REVISTA PALMAS_66 ABRIL 2022

Why Palmas?
The Stevens Family
By Allan Stevens
Living in Puerto Rico was part of our plan from the moment
we learned about it. We didn’t know when or how,
and we had barely even set foot on this magical little
island. But the lure of a Caribbean adventure, incentives
for our business, the opportunity to explore a new part
of the world and a different culture were enticing.
In 2018, I visited Puerto Rico for the first time. A member
of an ecommerce sellers group I belonged to had
recently bought a place in Dorado Beach East
and opened his home to about 30 of us.
We came from all over the world and
just like me, many of these guys had
never been to Puerto
Rico before. We hit
the usual touristy
spots, ate at great
restaurants and
chartered a catamaran out to the desolate tropical paradise
of Culebrita in between networking and learning
about Puerto Rico living. After my stay in Dorado
I couldn’t imagine wanting anything else. An exclusive,
luxurious, Ritz Carlton Reserve property in a prime location.
But even before the recent post-covid real estate
boom, the most basic accommodations inside the gates
of Dorado were a stretch. I headed home, knowing that
Puerto Rico would play a role in our future.
About a year later the pandemic began to unfold and
in the early days, we transitioned our Santa Barbara office
to a remote work environment and found that our
team was more productive and much more content
working from home. Once we made the decision to
permanently close our office, the opportunity to live
and work anywhere in the world materialized and Puerto
Rico was within reach.
We started our online research and found information
about family friendly communities outside of Dorado.
We found Entrepreneurs on Fire, Jen there Done That,
The Prince Family and Lana Shafler sharing their Puerto
Rico move experiences. And then came the video: “Palmas
Del Mar: The Best Place To Live in Puerto Rico,”
produced by Palmas residents Lee Morris and Patrick
Hall. Ricardo Casillas was featured speaking about the
neighborhood while various people from Palmas moved
around in slow motion through picturesque scenes at
the beach, athletic club, hiking trails and more and went
on to include testimonials about the community and
why moving to Palmas was the best decision they had
ever made. This sort of over-the-top marketing had us
hook line and sinker.
In May of 2020 I forwarded the Palmas video to a
friend, Franky Farina, along with an example listing for
a house on Harborview and asked if he wanted to join
me on an exploratory trip. We toured the community
in June and on the second day of our trip, Franky made
an offer on a house. I thought to myself “well sh*t, I
guess it’s happening then” and called up my wife to let
her know we also would be moving soon. We found a
beautiful house on Shell Castle Road that Lillian Gonzales
of Elite Real Estate had just listed and moved quickly