"It was a troubled property but it had three miles of beachfront," Wright says. "Its appraised value today is at least $40 million, not accounting for the development."

Wright says he was slowly putting plans together when the local economy took off thanks to an incredible amount of American capital coming into the area in search of beachfront or ocean views. "America has a love affair with the beach; there's probably $1 trillion of capital looking for beachfront and Hawaii and the Caribbean are too expensive," he says. "The Baja Peninsula on the Pacific coast also has been bid up, so I decided to seize the opportunity; we now have 70 employees and will be building these up and down the Pacific coast here."

People can buy a fully furnished Kiana beachfront condo for $250 per sf. "That's what's driving this," he says. "I was just in the boondocks of the Bahamas and beachfront condos are $1,000 per sf."

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