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 Puerto Vallarta Real Estate | June 2006 
Planned Resorts Lure Retirees
 Tom Kelly - The Daily Herald
| | Tom Kelly's new book "Cashing In on a Second Home in Mexico: How to Buy, Sell and Profit from Property South of the Border" was written with Mitch Creekmore, senior vice president of Houston-based Stewart International. The book is available in retail stores, on Amazon.com and on tomkelly.com. |
There's a reason the most popular Mexican second home areas are popular: They got a huge helping hand from the government.
Over the past 30 years, the national tourism agency, FONATUR, has created and actively promoted five so-called "Integrally Planned Resorts" that have become the backbone of Mexico's tourism industry. These resort destinations, which include Cancun, Ixtapa and Los Cabos, have proven themselves to be more successful than many of the country's other destinations, garnering average hotel occupancy rates of about 65 percent and capturing about 55 percent of the country's revenue from tourism.
Tourism officials now have plans for new projects, including ones on the jungle coast south of Cancun and north of Puerto Vallarta.
Obviously, not every project has the benefit of years of the government tourism agency's interest and dollars.
Bob Koens heads up an investor group developing one such project: a 530-acre, $500 million venture on the Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta. www.vivacascadas.com, a five-star gated community, features winding cobblestone streets, waterfalls and lagoons, and a golf course, with home sites averaging $145,000.
"Manzanillo is without a doubt a beautiful place," says Koens. "The temperature is perfect and the beaches are spectacular. Even though you are able to find beaches and beautiful places all over the world, it is the people that really make Manzanillo a marvelous and special place one would not want to leave. The people are friendly and very welcoming."
It was the people and weather that lured Koens' in-laws to Manzanillo, about 145 miles south of Puerto Vallarta, more than three decades ago. The family would gather south of the border for special holiday vacations and his mother-in-law, Ardis Peterson, became active in the community and with cultural events. Each time the family returned to the U.S., more people would ask about the draw of the area and the possibility of buying property there.
In 2001, Koens had considered building a series of condominiums adjacent to the Karmina Palace, a popular destination resort on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. While doing research on the waterfront parcel, a larger hillside property - an abandoned subdivision that the Mexican government had ordered to be liquidated - became available by private offering to approved investors. Koens and his associates raised the capital from friends and bankers to buy the 530 acres. His popularity didn't hurt; his long-standing relationships with city and state officials have the locals calling him "Ambassador Bob."
The development group said it envisions three to five hotels and hundreds of housing units, including condominiums and single-family houses. Some of the homes, hotels, restaurants and shops will circle a natural lagoon that will be opened up to the ocean. The property's slope allows ocean views from virtually every vantage point.
Critics of the development plan contend it will harm the environment. The new owners counter the objection by saying they will be bringing in more fresh water for wildlife and vegetation, plus rejuvenating a lagoon, now used as a dump site. By opening up the lagoon to the ocean's tides, it will be replenished daily with fresh seawater.
"The area means too much to too many people - including me," Koens says. "There is no way we are going to take anything away from the beauty of the land or the environmental sensitivity of the property."
Manzanillo, now larger than Puerto Vallarta with a population of 130,000, is also growing more popular on the commercial front. View homes appreciated approximately 30 percent from 2003-2005, and its port business has surpassed Veracruz, making Manzanillo the largest port in Mexico. Expansion is also underway to make the port even larger and deeper to accommodate bigger ships, heavier traffic and even more foreign and Mexican companies whose business interests center around cargo movement.†Several cruise ship lines are now making Manzanillo one of their main stops.
"All of these snowbirds have been heading to Phoenix or Orlando, but some of these people can no longer afford Florida or are looking to something different," Koens said. "We are going to provide that in Manzanillo. After seeing the home prices skyrocket in Los Cabos, we are feeling very positive about our possibilities."
Tom Kelly's new book "Cashing In on a Second Home in Mexico: How to Buy, Sell and Profit from Property South of the Border" was written with Mitch Creekmore, senior vice president of Houston-based Stewart International. The book is available in retail stores, on Amazon.com and on tomkelly.com. |
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