Gar­ry Olsen, an ex­pe­ri­enced prop­er­ty de­vel­op­er from up­state New York, first vis­it­ed To­ba­go as part of an in­ter­na­tion­al ho­tel con­sul­tan­cy 40 years ago. In sub­se­quent vis­its to the is­land, he spot­ted some flat land on the wind­ward side of is­land in the com­mu­ni­ty of Rox­bor­ough and thought to him­self that it would make a great de­vel­op­ment.

Olsen’s vi­sion for a prop­er­ty de­vel­op­ment on the ocean­front at Rox­bor­ough was un­veiled last month when the multi­na­tion­al hos­pi­tal­i­ty com­pa­ny, Hilton, an­nounced the sign­ing of Ele­phant Tree Re­sort and Vil­las To­ba­go, the first Ta­pes­try Col­lec­tion by Hilton ho­tel on the is­land, sched­uled to open in 2028.

The all-in cost of the project—in­clud­ing a pri­vate waste­water treat­ment plant, wa­ter stor­age and land ac­qui­si­tion—is TT$350 mil­lion, which is about US$52 mil­lion.