Bruma
A Midtown Manhattan tower dissolving into fog, its lit windows showing through
Hospitality Development and Advisory United States · Latin America

We createhotels withcultural capital.

Bruma is a hospitality development firm focused on independent, design-led hotels in culturally compelling destinations. Bruma participates as developer or co-GP when our interests align. For owners, developers and investors with projects of their own, we provide focused advisory using the same development methodology.

  • Individually conceived
  • Design-led
  • Site-specific
Approach
A remarkable hotel is more than the walls that frame it.

It is a creative concept, a complex development project and an operating, service based business. We develop hotels people choose for the experience of staying there: the atmosphere, the restaurant, the rituals, the setting and the people, as much as for the destination itself.

Bruma serves as the connecting thread to ensure that the original concept survives the development and succeeds in service.

What we develop

Hotels that have something to say.

Hotels with a point of view, a connection to their surroundings, and a business that makes them last. We focus on independent, design-led properties, each individually conceived and site-specific.

  • The idea

    Individually conceived

    Each property starts with its own idea, its own audience and its own reason to exist.

  • The product

    Design-led

    Architecture, interiors and spatial decisions shape the product and its commercial appeal from the first sketch.

  • The place

    Site-specific

    The location informs the food, the programming, the materials, the partnerships and the experience.

Where we develop

Culturally rich cities and distinctive leisure destinations.

We look for places where a hotel can become part of the local fabric and a reason to visit, whether that comes from architecture, landscape, food, art or the social life of a neighborhood.

The five disciplines

One point of view, carried across five disciplines.

Concept, Product, Brand, Development and Performance are how we develop our own hotels, and the same expertise we bring to partners. They come from a single idea, and Bruma’s value lives where they meet.

    Selected work

    Where the idea meets execution.

    Branded hotels are developed through Capitana Capital, Bruma’s sister entity, across key Latin American markets that need them.

    Current engagement · Capitana Capital Lifestyle upper upscale branded hotel
    MarketColombia
    SegmentLifestyle, upper upscale, international brand
    SettingHotel within a larger mixed use development
    Bruma’s positionCo-GP, through sister entity Capitana Capital
    StatusIn development

    The challenge

    Find the right brand for a blue ocean market with growing demand and no direct competition in the international branded space, and build a successful hotel inside a larger mixed use development.

    Bruma’s role

    Hotel expertise across brand identification, contract negotiation, financial analysis, development assistance, capital structuring and concept creation. Bruma also manages the consultants, general contractor, architect, engineers and designers, alongside the capital partners.

    Key decisions

    Which brand, and why. The target guest. The program, including F&B and events. The capital structure. How the hotel relates to the development around it.

    Working with Bruma

    Two ways to bring Bruma into a project.

    Development leads everything we do. When the project is yours, the same expertise is available as advisory.

    As developer

    Development partnerships

    For landowners, owners of buildings with hotel potential and capital partners. Bruma leads the project as developer or co-GP, from the concept and the underwriting through capital structure, brand and operator selection, design and delivery, with our interests tied to the long term value of the asset.

    • Concept and market thesis
    • Underwriting and capital structuring
    • Brand and operator selection
    • Design, procurement and construction oversight
    • Pre-opening and asset management
    As advisor

    Advisory assignments

    For owners, developers and investors with a hotel of their own, planned or operating. We apply the same methodology to your project, for a defined scope and on your side of the table.

    • Concept and positioning
    • Feasibility studies and financial models
    • Brand and operator negotiation
    • Development management and owner representation
    • Asset management and repositioning
    About Bruma

    Founded to connect what is usually kept apart.

    Portrait to come
    Tomas Buitrago
    Tomas BuitragoFounder

    I care about the details guests feel and the numbers owners live with. Both need to work.

    I have a deep passion for hospitality in all its forms. To me, great hospitality is invisible: thousands of small details that guests never notice one by one but feel all together. The location of a hotel within its context, the proportions of a room, the program mix, its identity. Each decision shapes how a hotel feels and whether it succeeds.

    I have spent my career learning how real estate gets evaluated, financed, built and managed. My experience spans construction, development, financial analysis and asset management, working with general contractors, private equity firms, owners and investors on projects valued at USD 300MM+ across the United States and Latin America.

    Today I lead Bruma Hospitality, focused on the development of independent, design-led hotels and on advisory for owners pursuing that same ambition. I also lead Capitana Capital, Bruma’s sister entity, which develops branded hotels across key Latin American markets that need them.

    In a market with a seemingly endless supply of hotel concepts, the great ones carry a clear point of view through every part of the property: the concept, the product, the brand, the development and finally the performance. Bruma exists to hold those together.

    Contact

    Get in touch

    If you own a property, have a site, or are developing an idea for a remarkable hotel, from a roadside motel to a luxury resort, we would like to meet you.

    We would like to hear from
    • Landowners and owners of buildings with hotel potential
    • Capital partners interested in hospitality development
    • Owners and developers looking for advisory support
    • Architects, designers, operators, chefs and artists
    Write to