Jack Dornbusch, the father of Isla de Oro

Although Isla de Oro wouldn't be what it is today without the participation of Venezuelan ex-president Jaime Lusinchi, the real father of Isla de Oro is architect Jack Dornbusch.

Today, as we in the process of restoring Isla de Oro to its former glory, we look back at the history and Jack Dornbusch's role in making it all happen.

Isla de Oro was Jack's first project in Venezuela, and he took on all the important roles for himself: He choose the location, was the architect, in charge of construction, and subsequently the promotion of it.

Born in Colombia, Jack Dornbusch (right) is the son of immigrant Jews who fled World War II's persecution in Europe. Part of his education took place in the United States, and when he was in his early thirties, he came to Venezuela and quickly established a friendship with Jaime Lusinchi and many other important political figures from the two leading parties at the time, Copei and AD (Accion Democratica).

With his access to the highest levels of government, Jack Dornbusch was able to think big and build large projects with government-guaranteed financing. The first of these projects became Isla de Oro, followed by a small "city within the city" called Juan Pablo II, located in Caracas. Later, with president Lusinchi out of power, Jack and several others became co-defendants in corruptions trials launched against Jaime Lusinchi (left), Blanca Ibáñez, Carlos Andres Perez and others. It is important to note that although Ibáñez was sentenced to five years in prison in another case, Jack Dornbusch was never found guilty of any wrongdoing and no corruption charges against him ever prospered. In August 2002, Chavez-appointed judge Judith Rojas de Mora of Tribunal 43 de Control del Área Metropolitana de Caracas finally dropped all charges; laying the matter to a final rest once and for all; clearing a dark cloud of suspicions and accusations which had been hanging over Jack Dornbusch and Isla de Oro for many years.

For Isla de Oro, the involvement of Jack Dornbusch has been positive without a doubt. Simply put, if it wasn't for him, Isla de Oro would not exist. For this, the entire community owes him a debt.

HOW THE PERFECT LOCATION WAS FOUND

When he first came to the country and, through he government contacts was tasked with the construction of a beach resort, he had to pick the best possible spot. It wasn't Jaime Lusinchi who decided where Isla de Oro would be built - it was Jack who took on this task. With his brother, he rented a small plane and flew over the entire Venezuelan coastline for two days; seeing the Caribbean cays and beaches from above.

The first day, he took notes on the locations which were particularly beautiful. The second day, he returned to them for a closer and more detailed look, narrowing down the selection. Isla de Oro's future location was picked on the second day: From above, it was the spot where a series of canals came together and met the ocean, forming a lagoon and what looked almost like a natural island with a peninsula formation. With easy land-access but at the same time surrounded by water almost on all sides, Jack Dornbusch knew that he had found what he was looking for: There was simply nothing like it anywhere else in the country.

JACK DORNBUSCH AND ISLA DE ORO

In his thirties, Jack Dornbusch had a lot of energy, enthusiasm and idealism, and he turned it all towards his dream: Isla de Oro. With his access to government-guaranteed financing, he also had plenty of support from the highest levels of the country and could build whatever he wanted, no holds barred.

He spent more than ten years of his life on Isla de Oro, from the very first day when he sketched out the concept and picked the land. He was the lead architect of Isla de Oro and personally oversaw the construction process. Apartments were pre-sold on plan while they were still being built. On a per-square-footage basis, an apartment at Isla de Oro was sold back then for more money than a similar-sized new apartment in the best neighborhood of Caracas. Many of the new owners who bought were connected to the country's elite: Bankers, TV personalities, congressmen and senators, generals and top businessmen.

When the first two towers were built, and Isla de Oro opened to the public, Jack Dornbusch led the daily management; spending half his time in Caracas and half of his time at the beach club in Rio Chico. For the first decade, he was the president of the condo board and the president of the board of directors of the beach club. While he was in charge there was never any assessment or "cuota extra" as this is known in Spanish. On the contrary, owners obtained income from the rentals of their units: Isla de Oro functioned as a full service condo hotel with restaurants, bars, a cinema, boat service on the canals, and a shuttle transfer between the airport and the beach. We had our own inhouse tennis instructor on staff, and a full time waterski coach who lived on the premises. Under Jack's leadership, the third tower was built and plans were made to construct the final two towers, tower 4 and tower 5.

He consistently called Isla de Oro "my baby", and although he is no longer involved in Isla de Oro - and has sold his last remaining real estate at Isla de Oro - he still considers it his favorite project. He fondly remembers his involvement and the love that he put into building Isla de Oro.

OPPOSITION TO JACK DORNBUSCH

Young, successful and rich, Jack Dornbusch also made some enemies in the process. In part, this was out of sheer envy. Others thought that they could do a better job, and although he was well-liked by 90% of the owners and neighbors, the final 10% took it upon themselves to make his life hard. They started secondguessing him, with illfounded rumors and malicious gossip that had more basis in envy than in fact.

When Jaime Lusinchi left the presidency and Jack Dornbusch becamse a co-defendant in a corruption trial, his enemies seized the moment and took control of Isla de Oro. Day after day, they kept up an unrelenting campaign accusing him of fraud and corruption. Using a combination of fear, slandering and false rumors to obtain a majority vote. By then, Jack was willing to give it up. He was a well-established architect and builder and had plenty of other projects in other states. He was making millions in Caracas, Valencia and elsewhere in the country. Why should he stay at Isla de Oro where he felt that was not wanted?

So in the early 1990's, he threw in the towel and left, giving his bitter enemies what they wanted. This didn't affect his career in the least, but it affected Isla de Oro. The year he left, the five star hotel chain Melia cancelled their operating contract and Isla de Oro has never since been a working condo hotel again.

In the following years, one new board after the other imposed high assessments yearly or twice yearly with little to show for it. Without Jack in charge, the cable TV system fell apart, and later the phones stopped working. The restaurants closed, one after the other, and people stopped coming to Isla de Oro; seeing how the place was literally falling apart before their eyes due to lack of competent management and maintenance.

An attempt to reestablish the cable TV system failed. Meanwhile, much of the infrastructure mysteriously disappeared: Stainless steel industrial kitchens, telephone switchboards, commercial freezers, breaker panels, and even a crucial part of our own inhouse sewage treatment plant. Clearly, in their quest for power his enemies had exaggerated the evil of Jack Dornbusch and forgot to mention his positive contributions to the community.

JACK DORNBUSCH TODAY

Today, Jack Dornbusch is an extremely successful architect, businessman and real estate mogul in Caracas. He never sets foot at Isla de Oro anymore but it is still his favorite project ever, despite his bittersweet memories of the hateful slurs, personal attacks and the smear campaign which small-minded owners started in order to drive him out.

In evaluating his contribution to Isla de Oro it is important to set the historical record straight: No single human being is perfect, but neither is he completely imperfect either. Life is never just black and white. Those who used words like "fraud" and "corruption" in the context of Jack Dornbusch have had to revise their position and his name has been cleared. Those owners have since sold and are no longer affiliated with Isla de Oro. In retrospect it is clear that their war against Jack, which in the end drove him out, did more harm than good ... not to him, but to all owners and shareholders.
Jack Dornbusch did not lose anything when he left but the rest of us did.

Still active in Venezuela, Jack Dornbusch now owns hotels and real estate projects in a number of states in the country. He is affiliated with the Hilton group and is the majority shareholder of Embassy Suites in Venezuela, with two large hotels in Caracas and Valencia. In Caracas, the Embassy Suites Hotel consists of 258,334 ft2 of prime real estate located in the financial area of the city, just a block from the stock exchange and Isla de Oro's administration office. It was completed in 1997 and is one of the most prestigious hotels of the country. Internationally, Jack Dornbusch has since received professional awards and recognition for his work as a Latin American hotel architect. With his wife Anita, he is a fixture on the Caracas social circuit.

He has no plans for ever becoming involved in Isla de Oro again. However, he has told us that he wishes us the best of luck in our plans for restoring Isla de Oro to its former glory. Bringing it back to what it once was would be a fitting tribute to the man who made it all happen and without whom Isla de Oro today would not exist.