Cap Cana: There’s something going on in the Dominican Republic
Exclusive new Caribbean resort community offers residents and guests a mix of exotic elegance and five-star deportment.
A new multibillion-dollar luxury resort and community on the easternmost point of the Dominican Republic is making headlines worldwide. The resort is named Cap Cana and visitors to this new jewel of the Caribbean, with its pristine ocean-front and world class amenities, quickly understand what the buzz is all about.
Since construction began in 2003, developers for the master-planned resort community, about twice the size of Manhattan, have opened a five-star hotel and spa, recorded residential sales in excess of $350 million, hosted a new event on the seniors professional golf tour and christened what will be one of the largest marinas in the Caribbean. The resort has also established partnerships with notables including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, real estate magnate Donald Trump and golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
“With five years of strong development, the very successful Cap Cana Championship, just held at the Punta Espada Golf Course, the operation of the first phase of the Cap Cana Marina and the recent opening of the Sanctuary Cap Cana, the property’s first hotel, Cap Cana, is truly the ultimate luxury destination of the world – the World’s New Great Destination,” says Ellis Perez, the resort community’s vice president of Commercial and Institutional Relations.
No Expense Spared
The Dominican Republic is a longtime favorite destination for European and Canadian travelers. Over the last several years, the country’s tag as the best kept secret of U.S. travelers has diminished significantly and in 2006 it was named the top tourist destination in the Caribbean by the World Tourism Organization.
Cap Cana is viewed as a departure from the country’s tourism base, which for the most part involves vacation value. The development represents the island’s bid for a slice of the world’s five-star holiday and real estate market. The vision for the development is to offer the high-end traveler a no-expense-spared lifestyle of virtually unbridled leisure.
The multi-use luxury resort community, about 10 minutes from Punta Cana International Airport has a five-mile coastline, with more than 2 miles of powder-like white sand beaches surrounded by coral reefs, set in a series of coral limestone bluffs from the coast to 200 feet above sea level.
It is being built in a series of three stages over a period of between 12 and 15 years. Once completed, the site will include about a half dozen residential projects totaling more than 5,000 properties, four hotels and at least five golf courses.
Marina Cap Cana is the centerpiece of the project. The initial phase of the marina in this protected harbor basin opened in April 2007, with 182 slips capable of accommodating yachts up to 250 feet. When finished, the marina will house more than 1,000 slips and offer maintenance services, as well as port and custom authorities.
Venice’s Vaporetto in the DR
The 300-foot dock has dual-hose diesel and gasoline pumps, two black water pump-out stations, a laundry, showers and a freezer room for sport fishers. When dredging is completed this summer, the depth of the 200-foot-wide main channel, called the Grand Canal, will be 18 feet, says marina manager Lawrence Boswell.
“We also have all the voltages anybody would want or need,” Boswell says. “There is lots of room for the mega-yachts to maneuver,” Boswell says. “And, as nice as it is now, there is a lot that hasn’t even made it to the drawing board at this point.”
The Grand Canal serves as the axis of several miles of canals reminiscent of Venice’s famous water transportation system – complete with “Vaporetto” water taxis – boutiques, exclusive restaurants and hotels. The man-made canals will also be home to a number of islands and inlets that will accommodate residences with private docks.
The five-star Altabella Fishing Lodge near the marina has 10 suites and a complex of 290 fully furnished, four-bedroom luxury apartments. Services at the facility, one of five planned Altabella luxury properties, include catering and cleaning for vessels, and each home includes a terrace, an inside elevator and direct access to the marina.
Record Residential Sales
Also in this area are Ribera Town Homes, 49 four-bedroom residences, with prices starting at $3.1 million, incorporating distinctive architecture and natural materials to complement the tropical surroundings. Towne Home ownership also includes membership to the Cap Cana Yacht Club, which will include a variety of restaurants, bars and mooring rentals, along with special invitations to club events, access to numerous sailing and fishing clubs, nightly entertainment, locker rooms, a business center and weather station tracking monitors.
The recently completed Sanctuary Cap Cana Golf & Spa is one of the most luxurious hotels in the Caribbean. The Sanctuary, also an Altabella property, includes 176 uniquely distributed suites, all with exceptional views of the Caribbean Sea and nearly half of the suites featuring entrances from the ocean. The Sanctuary is located on a private beach available exclusively to guests. It has a fully equipped 22,000-square-foot spa, eight bars, event space for up to 500 guests and eight restaurants, including the architecturally stunning Blue Marlin.
In February of 2007, Donald Trump entered into a $2 billion partnership at the site to develop a luxury complex to be called Trump at Cap Cana. His first project is Trump Farallón Estates at Cap Cana, consisting of 68 estates, each 1.5 acres in size and beginning at $3 million. During the first four hours of the sales launch last spring, the facility posted a Caribbean record $350 million in sales for the time frame, representing about 95 percent of inventory.
In another partnership, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., plans to develop both a hotel and a residential offering. The residential plan, Residence at the Ritz Carlton, Cap Cana, will consist of 194 private homes with a choice of beach front or golf course locations. The hotel will have 220 rooms and will include a 16,000-square-foot spa, private beach club, and five restaurants and lounges. Both projects, which total more than $1 billion, are scheduled to open in 2010.
Beach front Elegance
Also recently opened and operating as a boutique hotel is Caletón Villas, a group of 16 three- and four-bedroom villas located beside the Caletón Beach Club with Caribbean Sea and golf course views.
Caletón Beach Club is an elegant beachfront facility with amenities including a waterfall and water mirror, tropical gardens, an area for exhibits, a spa, restaurant, bar, grill and terraced swimming pool area.
Just steps away from the private beach club is Caletón Estates, Cap Cana’s most exclusive enclave of five-bedroom homes. Green Village, another residential development, was named one of the 10 best options for real estate investment around the world by Travel and Leisure magazine.
The Golden Bear Lodge will open later this year. The lodge will be a complex of 98 condominiums with exquisite architecture and private pool. Co-developed by Jack Nicklaus, nicknamed Golden Bear, the lodge is to be located between two Nicklaus signature golf courses.
Three of the golf courses at Cap Cana will be designed by Nicklaus. The first is Punta Espada, which in March became the first Caribbean course to host a PGA Tour Champions event. Punta Espada opened in November 2006 and has already gained recognition from the Robb Report, the global luxury magazine, as one of the world’s most extraordinary golf courses. In addition, it was selected as one of the top 10 best golf courses in the Caribbean by Forbes and one of the 100 best golf courses in the world by Golf Digest.
Luxury Complements Mother Nature
The other two courses scheduled for development will be part of the Trump development. The courses, Farallón and Dolinas, are to be designed by Hanse Golf Course Design, a leading international designer, and will be perched on a bluff well above sea level.
Plans for Cap Cana also include: an equestrian club with a championship polo field, boarding stables and a dressage and show jumping arena; a tennis club with grass and clay courts, and one stadium court; and many, many other hotel, residential and recreational opportunities for the discerning traveler. The resort is also located close to the Mona Channel, one of the world’s five primary fishing destinations.
Cap Cana showcases how luxury can complement Mother Nature to form the perfect mix of exotic and elegant accessibility, and its natural beauty, five star deportment and island charm have the potential to propel this exclusive residential resort into a class of its own.
“The only way for people to really understand what is taking place here is to come and see it for themselves,” says Boswell. “The first thing they are impressed by, coming into the channel, is the construction. There are seven tower cranes working in the marina area right now and I’ve seen as many as nine. People can come here and live, and do all the things they like to do without even leaving the property.”
