profitable, fun-filled protection
THE LOGICAL PATH OF AN ECOTOURSIM PIONEER
For Stanley Selengut, the best entertainment comes from designing and operating resorts that can be genuinely enjoyed on many levels ... for countless generations to come.

Jerome Goldstein

When Stanley Selengut discusses ecotourism today, he talks of the importance of a “sense of place” — the factors like wildlife, fauna, natives, traditions, local foods ... everything that makes a specific region truly special. Then he quickly points out the responsibility that an ecotourism developer has for fostering the sustainable quality of this special place.

Each of these ingredients — the sense of place and need for sustainability — makes it difficult for large scale (“normal”) real estate developers to embrace ecotourism. “It’s tough to ‘cookie cutter’ these elements ... to try to be responsible for the long-term environment, to avoid fossil fuel use as much as possible ... to support local entrepreneurial efforts, while providing economic opportunities, and to protect soil and water.”

Then Selengut shows his own uniqueness — as well as some 50 years of business experience — with this observation. “Actually the qualities needed for successful ecotourism are more attuned to the entertainment industry than real estate development. At our new resort north of Orlando - the Refuge of Ocklawaha — as well as our 114 unit Maho Bay Campground in the Virgin Islands — we are attracting people who are looking for adventure, a freshness from their vacation experience. Most resorts try to protect guests from experience, but we try our best to put them into the experience.”

INCAN ARTS AND UTOPIAN FURNITURE

In a sense, it’s fair to say that Selengut’s career in ecotourism had its start when he and his wife spent a lengthy honeymoon in South America, becoming enmeshed in primitive life and crafts. In 1957, they started a combined retail store, import company in New York City’s Greenwich Village called Piñata Party. Soon, department store buyers also became enthralled with the merchandise, and the Selenguts and a partner-friend were contracting with Quechua Indian craftsmen of Peru’s Andes to produce all kinds of crafts. To obtain their stock, the partners took turns going back to the wilderness, paddling down rivers, traversing the jungle and having a “weird, but wonderful time” (according to a 1961 article in Business Week entitled “Fifth Ave. Discovers Incan Arts.”) The company (Piñata Party, Inc.) grew to service 1,100 stores in the U.S. and employed more then 2,000 Andean Indians. Complete villages existed on revenues from their woolen, leather and fur accessories.

When competition lowered prices and threatened to destroy the nascent cash economy of the Indians, Selengut worked with members of the Kennedy Administration to develop new products and markets under the Alliance for Progress. After selling out his share of Piñata Party to his partner, he served as a consultant for the State Department, arranging 14 contracts in Latin America, and then as a staff advisor for the Office of Economic Opportunity.

By 1970, Selengut was into another field in order to market a line of wooden furniture that he had invented for kids which worked on the same principle as a giant Tinkertoy. His company was called Children’s Motivational Environments, Inc., producing furniture that could be used for beds, toy chests, desks and seats as needed. (A complete system is housed in the permanent collection of The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.)

MAHO BAY CAMPS AND ECOTENTS

In the mid-1970s. Selengut set up a design consulting firm which received an assignment from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to study low income housing in the Bronx. This led to another project in the Virgin Islands National Park on St. John about how to develop an economically viable resort compatible with National Park mandates.

Over the past 22 years, the 114-unit environmentally-responsible Maho Bay Campground has flourished with a 95 percent high-season occupancy that makes it one of the most profitable businesses on St. John. One adjacent section is called Harmony, which brings together the latest ecodesigns and technologies. Projects now fully developed are Estate Concordia and Concordia Ecotents which feature roofing materials that reflect heat and transmit light, capture rain water in cisterns and composting toilets.

In a 1994 article in Solar Today, Selengut explained how he met the original challenges to fulfill the promise of ecotourism: “I designed a small, inexpensive ‘tent cottage’ which could fit within the existing trees and plants. The light structures could be supported by four inch by four inch columns on hand-dug footings. The walks were built first and construction materials were wheeled along the walks and carried into place. Pipes and electrical cables were hidden under the walks rather than buried in trenches.

Selengut started small (18 units) with a modest cash investment, then attracted more guests, using the profits to add a few units at a time. “The property has been restored to a healthier wildlife and horticultural habitat than before it was developed,” he notes proudly.

His latest plans for Maho Bay are to expand the cottage industry that can capitalize on the ecotourism market, such as recycled glass and aluminum craftswares turned out in the kilns. The recyclables, collected on the Island, are melted and then shaped in molds by skilled residents.

PARTNERS IN THE NEW REFUGE

Located in central Florida 40 miles north of Orlando, the Refuge at Ocklawaha opened for guests two months ago. In developing this project, Selengut is partnering with nonprofits, a government agency and a private investor. Josh Reichert of the Philadelphia-based Pew Foundation provided the initial investment to turn land controlled by the St. John’s River Water Management District into “quality ecotourism”. Eventually, the Florida Audubon Society and then Selengut and a San Diego real estate development company, Excel Legacy, joined the project. The 52-acre site was formerly a family hunting lodge and farm, and is now part of a 6,000 acre wetland restoration.

According to resort manager Jonnie Williams, “right from the beginning, the big concept was recycling.” Existing buildings would be renovated, not torn down; Big screened porches were added to the 11 Cracker-style cottages and white tin was used to replace old roofs to better reflect the sun’s heat. As expansion takes place, the future cabins will be equipped with graywater recycling, solar panels and sustainable technology. The final stage will be the ecocottages similar to those now in use at Maho Bay.

“It’s all very sophisticated and design oriented, with minimum need for air conditioners, maximum preservation of trees and foliage, using Smart wood and nontoxic furnishings,” says Williams, a fifth generation Floridian. “We have a real commitment to preserve the history and culture of this area; and we’ll be working closely with a cooperative of local artisans.”

For Selengut, this latest project — with its mix of partners in government nonprofit and for-profit worlds — represents a great opportunity to train people and communicate how profitable the ecotourism concept can be on all levels. “The potential in working together is much greater then what any of these entities can do on their own.”