ARTICLE - MAN WITH PLAN, FOR HAITI

MAN WITH PLAN, FOR HAITI
(Miami Herald) - By David Adams (Special from Poder Magazine)

A South Floridian has assembled celebrities, activists and fellow entrepreneurs to redevelop Haiti as a hip tourist destination.

JACMEL - South Beach nightclub promoter and entrepreneur Michael Capponi is standing in the soon-to-be inaugurated lobby of his latest luxury development.

Men are hammering away to restore an historic old building to its former glory. Capponi is holding forth about the amazing vibe the place has, comparing the semi-derelict building to Ernest Hemingway’s famous old Key West residence, which is a popular tourist museum.

“Visitors will enter here,” he says, treading over rubble-strewn debris. “We’re keeping it very traditional-Caribbean style; brick built, open to the outside, no air-conditioning.”

The 39-year-old Capponi, who made his name in the early ’90s on SoBe with a string of nightclubs, is in his element. Famous for promoting venues like Warsaw, Amnesia, B.E.D. and LIV, he knows “the secret sauce,” as he calls it – ambience, energy, big-name people – required to create a new in scene.

Only this isn’t SoBe, and Capponi isn’t standing in any old derelict building. This is a derelict building in one of the most derelict countries in the world: Haiti.

And that’s not all. Capponi’s new mission involves fixing up a whole city – if not the entire country.

“I think we can revitalize this country completely and make it a place people want to visit,” he says. “It’s doable.”

Until last year Capponi had never set foot in Haiti. But on Jan. 17, 2010, five days after a devastating earthquake hit southern Haiti, killing an estimated 250,000 people, he found himself on a private jet with a relief team he assembled of doctors and a dozen Miami Beach firefighters. It wasn’t a new role for Capponi, who had long been involved in humanitarian causes.

The experience marked him for life.

Capponi has been back 32 times. At first it was as just one of the many relief workers. But that soon evolved into a deeper commitment. He bought 700 tents and built a camp for 3,000 homeless earthquake victims in the capital Port-au-Prince, paid for by several fundraisers Capponi organized with the United Way of Miami-Dade, of which he is a board member.

Now he has gone one step further. Frustrated by the slow pace of the international recovery effort and his desire to resettle the tent city dwellers, Capponi has launched a tourism redevelopment project in Jacmel, a quaint town on the south coast known for its local artists and papier-maché handicrafts.

The idea was born last December when he was invited to visit Jacmel by actress Maria Bello and her friend, venture capitalist Reza Bundy. He saw the potential right away, and immediately began creating a new vision for the historic downtown district. In no time he had teamed up with Haitian business leaders eager to see the town reborn.

Within weeks Capponi had architectural plans ready, as well as a rendering of how the new Jacmel might look. Next he began bringing families from his tent camp in Port-au-Prince to a new camp in Jacmel financed by the United Way and the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.

Capponi’s project has since mushroomed into a plan to redevelop the city and the surrounding coastline, involving a group of American and Haitian activists and entrepreneurs, all united in the quest to rebrand the country as a hip tourist destination.

“This is a dream come true. We want to be a Caribbean cultural destination,” says Yanick Martin, the director of the state’s regional tourism office, who owns an art gallery in Jacmel.