November 2008 - Mikol Maitland
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Waterfront Resort Amenities
Mikol Maitland, Managing Partner, Arch Te
The dream of establishing waterfront destination resorts up and down the coastlines of Latin America has been a foot race over the past 25+ years to see who could build the latest and greatest destination resort. Unfortunately, many of those dreams were shattered by poor planning, irresponsible financing efforts and probably dozens of other “shady” reasons that I don’t even want to know about, leaving remnants of unfinished infrastructure for all to see. These failed projects that litter the waterfront lead to skepticism by the potential buyers who question whether the project they wish to invest in will end up the same way. We do know that the demand is still there, yet the consumer is becoming much more sophisticated and demands more each time the bar is raised higher. That is why waterfront amenities must be world-class if you have any desire to capture a legacy tag for your resort development.
One of our specialties in resort planning is waterfront development, with some projects involving a primary amenity such as a world-class marina. A marina provides a dynamic economic engine for the development as well as the surrounding region by facilitating multiple sources of revenue, allowing it to function as a fiscally self-sufficient amenity. It takes a strong commitment by a development group to tackle the financial burden of constructing a first-class marina, but if done right, it creates a regional icon that the prospective real estate buyer identifies with as a destination they wish to be a part of through ownership.
Amenities are designed for one thing; to raise the value, or perceived value, of real estate within the development boundaries. A marina offers the added advantage of creating a visual core to waterfront living where none existed before. A highly valued beachfront property with a thousand meters of beachfront access is limited to just those meters of beachfront real estate for higher price points. A marina offers a ‘visual core’ and access to waterfront living for 10 times more real estate that would otherwise not have access to waterfront living, allowing the price-points in a marina development to reach incredible heights.
One of our current projects in Baja California Sur, Mexico is developing a new Blue Flag marina as the primary amenity of the project. As marinas have a significant impact on macro and micro eco-systems within a region, the design criteria necessary to be awarded the designation of a Blue Flag marina is the most stringent in the world. The Blue Flag designation is renewable annually so if any of the imperative criteria is not met within a single season, the designation will be removed. This requires a much larger effort on the part of the development team to insure this rating is maintained, but the investment is worth the effort and then some. The high-end yachting demographic seeks out these types of marinas and spread the word throughout the boating community. This evangelistic marketing generates incredible amounts of traffic and revenue for the marina operator as well as the other secondary amenities. Unfortunately there are marinas in the region and elsewhere which have selfishly disregarded environmental safeguards, social and economic impacts to the surrounding region and are now finding themselves on the wrong side of the fence of those in the boating community whose word of mouth keeps others away.
But the marina cannot stand alone, with multiple secondary amenities built-in such as a yacht club, hotels, spas, commercial village, restaurants, fishing charters, eco-tourism, golf, etc., we have to think about the not only the boating demographic that we are trying to attract to the marina, but the land-locked buyer who wants the appreciation value of the waterfront lifestyle. The secondary amenities must be first-class if you want to actually sell your real estate to those you attract into your waterways and roadways combined. You can’t invite them into a shiny new restaurant and then offer them a Big Mac (apologies to our friends at McDonalds), they have to walk out thinking the about the experience as a complete and memorable experience which includes the food, service, atmosphere…all of which increase the psychographic response to the community as a whole.
In a marina community, the golf becomes a secondary amenity and yet must fulfill its role as a high-end golf experience if you are to fully capture the destination resort tag. I am sure there are countless great golf courses out there without a signature name, as well as signature courses that aren’t so great, but to complete the branding of your iconic waterfront resort community we feel it is necessary to make sure that the golf component is brought to the highest level that is feasibly possible. Considering all of the big name courses in the Los Cabos region where we are located, it may be prudent to introduce a new name to stand out from the pack in our branding and marketing efforts.
The allure of waterfront living and the lifestyle imagery that it evokes is a monstrous draw to the U.S. buyer of destination resort real estate. But planning and permitting for such projects have fallen under tighter scrutiny and become more difficult in recent years due to ecological and smart growth plans being put in place by regions across Latin America. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing in our opinion. There must be checks and balances to insure the fragile eco-systems that we are impacting are carefully considered when developing any waterfront development. But more and more obstacles are being placed in front of developers with the vision of creating the next best waterfront destination resort. So when does it become feasible to introduce a beachfront community or marina in an environmentally sensitive area? Only by choosing an experienced team of planners, environmental engineers and marketing experts can insure your projects feasibility and success. With the proper team in place that understands the processes and can plan the project as a sustainable asset to a region instead of a negative ecological impact, waterfront resort developments can still be properly carried forward.
Mikol Maitland is a Managing Partner of ArchTerra Design Group, LLC and is based in Los Cabos, Mexico. He can be reached at mmaitland@archterradesign.com or visit our website at www.archterradesign.com
Mikol Maitland
(530) 302-7075 US Cell
(624) 183-9034 Nextel MX
mmaitland@archterradesign.com
http://www.archterradesign.com