Itxas Gaina
Private & Confidential
French Basque Country · Est. 1923

Itxas Gaina

A private estate above the Atlantic.
Erretegia Cliff · Bidart · Pays Basque

A 1923 Art Deco estate on the cliff at Bidart — five hectares above the ocean, with a transversal view of the Atlantic and a private path to the beach. We are acquiring it to run as a single, culturally programmed private estate: fully private stays, cultural salons, select weekly stays, curated retreats and an artist residency, on one calendar.

Listed at €15.75M and acquired below it, Itxas Gaina is a rare, irreplaceable asset on one of Europe's most supply-constrained coastlines — once a summer house in de Gaulle's circle, who stayed here in 1947.

The Estate

Five hectares, on the cliff.

Setting
5+ hectares, Erretegia cliff, Bidart
Outlook
Transversal Atlantic views · private beach path
Main house
Four suites, with capacity for a fifth
Grounds
Guest house · guardian's cottage · pool · rooftop terrace
Architecture
1923 Art Deco, restored with restraint
Provenance
Hosted General de Gaulle, 1947
The Model

Four programs, one calendar.

Private whole-estate stays

Exclusive use of the house and grounds — families, celebrations, and discreet private buy-outs.

Retreats & partnerships

Curated multi-day retreats and brand residencies, hosted with aligned partners.

Cultural programming

Dinners, salons, and seasonal events anchored by a Noma-pedigree culinary direction.

Artist residency

A funded residency run through a separate cultural foundation — the soul of the house.

The Raise

€15.0M — how it comes together.

Institutional equity lead family office + strategic co-investors€8,937,500
Founding patronage non-return capital€1,750,000
Senior debt — SCI secured · interest-only€4,112,500
Cultural foundation — DAF philanthropic€200,000
Total raise€15,000,000

Acquisition at €11.75M, with notaire fees, cliff reinforcement, renovation, reserves and contingency fully funded inside the raise. Held through a Holding SAS, with the asset in an SCI, operations in a separate SAS, and the residency in a fonds de dotation.

The Economics

Closer to a vineyard than a fund.

7.8%
Going-in cash-on-cash
13.5%
Levered IRR · 10-yr
3.0×
Equity multiple
Stabilised base case · DSCR 5.0× · unlevered yield-on-cost 5.8% · 8–12 year hold
ScenarioCash-on-cashLevered IRRMultiple
Conservative5.6%9.3%2.20×
Moderate base case7.8%13.5%3.00×
Upper10.4%17.5%3.94×
Leadership Team

Maggie Spicer

Founder & Principal

Founder of WHISK, with a decade building brands across food, hospitality and CPG. Maggie leads Itxas Gaina end to end — the vision and brand, the capital raise and investor relations, the cultural program and the build. The project is hers, supported by a senior bench of advisors.

Advisory Team

Raphaël Renzulli

Real estate & transaction

18 years in French real estate; 5,000+ transactions overseen across a 23-department network (Espaces Atypiques). Founder of La Maison Zulli, Bidart. Advises on sourcing, the acquisition and local execution.

Ben Ing

Culinary

Ex-Noma (Head Chef) and Eleven Madison Park. Advises on the kitchen, the table and the terroir programming.

FL

Frédéric Lach

Acquisition consultant

Agency Director at Crédit Mutuel, Paris. Advises on acquisition financing and the transaction.

Founding Patronage
Closes September 2026.

A founding commitment is one-time and non-recurring. Patrons are named in the house, given first access to the calendar, and woven permanently into its story. It does not reopen.

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