On the sprawling 2,500-acre coastal grounds of one of Nicaragua’s more venerable central-Pacific development projects, there’s a rekindled excitement and restored optimism that hasn’t been felt here for half a decade.
The construction of the forthcoming Wyndham Hotel, which is rising from the ground like Rocky Balboa getting off the mat to ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ has the folks at the Milagro del Mar Resort at Gran Pacifica suddenly feeling confident that momentum is finally shifting in their favor after several rounds of getting knocked against the ropes.
“The place has been revitalized and we are back on track for the original vision for what this was going to be,” says project developer Roger Keeling. “Sales are picking up and people are investing money again. And those who bought lots before are now moving forward on architectural plans and starting to build again.”
Much of the renewed buzz is due to the Wyndham Hotel signing on to the tourism project last February, providing an internationally branded vote of confidence that has breathed new life into the long-stalled master development. Phase I– a 42 room hotel– is scheduled to open its doors at the end of next year, with the phase II hotel building and conference center opening the following year.
But the buzz is about more than just Wyndham.
Roger Keeling
Nicaragua’s increasing fame as an emerging tourist destination, the partial recovery of the U.S. economy, and the failure of the Sandinista government to scare away investors with its anti-capitalist rhetoric is all good news for the country’s inchoate investment climate. Nicaragua, despite the constant political noise, is evolving into a slightly more sophisticated tourism and investment market. And it’s one that’s attracting a more educated and worldly investor—those who do their homework and aren’t easily spooked.
The recovery of Nicaragua’s real estate market has been gradual, but that’s mostly a good thing. Nicaragua 2013 is—quite thankfully—not a throwback to the heady and addlepated days of Nicaragua 2004, when foreign developers blathered nonsensically about “the next Costa Rica” and peddled silly promises of “paradise.” Today, many foreign investors are coming to the rather wise realization that Nicaragua is not some fantastical land of milk and honey—it’s just Nicaragua. And that’s plenty.
Nicaragua, it turns out, is a worthy destination in its own right, without pretending to be something it’s not. Milagro del Mar has come to a similar realization. With miles of great coastline, a fun 9-hole golf course and a variety of other outdoor family activities (from surfing and volunteering, to horseback riding on the beach) the development has a wide offering of activities and attractions for all types of people, without all the pretentiousness of exclusivity. The development’s idea is to build a large and functioning community of people who love the outdoors…not an enclave for wealthy recluses.
A golfer pulls the pin on the first green (photo/ Tim Rogers)
“After living here for six years, I now realize that having a 5,000 square foot house or a 2,500 square foot house really doesn’t make that much of difference because you are so focused on the outdoors here; at Milagro del Mar you are always a short bike ride away from beach, so you don’t need a million dollar house for a million dollar view here on the property,” Keeling says.
He said investors can buy in to the project from anywhere from $99,000 to $1 million, creating more of a mixed community than the ones found at some of the other gated developments. That approach has also helped make the project more attractive to a new wave of investors who have had to adjust their retirement plans after taking a beating in the financial crisis over the past five years.
“Maybe people are coming to a new reality—that the economy is not going to recover in some dramatic fashion, rather it is going to be a slow process from this point forward. So many people are adjusting their plans and saying, ‘Ok we can’t stop life; we are ready to move on and do something’,” Keeling says. “And we fit nicely into that. If someone put away $300,000 and was working towards investing in a beachfront property, maybe now they are reevaluating how much they can spend. And we are a perfect choice.”
Milagro is also working hard to bounce back from its own tough years. Outside the development’s gates, construction has begun on paving the 11 kilometer dirt road to the hotel site. And throughout the facility, a grounds crew is working busily to reseed and reshape the golf course, which will have all new greens by November. The course, which affords several sweeping oceanfront fairways, will expand to 18 holes by the time phase II of the Wyndham Hotel is open in 2015.
For the time being, the new bustle on one of the central Pacific’s first major development projects has folks feeling good again about the future of this intentional community.
“People who haven’t been here in months are coming back and saying, ‘I can’t believe there is life here; things are changing and looking better, there is activity,” Keeling says. “Everyone is noticing the positive change and that is our motivation to keep going.”
