Mohari Hospitality Becomes Sole Owner of Peninsula Papagayo

PENINSULA PAPAGAYO, Costa Rica--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 17, 2026--

Mohari Hospitality (“Mohari”), a global investor focused on the ownership and long-term development of luxury hospitality assets, today announced that it has acquired Gencom’s 30% interest in Peninsula Papagayo, becoming sole owner of the destination following a successful decade of joint ownership.

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The transaction reinforces Mohari’s conviction in Peninsula Papagayo, a cornerstone of its global portfolio, deepens its commitment to Costa Rica and positions the destination for its next phase of long-term investment and development under Mohari’s ownership.

Located across 2,200 acres on Costa Rica’s North Pacific coast, Peninsula Papagayo is one of the world’s most distinctive luxury resort and residential destinations. It is anchored by Four Seasons Resort and Residences Peninsula Papagayo, Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort and Residences, and Nekajui Peninsula Papagayo, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve Resort and Residences. Its rare combination of protected natural landscape, world-class hospitality, private residences, recreational amenities, and future development potential sets Peninsula Papagayo apart among the world’s leading luxury destinations.

Over the past decade, the Mohari-Gencom partnership has driven significant investment, growth, and transformation across the peninsula. Milestones include the opening of Nekajui, Papagayo Park, The Outpost at Palmares Preserve, Andaz Residences and Four Seasons Private Residences Prieta Bay, alongside extensive renovations of both the Four Seasons and Andaz resort properties. This period also introduced Bahias and Enclaves, two distinctive residential neighborhoods.

The transaction follows a period of strong operating performance, sustained residential demand, and significant investment across the destination, reinforcing Mohari’s confidence in its continued potential.

With ownership consolidated under Mohari, Peninsula Papagayo will continue to benefit from sustained strategic investment in quality, community, and environmental stewardship, priorities that have long defined the destination and will continue to guide its future.

“This transaction enables Mohari to build on Peninsula Papagayo’s strong momentum with a clear long-term vision for its next phase of development,” said Mat Feldman, Senior Managing Director of Mohari Hospitality. “We see substantial opportunity to continue investing across the destination’s hospitality, residential, and community offering, and we are grateful to Gencom for its partnership and important contribution to Peninsula Papagayo’s success.”

As part of the transition, asset management, on-site operational leadership, and development responsibilities will move from Gencom to Mohari over the next 12 months. Both organizations are working closely together to ensure continuity for residents, guests, employees, operators, partners, and the surrounding community.

“We are immensely proud of everything Gencom and Mohari Hospitality have accomplished at Peninsula Papagayo,” said Donald McGregor, Gencom Managing Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Working together, we have transformed the destination through thoughtful investment, world-class partnerships, and a shared commitment to quality. We wish Mohari every success as it continues investing in the destination’s future.”

Mohari’s commitment extends beyond the destination itself. Peninsula Papagayo is one of the largest private employers in Guanacaste. Through Creciendo Juntos, its award-winning nonprofit now in its 25th year of serving 19 surrounding communities, Mohari will continue to support investment in education, health, and opportunity across the region.

“Peninsula Papagayo was our first investment and remains one of the defining assets in Mohari’s portfolio,” said Mark Scheinberg, Founder and Principal of Mohari Hospitality. “This transaction reflects our conviction in its exceptional long-term potential, and in Costa Rica as a place for responsible, long-term investment. We remain committed to investing in the destination’s continued development, its people, the surrounding community, and the natural environment that makes it so distinctive.”

Looking ahead, Mohari will continue investing across the destination’s hospitality and residential offering, guest and resident experience, people, community partnerships, and environmental stewardship.

About Mohari Hospitality
Established in 2017 by Mark Scheinberg, Mohari Hospitality is a global investor focused on the ownership and long-term development of luxury hospitality assets. Mohari’s portfolio includes the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid; a portfolio of luxury assets at Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica, including Four Seasons Resort and Residences Peninsula Papagayo, Nekajui Peninsula Papagayo, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, and Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort; and the Bauer Hotel in Venice. The firm is also developing new projects in Paris and Miami, and owns a large-scale residential and resort development in Lake Tahoe. In addition, Mohari owns Tao Group Hospitality and Hakkasan Group, and has an ownership stake in The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. For more information, visit: www.MohariHospitality.com.

About Gencom
Gencom is a U.S.-based investment firm that owns, operates, and develops prized real estate around the world, with an emphasis on luxury hotels, resorts and branded residential properties; and which is also an active owner and investor in hospitality operating platforms. Gencom’s current real estate portfolio is comprised of some of the world’s most iconic hotels, resorts, and destinations which are amongst the leading properties in the industry with key operating partners such as Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood, Auberge, Fairmont, Hyatt, and Marriott.

Founded more than 40 years ago, Gencom has grown to become one of the nation’s leading firms specializing in the development and management of luxury resort and residential properties, alongside full-service hospitality operating platforms. Today, the Gencom portfolio is comprised of nearly $8 billion in assets under management and includes 24 owned assets in operation or under development with over 6,000 hotel rooms around the world; in addition to 185 properties, comprised of 50,000 keys through its third-party management affiliate, Pyramid Global Hospitality, which oversees hotel property management and operations throughout the U.S. and Europe; and over 2 million square feet through affiliate Convene, a hospitality company that designs, builds, and manages premium meeting, event, and flexible office spaces. For more information, visit www.gencomgrp.com.

About Peninsula Papagayo
Peninsula Papagayo is a 2,200-acre private resort and residential community located on Costa Rica’s North Pacific coast in the province of Guanacaste. The community includes Four Seasons Resort and Residences Peninsula Papagayo, Nekajui Peninsula Papagayo, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve Resort and Residences, Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort and Residences, the Clubhouse at Prieta Beach, an Arnold Palmer Ocean Course, Marina Papagayo, and an exclusive collection of oceanfront homes and villas. Peninsula Papagayo is committed to environmental stewardship, sustainable development, and community investment through its award-winning nonprofit, Creciendo Juntos. The destination is located 30 minutes from Liberia International Airport, served by more than 100 seasonal weekly flights from major cities across North America and Europe. For more information, visit PeninsulaPapagayo.com.

Nekajui Peninsula Papagayo, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, is an ultra-luxury hotel with hillside residences blending traditional and modern Costa Rican design.

Marina Papagayo is Costa Rica's first and only superyacht marina, offering 180 fully-serviced berths for vessels up to 250 feet in a naturally sheltered harbor within Peninsula Papagayo.

Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo is a Forbes Five-Star resort within the exclusive Peninsula Papagayo community in Costa Rica.

Andaz Resort Peninsula Papagayo is a hillside beach resort offering modern guest rooms and villas, varied dining, and the Casa de Playa beach club.

Peninsula Papagayo sits on Costa Rica's North Pacific coast. It spans 2,200 acres of largely unspoiled land, bordering the UNESCO-recognized Área de Conservación Guanacaste — one of the most biodiverse regions in the Americas.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Parliament enacted Friday a historic revision to the 19th-century Imperial House Law by insisting only paternal-lineage men can become emperor, sparking fear that it could doom the already shrinking imperial family.

The revisions include adoption of distant male relatives to father future heirs and allowing princesses to keep their royal status after marrying commoners.

Royal watchers and experts fear the new measures could doom the 1,500-year-old hereditary institution by insisting that only men can be emperor, sparking worry about the shrinking, fast-aging imperial family.

Emperor Naruhito ’s 24-year-old daughter is hugely popular, and many Japanese want her to be his successor, but Princess Aiko is ineligible because she is a woman. Japan’s male-only succession rule means the line must move to the emperor's younger brother, then to his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito. Next in line after him is the emperor's 90-year-old uncle.

In an imperial family that places a premium on male royal babies, Hisahito is the first such boy to be born in four decades. Only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family — there are no children — are men.

This matters, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other conservatives insist the male bloodline is “the only source of the emperor’s authority and legitimacy,” which will be the basis for the upcoming measures.

While an emperor's mother can be a commoner, as is the case with the current one, only boys born to men with royal blood can be heirs to the throne, according to the Imperial House Law.

The revision passed Friday to the antiquated law is meant to solidify the principle of that crucial bloodline by allowing the adoption of distant royal male relatives to father future heirs.

The new measures will also allow princesses to keep their royal status if they marry a commoner.

“It’s a declaration to prevent female monarchs … and to defend the male-lineage at all costs,” said Hideya Kawanishi, a Nagoya University expert on monarchy. “They cannot say it’s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition.”

Imperial Household Agency chief Buichiro Kuroda said in a statement that his agency “will do everything it can appropriately to support smooth activity for the Imperial Family members in line with (the revisions), while fully taking into consideration their feelings.”

There have been eight female monarchs. The last was Empress Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.

The paternal-line male succession was stipulated for the first time in the 1890 Imperial House Law, when Japan promoted patriarchal systems. That law was largely carried over to the current 1947 version.

Friday’s revisions have led to protests from Japanese who see the government efforts as meant to eliminate Aiko from ruling and to justify discrimination against women and a patriarchal system.

“It’s very ironic that the first female prime minister herself is the leading proponent of the obsession with male-succession,” Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist scholar, wrote recently referring to Takaichi.

Ueno said the new measures “treat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as ‘childbearing machines’ to produce male offspring.”

After Aiko’s birth, her mother Empress Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat and a commoner, developed a stress-induced mental condition, apparently over criticism for not producing a male heir.

Because of the male-only succession rules and the dismissal of princesses who marry commoners, the monarchy after Hisahito is “extremely unstable,” former Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa told Kyodo News recently.

Historians say the male-only system is unworkable today, as Japan more broadly faces a fast-aging, dwindling population.

It only worked in the past because concubines produced half the emperors until about 100 years ago, when the practice ended under Naruhito’s great-grandfather, Emperor Taisho.

There was a government proposal in 2005 to allow female monarchs, but it was scrapped following Hisahito’s birth.

Naruhito's two male heirs are his 60-year-old brother, Crown Prince Akishino, who is only six years younger than the emperor and has reportedly said he would be too old to serve, and Hisahito, Akishino’s 19-year-old son. Third in line is Naruhito's uncle, Prince Hitachi, who is 90.

The more controversial of the two measures allows unmarried male descendants, aged 15 or older, of distant imperial relatives — but only of paternal lineage — to be adopted into the royal family.

Fifty-one members from 11 branch families renounced their royal status in 1947, mainly to ease the postwar financial burden on the monarchy, Imperial Household Agency official Yoshimi Ogata told a recent parliamentary session.

These people are at least 36 generations removed from Naruhito because they split from a common male-line ancestor 600 years ago, Ogata said.

There is criticism of what some see as the government's extraordinary efforts to make sure that male royals are producing male emperors.

“Who wants the son of an adoptee who nobody knows to be emperor instead of Aiko?” asked Yoshinori Kobayashi, a cartoonist campaigning for Aiko’s succession.

It may also be unrealistic to ask former royals to reenter a very strict family known as “an enclave without human rights.” Royals cannot choose their jobs or homes, and must follow other serious constraints.

“I wonder if anyone would raise a hand,” 81-year-old Asahiro Kuni, whose family renounced its royal status when he was 3, told TBS television. “I imagine many people, by age 15, have some idea about their future. It’s cruel to tell them … to change the course of their life.”

Kuni, who worked as an engineer at a major Japanese company, said he would tell his family to decline if asked by the palace. “You are asked to sacrifice your life for the happiness of the people. I can’t tell my family to choose such a difficult life.”

He also expressed support for female monarchs in interviews with other Japanese media.

Aiko, known for her engaging smile, enthusiasm and witty conversation, is a public favorite.

Five single princesses, including Aiko and her popular cousin Kako, 31, may be affected by the other main revision to the Imperial House Law, which would allow them to keep their royal status and continue serving official duties if they marry commoners, although their spouse and children wouldn't be accepted as royals.

Aiko’s elder cousin Mako renounced her royal status and moved to New York after marrying her college boyfriend, a commoner who now is a lawyer. The move was largely seen as her attempt to flee from the restrained imperial life.

Ueno calls the system inhumane and urges the princesses to follow Mako's example and leave when they can.

Hisahito, possible adoptees and their future wives will face enormous pressure to produce male offspring, Kawanishi said.

“The emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don’t see why women cannot serve in the role,” said 78-year-old Junichiro Tsujimaru, a sushi chain founder.

Yoshio Iwase, also 78, says Aiko, as the daughter of the emperor, is the legitimate successor. “I think it’s fine because there used to be female emperors in the past.”

There is worry that the government's push will upset former Emperor Akihito's legacy, which included making amends for the victims of World War II, fought in his father’s name.

Akihito, who abdicated in 2019, also tried to bring what was seen as an aloof monarchy closer to the people, an example followed by his son, Naruhito, and his family.

Akihito reportedly supports Aiko's succession. He avoided directly answering a question about the 2005 government proposal but said female royals served a major role in the monarchy and that its role was to work for the happiness of the people — a remark interpreted as his support for female monarchs.

Naruhito also said in June that he hoped discussions about the measures would reach a conclusion that “will gain understanding of the people,” a comment palace watchers said was his nuanced displeasure.

Japan on Friday also enacted a controversial new law prohibiting desecration of its national flag, a key right-wing agenda pushed by Takaichi. Opponents see it as an attempt to intimidate the public and silence criticism against her government.

FILE - Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a news conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)

FILE - Japan's Emperor Naruhito, fourth left, Empress Masako, fifth left, and other royal family members greet well-wishers from the balcony during a public appearance for New Year's celebrations at the Imperial Palace, Jan. 2, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - Japanese Emperor Naruhito, center left, Empress Masako center right, and Princess Aiko, right, listen to Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki as they visit the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims at the peace park in Nagasaki. western Japan, Sept. 12, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP, File)

FILE - Japan's Prince Hisahito, right, attends his coming-of-age rituals on his 19th birthday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, on Sept. 6, 2025. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP, File)

FILE - Japan's Princess Aiko, left, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, arrives to mark the 110th anniversary of the death of the wife of former emperor Meiji at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, on April 10, 2024. (Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP, File)