Manzanillo area news:
MANZANILLO, Colima, Mexico – The airport has been remodeled, the downtown refurbished, the roads improved and new equipment has just arrived to clean the beaches.
While this waterfront community has been under the second-home radar screen compared to the more popular Mexican Pacific Coast destinations of Los Cabos, Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, it clearly is on the move.
While you can still buy a $115,000 three-bedroom, two-bath condominium two blocks away from the same beach where Bo Derek made her debut in the movie “10’’, the big boys have arrived and have begun rolling out more expensive alternatives.
Tim Blixseth who turned the Yellowstone Club, a private ski community in Big Sky, Mont., and Porcupine Creek, a 240-acre private golf club near his home in Palm Springs, Calif. into fractional vacation spots for the wealthy, has added a prime piece of property 31 miles north of the Manzanillo International Airport to his fractional empire.
Blixseth, 55, recently paid $30 million for 25 acres at El Tamarindo, home of an oceanside resort 132 miles south of Puerto Vallarta that includes the country’s third best golf course, according to Best’s Golf Guide. (Number two is 20 miles down the road at Isla Navidad while Mexico’s top-rated course is the Cabo del Sol Ocean layout in Los Cabos).
Blixseth’s master plan is to charge members premium prices to vacation in some of the world’s most exclusive spots that include a Caribbean resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a fly-fishing lake near Cody, Wyo., and series of stone cottages surrounding a golf club outside St. Andrews in Scotland. The El Tamarindo property is expected to be a popular winter getaway while a 14th-century chateau near Paris should be jammed in the spring and fall.
The cost to participate? Get out your wallet. Blixseth plans to charge his first group of 25 members $3 million apiece. The next set of 25 will pay $3.5 million. That process will continue, with $500,000 raises, until 25 memberships are sold at a $10 million. While current members of his Yellowstone Club are expected to receive a discounted rate, all participants will reportedly pay a $75,000 annual maintenance fee.
While Blixseth’s investment has brought excitement north of town, activity is also hopping closer to the downtown core. The Karmina Palace, one of the more popular waterfront resorts, was sold this year to the Barcelo Group for $48.5 million after the previous owner seriously considered a bid for $22.5 million just 18 months ago for the 324-suite hotel. CBRE Melody, the real estate investment banking arm of CB Richard Ellis is currently financing resort project and said to be looking for others.
“Tourism and foreign investment are critical to our economy and our future,’’ said Sergio Bravo, secretary of tourism for the Mexican state of Colima. “We have wonderful beaches and a new cruise ship terminal. The federal government is helping to develop the future plan for the coasts to the north. The possibilities are very exciting.’’
Mario Chacon, who holds a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Costa Rica, was stationed in various parts of the world as an executive officer for Jose Cuervo and British American Tobacco. After six years in Guadalajara (a 3.5-hour drive from Manzanillo) he and his wife, a physician, chose to live in Manzanillo with their two children rather than return to his native Costa Rica. Chacon is now director of operations for Cascadas de Manzanillo (www.vivacascadas.com) a 530-acre, waterfront community aimed at U.S. second home buyers.
“I love Costa Rica and much of my family is there, but the real estate here is less expensive and the fishing is probably better,’’ Chacon said. “Also of importance is safety – Manzanillo is the safest city in Mexico. You can go anywhere in this area night or day and for a family person, that’s important.’’
Hearing those safety statements piques the interest of many foreigners, who could find sun and warm water just about any place in Mexico. Susan Dearing has lived here for more than 16 years. She operates a scuba shop, writes guidebooks about the area and oversees two helpful websites, www.gomanzanillo.com and www.divemanzanillo.com.
“It’s the safest place I’ve ever lived – period,’’ Dearing said. “Not only does the state of Colima have the lowest crime rate in the country, but Manzanillo has the lowest in the state. And, the people are more than nice.’’
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 Integrally Planned Resorts (IPRs) 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 approximately 65 percent and capturing approximately 55 percent of the country’s foreign revenue from tourism.
FONATUR now has plans for several new projects. The Costa Maya Integrally Planned Tourism Project (ITP) is moving forward on the jungled coast south of Cancun, the Nayarit IPR is underway north of Puerto Vallarta, and the Mar de Cortes Project is under study on the upper west coast of the mainland and along the east side of the Baja Peninsula.
Obviously, not every project has the benefit of years of FONATUR interest and dollars.
Bob Koens, a Santa Maria, Calif., native who moved to Minneapolis years ago to become an assistant basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, is heading up an investor group that is developing Las Cascadas de Manzanillo, featuring winding cobblestone streets, waterfalls and lagoons and a golf course with home sites averaging $205,000.
“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 and a number of other Minnesotans to Manzanillo, about 145 miles south of Puerto Vallarta, more than three decades ago. Many families would gather south of the border for special holiday vacations and became active in the community and with cultural events. Each time the families returned to the U.S., more people would ask about the draw of the area and the possibility of buying property there.
In 2003, the Minnesota contingent 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 piece – an abandoned subdivision that the Mexican government had ordered to be liquidated - became available by private offering to approved investors. The group raised the capital from friends and bankers to buy the 530 acres. Koens’ popularity didn’t hurt - his long-standing relationships with city and state officials have the locals calling him “Ambassador Bob.’’
Joe Schneider, chief operating officer, said the development group 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 serves as the project’s signature amenity. The property’s rising elevations feature ocean views from virtually every vantage point.
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 explained. “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
