artists’ colony. Curry will maintain total control over all decision-making. And admission will be by invitation only issued by an independent board. Observed one enthusiastic supporter of Curry’s utopian project: “I don’t know anyone else who’s done anything like this.”

Post a Comment