How Robert De Niro Is Building a Barbuda Paradise From the Sand Up
Goodfella in paradise: Project manager Katy Horne, developer Daniel Shamoon and Robert De Niro examine a resort map. | Source: Nobu Beach Inn
I’m at a six-top at the otherwise empty Nobu restaurant on Barbuda when Daniel Shamoon, one of my dining companions, gestures toward the pale-pink beach. “There he is,” he says. Walking toward us under the beaXng sun is Robert De Niro in a gray T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. A worn green backpack is slung over one shoulder; his opposite hand holds a reusable grocery bag.
It’s a surprisingly low-key entrance for an Oscar winner. But De Niro is here to get work done—namely, overseeing the final design details of the Beach Club, Barbuda, the restaurant-hotel-and-residences project he’s building in his own personal happy place. Come November 2026, the 36 rooms and private villas of the Nobu Beach Inn, its hotel component, will open to the public.
I’m here to observe how granular this movie megastar gets. De Niro has come from a few hundred yards up the beach, where he has a modest house. I ask him what’s in the bag. “My flip-flops,” he says. “Shoes aren’t great on Barbuda.” As we head toward the small headquarters of his operation for a worksite tour, I follow his lead and slip off my socks and sneakers; small hills of fine sand have already amassed inside them.
That’s the thing about Barbuda: It’s a place to let go. The small Caribbean island is 30 miles north of Antigua (with which it forms one nation) and has always been a destination you had to really want to get to. You either drop anchor on your yacht, land your private jet at the new $14 million airport— commercial flights are the exception, not the rule—or, like me, fly in from Antigua on a helicopter. There are two luxury hotels if you count generously, but more are on the way: In addition to the Nobu Beach Inn, a Rosewood is also under development.
An architect’s rendering of the Nobu Beach Inn | Source: Nobu Beach Inn
Barbuda has for decades made its reputation as a quiet haven. This is where Princess Diana hid from the world in the 1990s, including in April ’97, a few months before her death. This quietude, as well as the difficulty of access, is in part by design. The 62-square-mile island has a communal land-ownership structure for its 2,000 residents that’s long limited outside development.
Now, aher years of persistence—including a legal fight between residents and the government that ended with special privileges being granted to De Niro’s compound—the actor is soon to realize one of his most personal projects. For a man whose luxury CV includes an empire of more than 40 hotels and 50 restaurants around the world (all bearing the Nobu name), plus the Tribeca Grill and the Greenwich Hotel in New York, that’s no small thing.
For now the dream is still a series of sketches. On a covered porch, De Niro stands with Shamoon, one of his two development partners (the other, James Packer, isn’t in amendance), and Katy Horne, managing director for their company, Paradise Found. They hover over a map of the 391-acre resort, pointing first to the Nobu Beach Inn, which is a new concept for the brand. In addition to the bungalows, the resort will comprise a spa with private garden pavilions and an oceanfront pool. (Rooms will start at $2,500.) The Nobu restaurant will still serve raw fish medleys and tomahawk steaks—though its location will move to the hotel’s main building. Horne estimates the final investment will be “in the hundreds of millions.”
A rendering of the main guest house at Nobu Beach Inn | Source: Nobu Beach Inn
An outdoor bathroom attached to a bungalow, as shown in Nobu Beach Inn’s renderings | Source: Nobu Beach Inn
Most Nobu resorts operate under licensing deals, but De Niro and his partners own this one—and he’s sweating the small stuff, including the proper shade of ipe wood and where to source closet doors. “If it pleases me, I’m sure it will please other people,” he says.
One of his favorite dishes, the miso black cod at Nobu, the original hot spot he co-founded with chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, has been replicated globally with great success, so he’s definitely right on that front. “When you go to a restaurant and suddenly they’ve changed the key thing that brought you there …” De Niro trails off with a sigh. “That signature dish must be respected. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” I’m reminded of the exigent mobster he played in 1995’s Casino ordering a chef to put an equal number of blueberries in each muffin.
In his personal paradise, De Niro shares with Shamoon a focus on minimizing the ecological and even visual footprint. Gone are the hard edges and black-and-tan marble that characterize the chain’s other resorts. Here the architects have been charged with creaXng structures that disappear into the landscape. “All buildings are single-story, set back farther from the shore than required,” Horne says. This is done to preserve privacy and keep the beachfront pristine. Using natural materials and indigenous plants supports the ecosystem, and a mangrove regeneration project will boost the island’s hurricane resilience.
“I don’t like things that are designed just for the sake of being designed,” De Niro says. “Like when an architect builds something without any sense of place.”
A rendering of an interior pathway connecting disparate parts of the resort | Source: Nobu Beach Inn
Beyond the inn there will be turnkey private villas starting at $12 million, as well as larger private estates built down the beachfront, past De Niro’s current house. Empty lots are available for $7 million and up. (Paradise Found is selling land and built homes, depending on the buyer’s preference.)
Notably, all three partners will have homes at the beach club. De Niro first saw the site more than 30 years ago, on a boat trip from Antigua. The landscape— pearlescent shores with more turtles than humans fronting shallow, turquoise waters—made a lasting impression. A decade ago, when he learned the land was available, he began shaping what would become Nobu Beach Inn.
The process hasn’t been without setbacks, including Hurricane Irma and the Covid-19 pandemic. The project also met with criticism from some Barbudans. John Mussington, chairman of the Barbuda Council, which oversees internal affairs, described the Beach Club as a “destructive development” and an “extractive and exploitative scheme.” (“Concessions in our leasehold are similar to other major developments in Antigua and Barbuda,” Horne says.)
Back at the HQ, De Niro’s design meeting is interrupted by an impromptu visit from the prime minister, Gaston Browne, who’s flown in with Peace, his young daughter, for an update and lunch. Then it’s back to wood samples for villa floors. As in the infamous baseball bat scene from The Untouchables, where De Niro played Al Capone, tension builds as he stares at planks of “rustic” white oak and unfinished teak, his face as unshihing as a sphinx. His words of approval soar no higher than “That’s nice.” Sometimes he simply nods. “What is this line here?” he asks about one piece, pointing to a line bifurcating the rectangle into two varying shades. “How could you miss this?”
The pool, and the pool bar beyond it, as shown in the resort’s renderings | Source: Nobu Beach Inn
Over dinner the previous night at Hermitage Bay, his five-star resort on Antigua, Shamoon had shared insight into De Niro’s creative direction. “Bob doesn’t like it when things aren’t moving at the right speed.” His obsessiveness and perfectionism are mythical: To prepare for the role of Travis Bickle in 1976’s Taxi Driver, De Niro drove a cab in New York City for a month in 12-hour shifts. At the same time, he presents a laid-back and genteel demeanor that aligns well with a tropical paradise. “He’s very funny,” Shamoon says. “But he does get upset, and when he does, you might feel like you’re in one of his gangster movies.”
The crucial element of the inn, contrary to what one might expect given the scenic nature of its namesake restaurants, will be its privacy, just as it was at the K Club on De Niro’s property when Princess Diana came with her sons to escape the paparazzi. But it won’t be a place to hide away in total seclusion. Its water sports facility will offer kitesurfing, dinghy sailing, snorkeling trips and sunset cruises on vintage motor yachts.
As magic hour approaches and the last items on De Niro’s agenda are checked off, he slings on his backpack and removes his flip-flops. There’s a noticeable kick in his step and a smile on his face. The Beach Club isn’t finished, not by a long shot, but it’s suddenly clear he feels confident it will be ready on schedule and built to his exacting specifications. “I actually feel very optimistic,” he declares, walking toward the beach.