Constructora AE: Dominican Republic's Built Environment In The Best Hands

Dominican Republic is the tenth largest economy in Latin America and the largest in the Caribbean and Central region, making it a very attractive destination for foreign investment in infrastructure, energy, real estate, tourism, agriculture, services and new sectors like film, technology and new media. The continued success of its national economy lies in the ability of Dominicans to leapfrog outdated development models, adopt new technologies, create a strong human capital base and remain a flexible host to incoming industries. This is the responsibility undertaken by construction firms like Constructora AE, SRL based in Santo Domingo and one of the country’s most recognized design and construction firms.  

The team at Constructora AE is especially interested in transforming the country’s coasts, which are the Dominican Republic’s most valuable territory from both an environmental, socio-political and economic lens. Fifty percent of the world’s population lives in coastal regions most of which were initially developed due to their advantageous connection to water-borne transportation systems and rich coastal ecologies. Increased urbanization, climate change, coastal erosion and sea level rise requires architects, planners and engineers to re-envision coastal cities and towns through the lens of green infrastructures and sustainability. These warm and crystalline waters served as key infrastructure during the development of the Taino indigenous people and the colonial urban economy. After more than 500 years after the foundation of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas by Christopher Columbus, these same waters will incentivize new urban growth, provide alternate systems of transportation and transform it into the Caribbean regional hub of the 21st century.  

We recently spoke with Constructora AE owners, the Espaillat Bonnelly family about the company and the positive impact it has made - and continues to make - on Dominican Republic’s built environment, since it was founded in 1990. They are Alberto J. Espaillat, President-Founder, and his wife Lourdes Bonnelly-Espaillat, vice-President. We were also able to chat with the second generation on the firm: Carlos Espaillat, the chief project manager; Vanessa Espaillat-Lovett, associate architect, urban designer and planner; Enrique Espaillat, associate computer science engineer.  

Three decades of outstanding quality 

Since Alberto J. Espaillat founded his firm at the beginning of the 1990s, GDP in the country has grown 10-fold. This growth was driven in large part by significant foreign investment and the arrival of many international firms to the DR. It’s a level of growth, which has also been reflected within the firm: many of those same international firms turned to Constructora AE when they needed to develop hospitality, residential, corporate and industrial facilities.  

As Alberto Espaillat explains: “In its early years, the company developed a robust portfolio of high-profile projects in the country, which included an expansion project for Colgate Palmolive’s production headquarters, the Executive Tower Manuel Arsenio Ureña CxA, the administrative offices and industrial warehouses for the newspaper Listin Diario, the headquarters offices for Grupo Ros and the executive tower for Grupo Metro, supervision for Banco Mercantil offices in the whole country and the warehouse and headquarters offices for ESPALSA in Santiago de Los Caballeros city.”  

The firm’s early successes brought it wide recognition, allowing it to expand into the Dominican Republic’s burgeoning hospitality industry. It was able to begin lasting relationships with some of the largest international hotel groups, who were all keen to develop signature buildings in the country. As Mr. Alberto Espaillat explains: “we’ve been able to build long-lasting relationships with these clients based on trust, hard work and transparency.”  

Lourdes Bonnelly-Espaillat shares the competitive advantage the firm offers clients with a multi-generational integrated professional team: “Our team’s professional experience in DR, in both private and public sectors, plus our new highly qualified team of young professionals, have given us a unique set of skills and relationships that can prove helpful for our client’s projects. No matter if they are small or complex large-scale projects, at Constructora AE, we know that time is money. Our integrated team can save our clients plenty of both.”