Developer Finds New Market for Condotel Trend

Within the last year or so, there has been a boom of hotel and residential construction in northern Baja California , most of it concentrated between Tijuana and Rosarito Beach.

But an enterprising Baja architect, Guillermo Martinez de Castro, better known as Mannix, is hoping that a multimillion-dollar mixed-use project, the Ensenada Bay Resort he is designing with a group of noted San Diego architects and planners, will draw buyers farther south.

“To date, most of the construction we are seeing has been smaller projects without much planning,” Mannix said. “But I believe that a major selling point of this project will be the fact that it will be like a planned community they would see in the United States.”

The San Diego firms coordinating work on the design and site planning of the 80-acre resort’s hotel, condotel, single-family homes, high-rise condominium towers and townhome structures are Rob Wellington Quigley Architects, HB3 Urban Design: :Urban Planning and Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects.

The condotel trend that has moved west from Florida and New York to California during the last few years allows average individuals to become hotel room owners. Typically, investors use their rooms or suites for a set period and put them into the hotel’s room inventory the rest of the time to offset some of their mortgage payment.

The recent availability of American title insurance and mortgage lending for U.S. citizens buying property in Mexico has also helped to fuel the Baja construction boom.

A First

The Ensenada Bay Resort would be Ensenada’s first condotel project, but there are at least two others in the pipeline in Northern Baja, Mannix said.

Mannix, who has dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship and divides his time between homes in Mission Bay and Rosarito, is an architect and project manager for the Ensenada Bay Resort. He has offices in Rosarito and Los Cabos.

“We expect a five- to seven-year buildout, but brokers say they think we will sell out in three,” Mannix said, adding that the cost of construction for the resort has been estimated at $220 million. Work to begin building about three to four model homes could start in June.

Rob Quigley, who is the resort’s lead U.S. architect, said he joined the team for the opportunity to work with prestigious company.

“This is the ‘A Team’ as far as San Diego architects and planners are concerned,” Quigley said. “There are also several Mexican architects. The concept design is completed and we’re midway through schematic design. So far, we have four different designs completed for single-family residences.

“Mannix is finishing up the design of the beachfront villas and the high-rises are yet to go. This is a huge project. As far as resorts, there will be nothing like it on this side of the border or that side of the border.”

Income Producers

Mannix said that a portion of the project’s startup capital would be provided by the developer, Iamsa, a Mexican industrial park developer that is based in Mexicali. Plans have not been finalized. However, the hotel could have from 50 to 100 rooms and the entire resort, including residential dwellings, could number as many as 1,000 units.

He also said that there likely would be flexible arrangements for the owners’ use of the condotel units and that the homeowners would have access to the resort’s amenities, including two pools and a spa, as well as its services.

“Market studies we have show that most people investing in homes in Baja don’t use them full time, so we think that by offering income producing units, that becomes attractive,” Mannix said.

Selling prices are expected to range from $250,000 for a 1,200-square-foot home to $800,000 for a 3,000-square-foot beachfront home. Prices have yet to be determined for the condotel units.

Another development trend that Mannix said the resort would incorporate is “new urbanism” , building a community that resembles “walkable” neighborhoods of the past.

The team of architects and planners meets weekly, and Howard Blackson, the head of HB3 Urban Design, is advising Spurlock Poirier on the design of the community layout.

“My job is to do the urbanism in the streets,” Blackson said. “What I’m working on is making the project look like a real neighborhood, not just a resort, or a beach neighborhood.

“The intention is not to be just a gated place where you drive your car in and remain behind walls, but a walkable community that is complete with retail and recreation and public spaces. The beauty of this is that it has good mountain views and views of the beach and sand dunes.”

In addition to the Ensenada Bay Resort, Mannix said its architects and planners are also in talks with Ensenada’s city government to develop a large tract of acreage, which is part of its overall master plan. That calls for a public park, cultural facilities and residential units.

Said Quigley, “What is unusual to me in this case is that there is grass roots up regional master planning, rather than what I’m used to in the U.S., which is top-down government regulation in master planning.

“The developer took the plans directly to the mayor of Ensenada, who in turn invited the adjacent property owners in to discuss and develop the plan.”