Concerns raised over “Retreat” plans
Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 5, 2026
Last week, I mentioned the “Luminary Resort” planned near Grouse Glen and the fact that many at the WEBPA meeting had concerns. Since the meeting, Bear Creek area resident Heather Cantua has delved deeper into those behind the plan and has shared her concerns with the Forks Forum as well as on social media.
Some of what she shared …
Neighbors of the Sol Duc Valley, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks diving into the proposed resort at Grouse Glen Way. I was propelled to investigate because the vision of the project feel so out of character with our valley that it raised many questions about who was behind the plan.
What I found is that the owner, “Richard”, has a YouTube Channel where he shares his business plans. In his videos, Richard describes himself as one of the largest Chinese real estate developers of short-term rentals in America. He claims to be building a vertically integrated empire, starting with the manufacturing of the mirrored cabins in China, purchasing land in the US to place them on, and then managing those properties as short-term rentals. The final step in his plan is to distribute ownership of these properties through “tokenization,” selling small interests to individuals through his company, “PropTory.”
All of the videos are in Chinese, and so I downloaded them and used a transcription software.
I then created a summary so that my neighbors can have access to the information I found.
(If you’d like to review the plans, the County Staff Report, and a pdf of all of Heather’s findings, go to the Forks Forum’s Facebook page.)
Some of her other findings …
Accelerated depreciation tax strategy
Most of the Luminary Resorts videos feature a woman named Kikuko, who has her own YouTube channel with 45k followers. It appears that Kikuko and Richard have been managing short-term rentals in the US for some years now and they have now progressed to the next stage of expanding his empire with the prefabricated cabins. One reason for their expansion into manufacturing is alluded to in Kikuko’s video. In the video, Kikuko describes the advantages of accelerated depreciation.
Tokenized Ownership: PropTory
“Tokenize US Real Estate. Distribute Globally.”
Richard’s final step in his business plan is to tokenize his properties and distribute ownership through his company PropTory. Richard was announced on the company’s LinkedIn page as the CEO of PropTory, which purports to “Tokenize U.S. real estate. Distribute globally.”A few YouTube videos explain the connection between PropTory and Luminary. The problem is cashflows, which is mentioned repeatedly in Richard’s videos. Buying property, manufacturing mirrored cabins, and getting proper permits are high start-up costs and the return on investment is low for the first few years. In addition, there is a mismatch between 30-year long mortgages and fluctuations in the short-term real estate market.
PropTory is how Richard will raise equity and short-term loan money to fund more Luminary Resorts across America.
Heather said, “The next step in this process is a hearing this Thursday, Feb. 5, starting at 2 p.m. Public comment is strongly encouraged, particularly from those who live in the Sol Duc Valley.If you are moved by any of the information that I am sharing, please show up and make your voices heard. There will be a three-minute time limit each, but I am told that everyone who wants to speak will be given the opportunity to.”
Christi Baron, Editor
