Leonardo DiCaprio's Private Island

Leonardo DiCaprio has starred in films since the early 1990s, from Titanic to The Revenant, which won him the Best Actor Oscar in 2016. Off screen he has funded environmental causes through his foundation since 1998.

DiCaprio bought the island in 2005 with Jeff Gram, who owns the Cayo Espanto private-island resort, Caribbean Journal reported in 2015, citing The New York Times.

Blackadore Caye lies about 7.5 miles west of Ambergris Caye, on the side facing the Belize mainland rather than the barrier reef. The island runs to about 104 acres.

ArchDaily reported that the island had suffered for years from overfishing, an eroding coastline, and deforestation. The 2015 plan set aside 45% of the island for conservation and held new buildings to the Living Building Challenge.

A San Pedro Scoop writer who visited in 2016 found 1 mangrove tree left, with shallow-rooted grass over most of it. The post described a sandbar that grew into a forested island and was eroding back.

In 2015 Belize expanded the Hol Chan Marine Reserve along Ambergris Caye’s leeward coast, adding a Blackadore Conservation Zone. The reserve grew to about 414 square kilometers.

Fishing guide Omar Arceo told The Drake Magazine in 2016 that the planned north pier sat on flats where permit, a prized game fish, feed. He said the overwater structures broke Belize’s Queen’s land rule on public shoreline.

DiCaprio’s development partner was Paul Scialla, a former Wall Street banker. Belize’s Department of the Environment approved the project’s environmental impact assessment in October 2016.

The overwater structures the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust opposed were cut from the plan before that approval, after strong local pushback. The trust reported their removal in November 2016.

The resort was first due to open in 2018. As of September 2026, France’s RSE Magazine reported no finished resort and no confirmed opening date.