Marty Caivano David Keown, left, of Louisville, and Bob Walz, of Boulder, are involved with the Rio Indio Lodge, a new ecolodge in Nicaragua. Keown is a major shareholder, while Walz markets the site.

Sense of Adventure

Louisville man invests in ecolodge in Nicaragua

It reads like a script for an adventure film with an investment twist: An Arvada magazine salesman wins a sales incentive trip to Costa Rica in the late 1980s. During subsequent fishing trips along the Colorado River bordering Nicaragua, he becomes intrigued with Nicaragua as a remote, mysterious paradise of untapped beauty.

Fast-forward to 2006. The salesman, David Keown, is now the chief executive of a direct-sales magazine company that services accounts for 2,000 major magazines, and its subsidiary Health Benefits Club in Arvada. Together the businesses do about $15 million in annual sales.

Keown, who lives in Louisville, also owns two small farms — about 250 acres total — in Boulder County.

But Keown also has become the largest stockholder of the $7 million, privately-owned Rio Indio Adventure Lodge, a 27-bungalow luxury eco-resort in southeastern Nicaragua's Rio Indio-Maiz Biological Reserve. The reserve, spanning 640,000 acres, is a wonderland of lowland tropical rainforest.

"I had never been in the hotel business, but saw an opportunity," he says. "Nicaragua is what Costa Rica was 20 years ago: underdeveloped and prime for international tourism."

At the invitation of Alfredo Lopez, a Costa Rican medical doctor and Rio Indio founder, Keown spent 10 days in the Nicaraguan jungle in the early 1990s, following the election of Nicaraguan president Violetta Chamorro.

"The only people there were Mesquite and Rama Indians," Keown says. "We found a former Contra camp, and boats with bullet holes left from the Sandinista-Contra war. I had no idea about the area's rich history, nor did I imagine the Rio Indio of the future. There was a certain innocence about the people and place that captivated me."

The history includes nearby Graytown, a thriving town built to accommodate east coast Gold Rush miners as they made their way to California in the 1880s. The area also includes the route used by the Spanish to bring gold and silver out of Central America.

In 2002 Keown returned to Nicaragua, to a town called San Juan del Norte, near where Lopez was building the Rio Indio Lodge, a stunning, hand-hewed mahogany complex with cypress poles and tiled floors imported from Spain. The lodge, built over three years with private funds by 300 Nicaraguan craftsmen, was in the middle of nowhere.

"I decided right then and there to invest," Keown says. "I knew it was for me. I'm one of 53 shareholders, mainly Americans. There are 1,600 shares and I own about 250."

Rio Indio is a pristine spot for birdwatchers and fishing enthusiasts, says Boulder's Bob Walz, who is marketing director for Rio Indio, a longtime adventure provider and the owner of Hemingway Tours and Safaris.

Walz, who will lead an October cultural exchange to Libya — the first for U.S. citizens since 1978 — says Rio Indio offers an unspoiled opportunity for tourists.

"The main draw is eco-tourism," he says. "These are unspoiled fishing waters, both along the Caribbean (Ocean) coast and on the Rio San Juan. We have freshwater fishing from the lodge, and take guests out to fish for tuna, marlin, sailfish, red snapper and so many more."

The area has the largest orchids in the world, Walz says, as well as diverse species of flora and fauna.

"There's something for everyone. You can go out in a panga, a motorized canoe with a guide, or you can hang out at the Infinity pool."

A nine-day ecotour costs $3,500 per person, while a six-day bird-watching tour costs $2,000 a person and a six- to nine-day fishing tour can range from $2,700 to $4,000 per angler.

Rio Indio supports the only economy in the region, Keown says. San Juan del Norte has a population of 1,500 people, with no roads, electricity or industry. Many of its residents work for the lodge.

"We're 100 percent accessible with ramp systems, and are sustainable by Nicaraguan standards," Keown says. "We have our own sewage treatment plant and four Cat diesel generators that recycle exhaust. We've installed a satellite dish for communications which makes us more attractive for corporate groups."

Rio Indio currently operates at about 17-percent occupancy, a figure Keown expects to grow steadily.

"We have capacity for 54 guests, and will have room for 180 when we are built out," he says. "Although we are not building right now, we have permits to expand to 90 bungalows total."

In the next two years, Keown and Brad Hogan, who lives in Costa Rica and is Rio Indio's chief financial officer, want to raise about $3 million, half to be used for sales and marketing, the rest for operating expenses. They are preparing to launch a private placement for potential investors.

"We don't get walk-in guests, so the goal is to get the word out," Keown says. "We've already hosted the president of Nicaragua, Enrique Bolanos, as well as ambassadors from 13 countries and World Bank officials. The government has committed to financing an international airport at Graytown."

Currently, Rio Indio guests usually fly to San Jose, Costa Rica, where they stay overnight before flying on to Barra del Colorado, Costa Rica. There, they are met by guides who take them on a 24-passenger boat to the lodge. The boat trip, Keown says, is exotic and scenic, an ideal introduction to the region.

"Rio Indio is a great investment opportunity," he says. "At 50 percent occupancy we estimate the profits will be in excess of $1.5 million a year from room sales alone. We've participated in travel trade shows in Spain and England, and we're looking at opening a yoga school on the premises. Elderhostel has also booked several dates with us for their groups."

Keown says his love for Rio Indio has two dimensions — one personal, one professional.

"I love it as a getaway, it's so tranquil," he says. "As an investor, I'm an entrepreneur. I look for opportunities and I capitalize on them."

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