Investing in Barefoot Luxury
Inside Limestone Capital: how Limestone is turning a private Caribbean island into the blueprint for institutional barefoot luxury.
Interview
Key Takeaways
Madagascar proved remote luxury can set its own rates.
Voaara Madagascar charges more than $2,000 a night on one of the most remote islands off Madagascar, and guests fly in from around the world for it. Palm Island is far easier to reach. It's a 10-minute boat ride from an airport, with Mustique and Canouan already proven next door.
Branded residences give investors a faster path to returns.
Most hotel deals earn their returns from operations and the sale at exit. Palm Island adds a third source: 30 branded villas of about 500 square meters, priced around $7.5 million in the pro forma. Owners can put their villas back into the rental pool, which brings in more management fees. Limestone expects returns well above its flagship hotels in Europe.
Limestone owns the brand it operates.
Limestone co-founded Voaara with Philippe Kjellgren, so it sets the brand standards itself and doesn't have to follow a large operator's rulebook. Construction management, design, architecture, finance and fund management all sit inside a firm that manages about $1.5 billion across six hotel platforms.
Investors come in after the hardest part is done.
The two years of structuring and government negotiations are finished. St. Vincent has granted income tax, duty and VAT waivers, and heavy machinery is already working on the island. A bank will fund 50% of the hotel, and villa pre-sales cover the rest. The Topaz Fund, which has raised more than $200 million, is the controlling investor ahead of the December 2027 opening.
Team Members
Benjamin Habbel founded Limestone Capital in 2018 with three partners. Before that, he held leadership roles at Google, where he helped scale Android and Google Maps and served as chief of staff to Marissa Mayer. He was also the founding CEO of Voyat, a travel-tech platform that Intent Media acquired. At Limestone, he built a vertically integrated investor that manages about $1.5 billion across six hotel platforms, including Aethos. He co-founded Voaara with Philippe Kjellgren after following Kjellgren's work in Madagascar for nearly 20 years.
Guy Heywood has spent more than 35 years in luxury hospitality. He began at Four Seasons, then ran Amankila in Bali for Aman founder Adrian Zecha and later opened Amanyara in Turks and Caicos. He went on to serve as COO of Alila for eight years and COO of Six Senses. After that, he was CEO of Hotels at Habitas and SVP of Global Operations for Raffles and Orient Express. He took over as CEO of Voaara in 2026.
Zach Bayman has spent his career in hotels. He joined André Balazs on the opening team of The Standard in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, then rose to SVP of Development. In that role, he oversaw operations across a portfolio that included the Chateau Marmont and Chiltern Firehouse. He went on to open The Maker Hotel in Hudson, New York, as CEO. He joined Limestone in 2024 to lead its expansion outside Europe, starting with Palm Island. He holds an MBA from Columbia.