Cuba Business News and Information
Rob Sequin | Havana Journal
Based on an email we received:
Cuban Golf Resorts will be the joint venture of UK based Esencia Hotels & Resorts Ltd and Palmares S.A., a Cuban organization supervised by the Ministry of Tourism. The Carbonera Club will feature an award-winning team of Championship golf course PGADC designers, Spanish architects Rafael De La Hoz, Italian architects OneWorks and UK architects and interior designers Conran and Partners creating a beachfront resort over 170 hectares in Carbonera Cuba.
The Chairman of the UK side of The Cuba Initiative, Ian Taylor, MP (former UK Trade Minister) commented after a recent visit to Cuba: ‘I am delighted that Esencia, which has been working on this project for several years, has been able to make progress and that this important project is now becoming a reality. It was one of the projects I discussed with Cuban ministers. To have a British company that is able to bring so many well-known names together in relation to an investment in Cuba heralds a new era for British business in Cuba and augurs well for closer UK relations’.
The Carbonera Club to be located in Carbonera Cuba is a sixty minute drive East of Havana and twenty minutes West of Varadero. The Club will offer 104 apartments designed by Sir Terence Conran.
There will be 468 apartments in residential buildings of three to four stories and 154 private villas designed by Rafael De La Hoz. All of the above benefit from golf views, sea views or beach frontage.
The entry level price of apartments is from $2000 per square meter with sizes from 75 to 150 square meters. The entry-level price of villas is $1.3 million and sizes range from 300 to 500 square meters.
While public access will be permitted to The Club, certain areas are members only. Members will also receive special benefits at Xanadu mansion and golf course, the Marina in Varadero and the Hotel Victoria in Havana.
The member phase will be followed by the official public launch in Spring 2009. Construction will begin in 2009 and complete in 2011.
Facilities
* PGADC Championship Golf Course and Club House
* Beachfront and Golf View Villas
* Apartments, including Conran Residences
* 150-room boutique Hotel & Spa Conference Centre, Tennis, Restaurants, Shops and Nightclub
* A Maritime Center in the resort and Marina berths for 20m yachts at nearby Varadero Yacht Basin
* Unique separate beach club and Golf Course at Xanadu in Varadero
Sales Process:
1. Membership
2. 10% reservation
3. 30 day cooling-off period
4. 30% on sales contract
5. 60% on completion
You must be a member to buy property within the resort. Properties may be purchased in a personal name or in the name of a company or Trust and rental management is offered. Resident visa (with no tax issues) will be issued for property owners since the tourist visa is only valid for sixty days. As per agreement with the Cuban government, there will not be any sales tax charged on the sale of the property.
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Yep, Savills International is promoting Carbonera here.
Good info, thanks.
Now breaking ground is another story.
Ask Leisure Canada how their development projects are coming along.
They started like ten years ago and now have tens of millions of dollars of funding from Dubai and as far as I know, they have not broken ground on a single project.
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Cuban art and culture conference in June in Massachusetts hosted by Havana Journal
Great. I wonder who actually owns the property the hotel will supposedly be built on.
Also:
“While public access will be permitted to The Club, certain areas are members only.”
You gotta love that - it means - “ain’t no natives allowed.”
I just love to visit resorts in third world countries where citizens are kept down economically in a bid to ensure complete and utter control over them, while foreign visitors enjoy pina coladas and daiquiris on the beach. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Bloody shameful.
Well, that is one way to look at it but there are plenty of exclusive clubs that keep people out due to the membership fee. That’s what makes them exclusive.
Sure, because of low wages and economic restrictions on Cubans, by default they will be excluded.
Let’s be patient and see how all this plays out.
I have not heard of a ground breaking date yet. Until I hear that announced publicly, this is just another resort on the drawing board.
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Cuban art and culture conference in June in Massachusetts hosted by Havana Journal
So Monte Barreto never got off the ground (Leisure Canada)?
Wow
How about that new building in Malecon, that took about 10 years to finish? Who built it?
As far as I know, Carbonera is on a land that is not subject to any claims, so far.
Yes, members’ clubs are exclusive, that’s the nature of them
I’m sure that in cases like Carbonera, Cubans will be kept out for economic issues and also because Cubans are under restrictions when it comes to resorts and so on
Yes, despite of Raul lifting restrictions on Cubans access to hotels, the truth is that a) it is out of the reach of the great majority because of the hotels are priced in convertible currency and expensive b) top resorts in certain areas are off limits to Cubans
“Well, that is one way to look at it but there are plenty of exclusive clubs that keep people out due to the membership fee. That’s what makes them exclusive.
Sure, because of low wages and economic restrictions on Cubans, by default they will be excluded. ”
There was a time when that wasn’t the case.
What is the status of the reservations? How many? Who?
Also, what is the status of the construction?
As with Leisure Canada, I have never heard of any ground breaking activities.
We do not endorse the purchase of planned or built real estate in Cuba.
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Cuban art and culture conference in June in Massachusetts hosted by Havana Journal
I believe that land was illegally confiscated from the Larrauri Family Corporation which owned that for over a century. The remaining family members now live in Florida and plan to take legal action against the government once Cuba opens up to the United States.
