Mark Birnbaum Catches the Next Wave at Mexico’s Private Nauka Community
Mark Birnbaum, the co-founder of Catch Hospitality Group, is ready to trade wild late nights for gloriously active mornings. He’s ready to go from scene dining to family-friendly excursions. He’s ready to literally dip his toes in the sand as he heads into his next adventure.
Birnbaum is still involved in Catch’s growth around the country, but he’s making a huge swing as he unveils the next chapter of his career.
In November, prolific Thor Urbana real estate developer Jaime Fasja’s Life Properties International will debut Nauka, a 900-plus-acre private club community with beachside residences, cliff estates and golf villas in Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit. Birnbaum, who’s partnered with Fasja on Life Properties, tells Observer that early-stage pricing includes plots of untouched land that range from $4.5 million to $15 million. Nauka members will have access to nearly three miles of swimmable beach, but the most striking amenity might be the 18-hole Tom Fazio-designed golf course with its mountainside/jungle/estuary setting.
“My favorite baller thing is when you get to the 14th hole, you come out of the jungle and you pop onto our three holes on the beach,” Birnbaum says. “There’s a restaurant there, the 14th hole grill. You can have a drink and food and jump into the ocean, mid-round, come back, towel off and finish.”
For families with children who want to tee off, there’s also a Fazio-designed par-3 course under lights.
Birnbaum, who says that the 85 founding members at Nauka include CEOs, private-equity bosses, fashion moguls, Hall of Fame quarterbacks, F1 drivers and other assorted A-list athletes and entertainers, knows that this community is about exclusivity. But accessibility is also a big reason why Nauka exists. A new highway section connecting Puerto Vallarta to Riviera Nayarit makes getting here easier. And the newly expanded Tepic airport’s addition of international service (starting with flights from Los Angeles) has opened up Riviera Nayarit to a wider audience.
But going back to exclusivity: “We actually own the FBO there,” Fasja says of the Tepic airport. “So for a lot of guests who are flying in their private jets, they’ll be able to land in their own FBO and then have a very smooth transition into the property.”
Birnbaum was attracted to Nauka because the beach setting reminded him more of Hawaii and Costa Rica than a desert region like Cabo. As Fasja points out, the latitude and weather in Riviera Nayarit make it a year-round destination instead of a seasonal spot.
Fasja told Birnbaum that he loved the idea of membership clubs mixed with golf and residential development. What better place to create this than on Riviera Nayarit’s unspoiled beachfront? Life Properties is also a major transition for Fasja, who’s branching out from his family real estate business and becoming an operator of highly elite lifestyle destinations.
Like many real estate moguls, Fasja has built luxury hotels (including the Montage in Cabo, the Ritz-Carlton in Mexico City and the Thompson in Playa del Carmen). When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, he had to temporarily close hotels and restructure loans. While quarantining in Cabo, he played golf and started visiting private communities.
“What I realized is that 20 years ago, branded residential was the thing, right?” Fasja says. “Brands like Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton started doing residential products. But then over time, that became too mainstream. What we saw is we had a young clientele that was ready to be buying their second, third, fourth, fifth home. And what they were looking for was a family-oriented community. They also really wanted to have a sense of place. So if you’re in Mexico on the Pacific side, you want to…really feel like you’re on the ocean. At Nauka, we have some of the best weather in the world, instead of being a seasonal place like Cabo. And then for us, wellness became a very big thing. We see that people want to live longer. “
Fasja, who earned a degree in architecture and urbanism before going to business school, is all-in with Life Properties.
“We went from being just developers to actually operating the business,” Fasja says. “We’re doing sales. We’re doing operations. We’re doing management. And we’re also doing the development. We’re opening restaurants. And we’re coming up with the ideas of different concepts for families.”
Fasja noticed that kid-friendly amenities at other destinations often involve indoor video arcades and lots of screen time. So at Nauka, children can go fishing, learn about sea life, visit an estuary, hit the rope courses and zip-line from a volcano.
Birnbaum knows he’s found a partner who’s ready to make a career-defining bet. Birnbaum, who greatly admires what Michael Meldman has done with Discovery Land Company’s private communities around the world, also knows that Life Properties is a new way for him to tap into the clientele he’s cultivated at Catch.
His goal now is catering to discerning families and giving them amenities like a beach club with a 197-foot oceanfront infinity pool; an adventure center with paddleboards and even an Iguana boat for whale-watching; a deep-water marina and yacht club; a sports park and racquet club; and much more. A day at Nauka can mean starting at the go-kart track or batting cages before watching a movie at the outdoor theater.
Nauka will also include Siari, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, which will have 87 keys, including a five-bedroom presidential suite. Siari will feature a wellness center and five food-and-beverage venues from acclaimed Mexican chef David Castro Hussong. The restaurants will serve produce from Nauka’s own organic farm.
A newly constructed high-speed toll road means the journey to Nauka is about 45 minutes from the Puerto Vallarta airport. Driving from the Tepic airport takes about 35 minutes. Nauka’s on-site helipad and deep-slip marina add to the travel options.
Finished residences at Nauka range from $6 million to $12 million, and there’s a rental pool that owners can put their properties into when they’re elsewhere. Birnbaum notes that having members pay an initiation fee of more than $200,000 and yearly dues is more lucrative than running a high-profile restaurant.
“To me, that’s a much better and more interesting business,” Birnbaum says. “Not to mention, I’m taking care of not just an individual but a whole family. And I, now as a family person, am extremely interested in how I’m spending my next hopefully 50 years, God willing, with my wife and children and my friends with their children having the greatest time ever. This is the only business I’ve ever known, entertaining people and giving them experiences. And now I have, for example, a 15-acre jungle wellness facility.”
Beyond Nauka, Fasja, Birnbaum and Life Properties are working on two other developments. Caye Chapel in Belize is a members-only private island with a Greg Norman-designed golf course and a Four Seasons resort and residences. Bruma in Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley is a wine-focused resort community where Hussong operates the highly regarded Fauna and where Life Properties will soon announce a new hotel.
Birbaum and Life Properties are looking at other parts of the world, including U.S. ski destinations and international locales, to do fourth and fifth projects. “Each one of them will have a hotel,” Birnbaum says.
At each property, Birnbaum will continue to do what he does. He’ll contact his clientele of power players and celebrities and tell them about a great experience he’s offering, like how it’s possible to play padel, pickleball or tennis on the ocean at Nauka.
For Nauka, Life Properties has found high-profile members without any advertising or brokers.
“This only came from myself and the partners, and then the members themselves have brought this community together,” Birnbaum says. “It is a full insider, like-minded community of people that are family-focused, interested in the outdoors, ocean, wellness, sports and luxury travel. At the end of the day, we are just doing it with people who want to have a good private time with their family and friends.”
