Los Cabos
On the Owner's Side
of the Table.
A thirty-year partnership. Nineteen years building in Los Cabos. One line of accountability from the first meeting to the last punch list.
How We Work
Built on a Partnership, Not a Pitch.
Brad Gwinn and Roberto Moreno have worked together for more than thirty years — first in Los Angeles, and since 2007 in Los Cabos as Cardón. That continuity is the firm. Every engagement is signed by the same two partners who were there the day the project began and will be there the day it closes out.
Cardón began in 2007 as a fully integrated design-build practice — architecture, development, and construction under one roof. Over nearly two decades the firm delivered homes, communities, and infrastructure across Los Cabos, working with private owners from raw land through handover. That operator history is now the foundation of a focused practice: representing private owners opposite the architects, contractors, and consultants they have engaged.
Owner's Representation & Development Management
We represent private owners who have selected — or are selecting — their architect and general contractor and need a disciplined operator to hold the process together. We know what the other side is doing, because we have done it ourselves — as architect, developer, and design-build contractor in this region for nearly two decades.
- Design & pre-construction. Early budget review, constructibility and durability assessment, contractor evaluation, and negotiation of the construction agreement — so cost, risk, and scope are aligned before mobilization.
- Construction oversight. Acting as the owner's interface with the builder. Progress verification against approved documents, pay-application review against verified completion, and resolution of field issues on-site and remote.
- Cost, schedule & reporting. Dual-currency tracking in MXN and USD with FX exposure monitored, critical-path and milestone oversight, and monthly executive summaries, action lists, and decision logs on a defined cadence.
Budget validation, consultant selection, and constructibility review — so the owner's cost exposure is understood before the architect's drawings set the scope.
Independent draw review, site verification, change-order oversight, and schedule monitoring — when the project is already underway and the owner needs an operator watching the numbers.
Post-disaster rebuild, mid-project course correction, or contractor transition — when the original plan has failed and the owner needs someone to restructure and deliver.
Current engagements exceed $150M in active construction value across Los Cabos and Southern California. Client identities are held in confidence. References are provided directly by the partners at the appropriate stage of discussion.
Why Owners Bring Us In.
Principal Continuity
Every engagement is led directly by both partners — not rotated through associates or handed off at construction. One line of accountability from feasibility through closeout.
Independent Discipline
Budget review, bid analysis, pay-application verification, dual-currency cost tracking, and monthly executive reporting on a defined cadence. Audited, not asserted.
Regional Fluency
Direct-to-manufacturer relationships, a working understanding of Mexican permitting, HOA regimes, and post-Odile structural standards. We know what goes wrong in this region and when — because we have already seen it.
A quality reference library, built by Cardón.
Designing, developing, and building in Los Cabos — at every scale from a single oceanfront home to a 4,000-acre resort community. When we represent an owner on a project we didn't design ourselves, this is the reference library we bring.
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14- 01Remanso at Palmilla — initial project concept and prototype homes, design-build by Cardón, 2019.
- 02Remanso at Palmilla — street-facing garden.
- 03Casa Las Familias — extensive design-build remodel by Cardón in El Dorado, 2023.
- 04Remanso at Palmilla — courtyard and portico.
- 05Remanso at Palmilla — pool.
- 06Casa Fryzer — overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
- 07Casa de Las Cascadas — ground-up 16,000 sf design-build by Cardón in El Dorado, 2024.
- 08Remanso at Palmilla — kitchen.
- 09Remanso One — 30,000 sf custom home, flagship property on a 1.6-acre site in Remanso, design-build by Cardón, 2020.
- 10Casa Fryzer — shown as rebuilt by Cardón in 2016 after Hurricane Odile.
- 11Remanso at Palmilla — private court.
- 12Casa de Las Cascadas — free-standing, stone-clad spiral stair, custom fabrication by Cardón.
- 13Casa Fryzer — pool on the eve of completion, 2009.
- 14Los Cardones — development by Cardón, in design, 2026.
- 15Altadena — fire rebuild, designed and managed by Cardón, 2026.
Images 01, 02, 04, 05, 08, 11 by Sinziana Velicescu.
More of Cardón's work — and the places that shape it — is on Instagram.
We've sat in every seat.
Cardón ran projects end-to-end in Los Cabos — master planning, entitlements, design, procurement, and construction. Owner's representation is only as good as the rep's ability to read the work on the other side. That ability is built by having done the work.
Master Planning & Land Development
Cardón has led master-planning work on resort, residential, and coastal parcels across Baja — repositioning underperforming land into structured communities with circulation, infrastructure, housing typology, and entitlement strategy:
- Bahía de los Sueños · East CapeRe-planned 4,000-acre resort community with 1,200 lots, town center, and 18-hole golf course. Developed plans for multiple sub-projects within the community.
- La Ría de La RiberaMaster plan for 108 single-family lots and 3 multi-family parcels across five housing types, with community green, massing studies, and phased delivery.
Product Development & Brand
We have built our own developer brands — Remanso, Espíritu, Los Cardones — which is why we read buyer-facing product critically when representing owners on sale-ready homes.
- Remanso at PalmillaCreated 24 lots from a residual land parcel; led visioning, naming, branding, buyer-facing product, and all site infrastructure. Modular courtyard prototype expandable from two to six bedrooms with buyer-selected upgrades. Community amenities designed and managed by Cardón.
- Los CardonesThirty-unit courtyard-home development on a desert site. In design, 2026.
HOA & Regulatory Approvals
Navigating covenants, design-review boards, and municipal permitting in Los Cabos' most restrictive communities:
- El DoradoDeveloped a 10,000 sf oceanfront home concept and secured approval to design and construct within existing covenants that made a buildable solution nearly impossible.
- Chileno BayConcept development and design-review packaging for a prime oceanfront, developer-featured lot for a 12,000 sf home within a tightly governed community.
Design-Build Delivery
Cardón operated as a fully integrated design-build firm — in-house design with self-performed construction:
- El Dorado · Casa de Las CascadasTurn-key delivery of a 16,000 sf oceanfront home, including integration of specialized entertainment and wellness programs under a single delivery contract.
- Casa Las Familias8,500 sf beach house with expansive openings to the sea — design developed and delivered under Cardón's single-source model.
- Remanso Custom Home30,000 sf custom home designed and constructed in 14 months, through the COVID pandemic.
Procurement & International Sourcing
Cardón has built direct manufacturer and logistics relationships to move specified product into Baja — German-crafted kitchens, specialized glazing systems, premier appliances, and bespoke AV and control systems — without defaulting to local substitution. When representing owners on procurement decisions, we route along those relationships.
- Casa de Las CascadasIntegrated specialized exterior glazing, premier-class entertainment systems, one-of-a-kind fabricated stairway, waterfalls, and European fixtures and millwork. Sourced internationally from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and the USA, and commissioned on-site with specialists from each territory.
Owner's Representation & Development Management
Acting solely in the owner's interest across design, cost, schedule, and quality — with budget, design review, contractor negotiation, cost and currency oversight, schedule, and reporting on a single disciplined cadence.
- Private Residential EngagementsEnd-to-end representation of executives, entrepreneurs, and globally recognized figures across Los Cabos and Southern California. Client identities are held in confidence; references available at the appropriate stage of conversation.
The Cardón Approach
U.S. project-management instincts alone do not survive contact with Los Cabos. Representing an owner here required a method built for Baja, not borrowed from California.
Our role is to read the project on the owner's behalf, hold every other party to the standard expected, and keep the process legible from feasibility through handover.
Building in Cabo, done properly, is a pleasure the owner can stay close to.
Procurement is structured on direct manufacturer and trade relationships. No commissions or rebates flow to Cardón from any vendor or subcontractor — disclosed in writing at engagement.
The Partners
Brad Gwinn
Developer · Strategist · Executive
Brad leads the owner-facing side of every Cardón engagement: budget, schedule, procurement, contracting, and delivery structure. His background combines principal-side development, capital logic, and complex project execution. Before Cardón, he led adaptive-reuse development on landmark buildings in Downtown Los Angeles during the city's revival — converting early-century commercial structures into residential communities — and later served as Chief Operating Officer of StandardVision, overseeing the delivery of large-scale architectural media systems on international airports, hotels, and major towers. At Cardón, he applies that same discipline to private residential projects, representing owners across feasibility, construction oversight, procurement, and handover. He is the partner owners rely on when the project must remain financially legible while design ambition stays intact. Current advisory work includes post-disaster residential rebuilds in Altadena, where he lives. B.Arch, USC.
Roberto Moreno
Architect · Urbanist · Developer
Roberto leads design, architectural coordination, and on-site reporting. He also brings the Los Cabos relationships — trades, design-review boards, and craft networks built over two decades — that a visiting owner cannot assemble on their own. He came to private-client work through two decades of design practice and civic planning: senior designer and planner at Moule & Polyzoides in Pasadena, former Planning Commissioner for the City of Pasadena, and work on master plans across the American Southwest and the Baja coast. Since the 2014 rebuild cycle that followed Hurricane Odile, his Los Cabos work has been part of the regional shift toward contemporary Mexican modernism: courtyard-based, climate-responsive, built in regional materials. B.S. Arch, Arizona State. B.Arch and M.Arch, USC.
- Laura Barelli*Finance & Strategy
- Fannie Rodriguez*Operations & Procurement
- Tomas Fernandez*Conceptual Design & Visualization
- Ana Cristina TrasviñaProject Engineer & Manager
- Juan Carlos MejíaLocal Government Liaison
- Francisco Álvaro LedesmaLogistics
* with Cardón since its founding
Field Notes from Los Cabos
Written for principals and their advisors.
Mexican permitting, contract structures, lien regimes, and trade hierarchies do not map to U.S. equivalents. Owners who assume otherwise routinely discover — three months into construction — that the protections they expected are not in place. A Los Cabos project needs to be structured around Mexican reality from the contract forward, not adapted to it mid-build.
Hurricane Odile rewrote wind-load, glazing, and structural requirements across the region and triggered meaningful changes in inspector behavior. A decade on, many builders still price pre-Odile and build post-Odile — creating silent compliance gaps that surface during HOA inspection or insurance binding. We know where the gaps tend to open.
The gap between proposal and handover in Los Cabos is almost always mechanical — unaccounted scope, unpriced site conditions, and under-specified finish allowances that get "resolved" through change orders the owner didn't see coming. Independent pre-construction review and monthly draw audits catch these before they compound.
El Dorado, Pedregal, Chileno Bay, Querencia, and Palmilla are not interchangeable. Each has its own governance, its own design-review culture, and its own relationships between boards, developers, homeowners, and long-tenured residents. Working inside these communities is as much about reading the politics as reading the covenants — knowing who carries weight, where historical precedents matter, and how a proposal needs to be framed for the audience actually deciding on it. That fluency is built over years in the region, not acquired from a rulebook.
Kitchen and millwork systems, specialty fixtures, architectural glass, and high-end appliances can be sourced directly to international standards when the logistics chain is set up correctly — but without the right relationships, owners default to local substitution and lose design fidelity, warranty coverage, and the level of finish they specified.
The first failure is usually the PM. Relationships with subcontractors, local inspectors, and the design-review community take years to build and cannot be flown in — a PM imported from California typically loses authority on site within months, and the owner discovers it later in the project than they should. The second failure is structural. Budgets are validated late, after design is already locked, leaving the owner to absorb six- and seven-figure change orders that should have been caught at schematic. Pay applications are approved on builder-reported percent complete rather than field-verified progress. Costs are tracked in one currency while the project transacts in two, quietly accumulating FX exposure. Design intent drifts during build because no one on the owner's side is reading the shop drawings. Schedule slips are not reported until a milestone is already missed. None of these are dramatic — they are small, unattended accumulations that surface at handover, when the punch list reveals what the monthly reports never did.
A Private Conversation.
Inquiries are handled directly by the partners. References — from current and prior engagements — are provided at the appropriate stage of conversation. Warm introductions are welcome via current and prior clients, architects, and counsel.