The people building this with me

Five letters in and I haven't said much about who's actually doing this work with me. Here's that.

On my end

Before I bought my first short-term rental, I spent a decade in commercial real estate on the debt side. Structuring complex financing, managing deals across the full lifecycle: ground-up construction, stabilization, ongoing operations, and disposition. I spent 10 years sitting with lenders and operators, learning how capital actually moves through real estate and what separates projects that perform from ones that don't.

That experience is what I brought into building a short-term rental portfolio. I own three properties (Petal & Pine and Riverwhisper Refuge in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and a house in downtown San Antonio) and co-host two more. Cavara is where the commercial real estate experience and the hands-on operational experience work together.

Jessica Wells, local partner

Jessica was the realtor on the Cavara property. She's been a real estate agent for four years and knows this market specifically. The county, the contractors, the contacts. Not the broad-strokes version you get from a market report. The version you get from doing deals here.

She's also built in the Gorge. Her cabin, the Maverick, she developed from the ground up and runs as a short-term rental. Five stars, top 1% of listings in the same market where we're building Cavara. She knows what these projects cost, what guests in this area want, and who can actually execute. That's not a small thing to have in the room.

O2 Treehouse, design and build partner

O2 Treehouse was founded by Dustin Feider. Over 85 custom structures built worldwide. Featured in Dwell, Popular Mechanics, and Wired. Profiled on Animal Planet and HGTV. They've been doing this for nearly 20 years.

What made them the right fit for Cavara isn't the portfolio. It's the process. They start with the site. Tree health, soil, slope, light. The structure comes after, shaped by what's already there. They've built their entire methodology around not imposing on the land, which is the same principle we're holding across every decision at Cavara. Design and fabrication on the treehouses. Same approach carries into the cave unit interiors.

That's the team.

From here on out, this is where the project lives. Progress updates, design decisions, things I learn along the way.

More soon,

Jeremy