David Kosoy describes Montage Cay with the confidence of someone who has thought through every detail, and he clearly has. The project is the cumulative result of a life spent traveling the most remarkable places in the world and taking note.
Located in The Abaco Islands of The Bahamas, Montage Cay is a private-island resort and residential community designed around how people want to live. Boats pull directly up to homes, every villa has its own pool, and there are seven beaches. If it’s windy on one side of the island, you go to the other. “All you have to bring when you buy a place there is a toothbrush,” Kosoy says. Private chefs, pre-arrival provisioning, seamless air and sea access, and a deliberately small number of residences ensure that convenience does not tip into crowds.
Montage Cay Rendering
Kosoy, the Executive Chairman and Founder of Sterling Global Financial, owns a home at Montage Cay himself, and is a former Palm Beach resident who returns often. His family remains closely tied to the area. “I was just there a couple times in November because I have a son still living there and grandkids,” he says. He has seven grandchildren in total. “I am very proud of all my kids. They’ve all done great and they’re all good kids, which is even more important.”
That mix of pride, understatement, and forward motion runs through everything Kosoy describes. A former professional athlete, he played football and hockey, first at the University of Akron and later professionally in Canada. When faced with a decision, he remembers being asked, “Would you rather be a little number at a big school or a big number at a little school?” He chose the latter. “Recently, I got into their football hall of fame,” he says, in passing. Sports shaped the way he works and builds teams. “I think if you’re a team player, it helps in business.”
That team-first instinct followed him to The Bahamas, where he initially planned for a slower pace. The plan did not last long. “I came to The Bahamas to retire and that didn’t work,” he says, laughing. His wife delivered the verdict: “I married you for better or worse, not for lunch.” Kosoy went back to work, noticed gaps in the market, and began building. Over time, the company grew into a regional force across hotels, marinas, and residential developments throughout the Caribbean.
Montage Cay is the most personal of those projects. Kosoy and his wife fell in love with the island early on, and he saw it as the opportunity to build something lasting in a region that can be at times unstable due to the weather. During Hurricane Dorian, the island sustained minimal damage. “Two roof tiles went off,” he recalls, “and one cracked window. That was it.” The experience reinforced his focus on durability and long-term thinking.
David Kosoy
Choosing Montage as a partner followed the same logic and the community has been shaped just as deliberately. Buyers are not anonymous. Some are friends, some family, some longtime partners from other projects. Others come from finance, entertainment, or entirely different worlds. “People there should really meld together,” Kosoy says. “Nice people that get along with everybody.” Privacy is built in, but so is the option to engage.
And as if all of this wasn’t impressive enough, Kosoy is also a DJ on the side, a pursuit he took up later in life and approaches with a sense of humor, while also being serious about perfecting the craft. He studies music daily, drawing from Brazilian, African (especially Amapiano), European, and Croatian sounds. (“Their dance music is so good.”) He has a habit of quietly rescuing parties when the playlist stalls. At home, music often takes over after dinner. “We’ll just start to dance,” he says. “That’s what life’s about.”
Montage Cay operates with a similar sensibility. It gives you what you need, takes care of what you don’t want to think about, and leaves the rest up to you.
Montage Cay Rendering