The Woodlands is a Hot Spot for Wealthy Mexicans
 Jenalia Moreno - Houston Chronicle
| | Members of "Mexico Woodlands" participate in the 7th Annual "Copa Mexico Woodlands" at Lake Windcrest Golf Course in Magnolia. The Woodlands has been attracting wealthy Mexicans as a place to live and shop. (Eric S. Swist/Chronicle) |
The Woodlands — Among Mexican high society, The Woodlands is in style.
With its luxury retailers, golf courses and forested parks, this leafy community has become one of the trendiest spots in the U.S. for Mexico's upper class to shop and buy homes.
No one keeps records on how many affluent Mexicans live and shop in The Woodlands. But according to business and community leaders, the numbers are growing and expected to climb.
"The Woodlands is in fashion in Mexico," said Toluca, Mexico, native Enrique Rosales, a Realtor with The Woodlands-based Tu Casa.
Mexico City's woes of crime, pollution, escalating cost of living and political problems have driven many Mexican homebuyers to this serene setting.
Mexican tourism, too, has gotten an indirect boost through the years from Houston's efforts to promote itself south of the border.
According to the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mexican tourists spend an average of $96 a day in the Bayou City and nearly half of the 1.8 million Mexicans who travel to Texas for leisure and business every year stop in Houston.
"It's a huge amount of economic impact to the city of Houston," said Jorge Franz, the bureau's executive director of tourism. "It's one of the few markets in the world that think of Houston as a leisure destination."
Woodlands wooing Mexico
Taking their cue from their Houston counterparts, The Woodlands officials are starting to court this market.
Town Center Improvement District in The Woodlands and other groups plan to place a 12-page ad in a prominent Mexican business magazine to attract shoppers and home buyers.
"We see them as a huge source of new money," said Frank Robinson, district president.
The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center hired Latin American specialist Julie Charros-Betancor in February.
"It was just a gold mine waiting to happen," said Charros-Betancor, who has already jetted to Mexico and Argentina to beckon tourists.
The Woodlands Mall and Market Street are also trying to attract Mexican shoppers, much as Houston's Galleria has for decades.
"We're now a viable option to the Galleria," said Jill Liccioni, general manager of the mall, which will conduct research to determine how many international shoppers visit the 1.2 million-square-foot center.
"We have a lot of traffic, especially when it's vacation time in Mexico," said Eric Leon, sales assistant at Coach, a handbag and accessories retailer.
Wealthy Mexican shoppers spend as much as $1,000 at the store, he said, and "everything that's the latest — that's what they go for."
But the mall will need more variety to satisfy the tastes of middle-class Mexican visitors.
"They need more stores. In the Galleria, they have all the stores," said Gabriela Tena, who was visiting friends in The Woodlands and shopping for the baby she is expecting in July.
At Market Street, with its small-town Main Street feel, Arturo Uribe seemed pleased with the area and its offerings.
"It's a very tranquil zone, with a lot of trees," said Uribe, a Guadalajara, Mexico, resident visiting his daughter, who lives in The Woodlands. "It's a very nice place to shop."
It took two vacations to The Woodlands to convince Mexico City natives Maggie and Jorge Bejar, owners of Truffle Chocolate Lounge, a dessert and coffee shop to buy a vacation home here.
"We wanted to try a new experience in life," said Maggie Bejar, seated inside her Market Street shop that resembles a Parisian cafe with its raspberry-colored banquette and outdoor seating area. "You cannot compare the quality of life."
Much as Americans are increasingly buying second homes abroad, wealthy Mexicans are doing the same.
"We're seeing more rich second-home buyers — those are definitely on the radar," said Miguel Lopez, chairman of the Montgomery County Hispanic Chamber, a four-year-old business group made up of about 50 members, including some Mexican business owners.
Though there is no data on the number of affluent Mexicans living here, Hispanics made up 7.7 percent of The Woodlands population of 65,744 last year, said Nathaniel Karp, chief U.S. economist with The Woodlands-based BBVA USA.
But they aren't hard to find. Last weekend, 70 Mexican and Hispanic golfers participated in the second annual Mexico-Woodlands cup tournament in nearby Magnolia.
And today, about 3,000 people are expected to drink margaritas, listen to mariachis and dance at the Hispanic chamber's Cinco de Mayo celebration on Market Street.
Crime, housing concerns
More affluent Mexicans moved to the area before last year's presidential election, Rosales said, because they feared leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would win and deliver on his promise to target the wealthy. Rosales said he joked that a Lopez Obrador win would be good for his real-estate business.
Crime in Mexico City is another problem, forcing many residents to live behind fortress-like walls. But in The Woodlands their children can play outdoors while watching raccoons and other wildlife, said Karp, who relocated from BBVA Bancomer in Mexico City.
And home prices in Mexico City continue to escalate, costing as much as $2,000 a square foot in well-heeled neighborhoods he said, compared to about $100 per square foot in The Woodlands.
Rosales sold his home and architecture firm in Mexico and moved here in 2001 because his daughter's health problems required she live at sea level.
He found a job as an architect in The Woodlands, but then friends and relatives began asking him for help finding homes here. Two years ago, he became a full-time Realtor.
"They say it's the most beautiful city in Mexico," Rosales joked.
jenalia.moreno@chron.com |
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