Frank Rainieri
| Frank Rainieri | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Frank Rainieri with his family | |
| Born |
Circa 1944[1] Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic |
| Nationality | Dominican |
| Ethnicity | White Dominican |
| Alma mater | Saint Joseph's University[2] |
| Known for | Founder and developer of Punta Cana |
| Net worth | Near US$ 1.0 billion |
| Board member of | Puntacana Group |
| Spouse(s) | Haydée Kuret Pacheco[3] |
| Children | Paola, Francesca, and Frank Elías[3] |
| Parent(s) | Francisco Rainieri, Venecia Marranzini[4] |
| Relatives |
† Fernando Rainieri (brother) Celso Marranzini (second-cousin) |
| Awards | Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella, Order of Christopher Columbus |
Francisco Rafael ‘Frank’ Rainieri Marranzini is a businessman from the Dominican Republic. He is the chairman and founder of Puntacana Group. According to Forbes, Rainieri has one of the ten largest fortunes in the Dominican Republic, with a net worth near the billion-dollar mark.[5] In 2015, he was designated ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Dominican Republic, a position that his father also held 4 decades earlier.[6]
Early life
Rainieri was born into a family with tradition of hospitality.[4] His paternal grandparents, Isidoro Rainieri and Bianca Franceschini,[4] migrated from Bologna,[7] northern Italy, to northern Dominican Republic, and established two hotels, one in Puerto Plata and the other in Santiago; they had more than 10 children.[4] His parents were Francisco Rainieri Franceschini and Venecia Marranzini Lepore (daughter of the Italian immigrants Orazio Michelo Marranzini Inginio and Inmaccolatta Lepore Rodia, who migrated as children with their respective families, all of them natives of Santa Lucia di Serino, in southern Italy).
He went to college in Philadelphia at Saint Joseph's College, now Saint Joseph's University.[2]
Punta Cana
In 1969, Rainieri and Theodore Kheel,[8] a high-powered New York attorney and labor mediator, acquired a 58-million square meter lot on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, which was covered with jungle and six miles of beach.[2][9][10] Their first project was a 40 guest hotel called the Punta Cana Club, inaugurated two years later.[2] In 1979, they constructed The Puntacana Hotel. The Punta Cana International Airport followed in 1984.[9] In 1997, Rainieri and Kheel partnered with Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias to start work on the Punta Cana Marina and the real estate development of the area.[2]
References
- ↑ López, Myriam (21 December 2003). "Grupo Punta Cana: La historia de un soñador" (in Spanish). Hoy. Archived from the original on 9 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
Todavía no había cumplido 24 años cuando Frank Rainieri decidió convertir a Punta Cana en un gran destino turístico. Hoy, 35 años después, (...)
- 1 2 3 4 5 Guerra, Edwin (August 2008). "Frank el Conquistador" (in Spanish). Revista Mercado. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- 1 2 Figueroa, Rossana. "PROTAGONISTA - Haydee Kuret de Rainieri" (in Spanish). Bavaro News. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 Barletta, María Filomena (21 August 2008). "El centenario de la familia Rainieri" [The centenary of the Ranieri family] (in Spanish). Hoy. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ↑ "Los próximos millonarios de República Dominicana" [The upcoming Dominican Republic billionaires] (in Spanish). Mexico City: Forbes. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ↑ Rivera, Rosanna (18 April 2015). "Frank Rainieri: Embajador de la Soberana y Militar Orden Hospitalaria de San Juan de Jerusalén de Rodas y de Malta en República Dominicana". Ritmo Social: Personas & Personalidades (in Spanish) (Santo Domingo: Editora Listín Diario) (570): 20. Retrieved 18 April 2015. (subscription required (help)).
- ↑ González Hernández, Julio Amable (21 July 2012). "Apellidos Únicos (7 de 8)" (in Spanish). Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
- ↑ Entrée Magazine. "Tortuga Bay", Holiday, 2009. "The resort was the vision of American labor lawyer Ted Kheel and a spirited, young Dominican named Frank Rainieri."
- 1 2 "Dominican Republic’s Most Luxurious Resort",’’Departures Magazine’’, Apr 2011. Retrieved on 8 July 2012.
- ↑ Airways Magazine. "Punta Cana Airport: From Jungle to Caribbean Showpiece", May 2009. "Late in the Sixties, Frank Rainieri and Ted Kheel, along with other investors, bought a large parcel of land, for what was then the bargain price of $200,000 at the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, which occupies the eastern part of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, itself part of the Greater Antilles archipelago."