Inside Richard Gere’s Regenerative Vision on Mexico’s Pacific Coast
- Rebecca Nicholson
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Set along one of Mexico’s last truly untouched coastlines, a new regenerative community is quietly redefining what luxury living can look like, and why it matters. Anchored by the country’s first Six Senses Xala and a limited collection of oceanfront residences, Xala spans more than 3,000 acres of protected land in Jalisco’s Costalegre region. It is here that actor Richard Gere and his wife, Alejandra Silva, have chosen to invest not just financially, but philosophically.
Gere never set out to lend his name to a luxury development. “I have no interest in things like this whatsoever that are connected to some kind of commercial enterprise,” he says plainly. And yet, Xala represents something altogether different, not a branded destination, but a living model for how high-end hospitality, conservation and community might coexist without compromise.
A Philosophy Before a Place
The idea for Xala did not originate in Mexico. Years earlier, while staying on a remote beach in the Dominican Republic, Gere and Silva were approached by a developer who asked what an ideal project might look like if values, rather than returns, were the starting point.
The couple began sketching a hypothetical vision: unspoiled land, architecture that recedes into nature, deep integration with local communities, and a framework that could be replicated elsewhere. “You could imagine a utopian situation of virgin land and happy people,” Gere recalls. “A marriage of protecting the land and developing in such a way that the owners would be benevolent — part of the local community.”
For two years, they immersed themselves in research, from renewable energy systems to conservation-led planning. That initial project never materialised. But the blueprint endured.
Finding Xala
Years later, chance intervened at 35,000 feet. Silva found herself seated next to old acquaintances from Madrid, Mexican developers whose children attended the same school as hers. They spoke of a project on Mexico’s Pacific coast. The parallels were immediate.
Silva visited the land first. When she returned with footage, Gere recognised something familiar. “This is like Africa 200 years ago, untouched,” he remembers thinking. Then came the realisation: he had been there decades earlier.
The land was Xala — five miles of white-sand coastline backed by UNESCO-protected estuaries, where endangered sea turtles nest and migratory birds converge. The founders, brothers Juan and Jerónimo Bremer, alongside partner Ricardo Santa Cruz, shared the same ethos Gere and Silva had spent years refining.
“It genuinely felt like we were on the same wavelength,” Gere says. “Preservation, integration and inclusion weren’t talking points — they were embedded in the mission.”
Architecture That Disappears
At the heart of Xala sits a Six Senses–branded enclave of just 36 private, single-storey oceanfront residences, priced from $8 million to $12 million. Designed to dissolve into the landscape rather than dominate it, the homes represent one of the lowest-density luxury developments ever conceived in Mexico.
Less than 20 per cent of the entire site will ever be built upon. The remainder is permanently preserved as protected land, reforestation zones and agricultural space.
The architecture, led by Combeau-Murtagh Architects, prioritises passive cooling, natural materials, and seamless indoor–outdoor living. Gere describes the aesthetic as “agrarian international… timeless, as simple as it can possibly be, with space, nature and no concrete.”
This philosophy mirrors Six Senses’ own approach to barefoot luxury and wellness-led design, a partnership that proved essential. “Six Senses has been a very low-key, aesthetically beautiful partner,” Gere says. “They’ve proven their commitment to these principles.”
A Track Record of Stewardship
Xala’s development team previously collaborated on Mandarina in Riviera Nayarit, home to the One&Only Mandarina, named the number one hotel in North America by The World’s 50 Best Hotels in 2023. That legacy of restraint and long-term thinking helped cement confidence in Xala’s vision.
Construction on the Six Senses Hotel and Residences began this year, with early demand reflecting growing appetite for purpose-led luxury. Of the first 12 branded residences released, 10 have already sold.
Beyond the Six Senses homes, Xala will include 77 Rancho Estates, alongside shared amenities ranging from beach clubs and a surf club to organic farms, equestrian facilities and miles of nature trails woven through the landscape.
Luxury with Responsibility
Yet for Gere, ownership is secondary. He and Silva plan to live at Xala themselves, and are clear that it is not designed as a closed enclave. Through the Xala Foundation and Gere’s environmental initiative Sierra a Mar, conservation efforts extend far beyond the development’s borders.
Those initiatives include fisheries protection, estuary restoration, reforestation, clean-water infrastructure for farming communities, women’s economic programmes, micro-lending initiatives and support for traditional salt producers. “It takes listening, patience and vigilance,” Gere says. “Trust is built over time.”
For Six Senses, the partnership adds credibility to what is already one of the most ambitious experiments in regenerative luxury living on the Pacific coast. For Gere, the motivation is simpler. “This isn’t a vocation,” he says. “It’s creating a model.”
In a world where luxury developments often compete for attention, Xala does the opposite, receding quietly into the landscape, asking not how much can be built, but how much can be preserved.