Group Metro, the acclaimed real estate leader in the Dominican Republic, is pleased to announce their latest, exciting project, Costa Blanca by Metro. The residential golf & beach community will span across 270 acres of lush property including almost 3 miles of coastline overlooking the Caribbean Sea, which also includes a half mile of gorgeous beach front in the blue lagoon bay of the project.

Adorning the property will be an 18-hole signature Greg Norman Signatura Golf Course, international tennis center, beach club, 52 Founder’s Club villas, state-of-the-art condominium towers, a luxurious full-scale marina for over 100 yachts, and private golf club house featuring the Hole 19 Bar, fine dining restaurant, cigar lounge, pro shop, conference center, and more. With top-of-the-line activities and lavish sporting complexes alongside magnificent residences, owners at Costa Blanca will find not only a haven and retreat from the everyday, but also an outlet for recreation and enjoyment.

Costa Blanca has had immense success with the introduction of their Founder’s Club. This exclusive and select group of 52 individuals were the first to purchase packages of staggering value, including: a luxurious private villa with golf, bay or marina views, 2 condominiums, a private boat slip in the marina, and membership to the prestigious golf club. Members of The Founder’s Club will enjoy top VIP treatment in addition to their various properties and onsite amenities.

Residents and guests of Costa Blanca will find their every whim catered to and any accommodation imaginable right at their fingertips. Costa Blanca will house a Greg Norman Signature Golf Course, which will be a PGA quality Golf Course in the Dominican Republic. With Mr. Norman’s signature stamp of quality and expertise, residents and guests will enjoy the luxury of having this course onsite. In addition, the marina will house 150 boats with slips up to 120 feet and the Marina is planned with a Marina Village resplendent with retail and commercial space housing restaurants, boutiques, and yachting shops.

When Phase One of this billion dollar retail undertaking is complete, Costa Blanca will house multiple, opulent high rise condominium towers for residents. Residential offerings will span an assortment of styles and sizes; ensuring a perfect match for any property seeker, with all properties featuring balconies with breathtaking views of the Caribbean Sea or golf course.

The Group Metro Team, the developers and visionaries of this grand-scale resort community, have over three decades of experience and expertise that they will be bringing to the project. Dr. Luis Jose Asilis, CEO of Group Metro states, “We are very pleased and excited to start construction on the 1st PGA Quality Golf Course in Juan Dolio. Costa Blanca will offer a complete luxury lifestyle only 30 minutes from Santo Domingo and the International Airport.”

Source: www.dominicantoday.com

Popularity: 34% [?]

The architecture and urban design firm A-cero, led by Joaquin Torres, has undertaken the project of a hotel and luxury residential complex covering an area of 1,400 hectares in the coastal district of Cumayasa in the Dominican Republic.

The project consists in more than 3,000 luxury villas, 3 hotels, 4 golf courses and a marina, providing a place to enjoy a variety of water sports, tennis and ecotourism, in addition to its unparalleled greens for golf lovers.

By the use of a contemporary design language, the project seeks innovation, making an architecture of details, tuning in the constructive elements to develop multifunctional spaces and resistant structures, taking in account the environment and context of the island where the complex is located.

The predominant building materials in the project wood and natural stone combined with steel and glass, the latter used sparingly because the weather and high temperatures.

The rooms are naturally ventilated, and their interior design allows an interesting play of light, shadow, color and rhythm, created with selected top-quality materials.

The main idea is to create a settlement of high environmental quality and low density, which incorporates native vegetation.

The landscape design follows a contemporary style that embraces the houses, scattered on a stair pattern, softening the impact of their presence and creating a dynamic appearance to the whole.

Source: www.a-cero.com

Popularity: 51% [?]

‘Way more than just a ‘Caribbean hideaway’

If you had extra cash about six years ago and the foresight to buy into Cap Cana’s massive 30,000-acre development on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, your real estate investment would have realized some serious appreciation. It’s still not too late. It just may cost you more. Five years ago the 60 Founders’ real estate packages sold for $800,000. Today they are valued at $2.5 million and up. This is one big Kahuna - comparing Cap Cana to a Caribbean hideaway is like comparing the QEII to a Sunfish. Still with exclusive gated enclaves like Trump’s Farallon Estates, those with the means to pay for their sybaritic pleasures will get what they want. But timing could be everything: 64 lots in Farallon selling for $3.5 to $15 million are already sold. Only four are left. A project of The Abrisa Group of the Dominican Republic, Cap Cana is not for the all-inclusive, pile-your-plate crowd. The master plan calls for a low-density residential community costing more than $1.5 billion targeting those who can afford a minimum of $480,000 for a two-bedroom condo and $1 million and up for an estate lot. When completed, Cap Cana will have three miles of beaches, five golf courses, a tennis and racquet complex, 500 hotel rooms, numerous “villages” with a total of about 5,000 residences, along with restaurants, shops, country clubs, polo grounds, casino, world-class spa and marina. Golf at Cap Cana Hugging the broken coral coastline with grit and tenacity and set against the startling blue sea, Punta Espada, the first Jack Nicklaus Signature course in the Dominican Republic, hosted its first Champion’s Tour event. “I could not take my eyes off the water. It was so cool,” said Mark Weibe after winning the three-day event. “My friends back home asked if it was really that beautiful. I told them, ‘No, it’s more beautiful.’”

Indeed waves crash high against the rocks close to tees and greens; ribbons of turquoise splash into coves while lush paspalum grass carpets the fairways. Once the $26 million Las Iguanas, the second Nicklaus course, is completed, Punta Espada will become private (membership fee, $50,000) while the third Nicklaus course, Mountain Golf Course along with Las Iguanas will be public. Cap Cana Real Estate The first phase comprising 8,680 acres, is up and running and last November Cap Cana reported sales of close to $690 million in residential sales as smart marketing quickly moved 480 villa units in the Green Village enclave. Now buyers who purchased a package (two villas) are getting their investment back by selling one of the units. A one-bedroom resale is listed for $480,000 while the package resale price is around $2 million.

New on the market are Racquet Village starting at $350,000 for a lot, and Las Iguanas Villas, 67 villas selling for $2.7 to $6.7 million. Ranging in size from 6,500 to 10,700 square feet, owners will have prime access to the Las Iguanas Golf Course, the Juanillo Beach Club, restaurants and bars. The Marina at Cap Cana Already the $96 million Cap Cana Marina is a happening place as trendsetters come to dine, shop, party and watch the action from the balconies of their townhouses as yachts come and go. When completed, the Marina will have 1000 slips able to accommodate yachts up to 250 feet. Cap Cana BeachRecently an outdoor fashion show by designer Arcadio Diaz, blew the champagne-sipping, white-linen dressed beautiful people away as stunning Venezuelan models - young ladies in impossibly high heels and thongs and barefoot, bare-chested men - strutted their stuff up and down the runway. With plenty of waterways, three small lslands and a Grand Canal, Vaporetto water taxis run shuttle services from shops to restaurants to the small islands. Of the various Marina communities, the four-bedroom Ribera Marina Town Homes are selling from $3.1 to $4.6 million including membership in the Cap Cana Yacht Club. Trump at Cap Cana Bigger-than-life photos of “The Donald” line the main drive announcing:Trump at Cap Cana. Two golf courses, Farallón and Dolinas, golf villas, lots, beach club, condo hotel, and residences with magnificent ocean views will all be contained within the gated community. What these select few will get for their money are drop-dead views 200 feet above the Caribbean. What they won’t get is beachfront property (there is a private beach club). But then, looking down on everything and everybody does have its price.

Other Cap Cana projects on tap Among other projects on the horizon are The Golden Bear Lodge; Racquet Village where 100 lots are selling form $480,000-$680,000; Mountain Golf Course and Village; Soto Grande, an 88-room boutique hotel and 352 high end beachfront units; and the Altabella Fishing Lodge. Ritz-Carlton has two projects on the drawing board: a 220-room resort with a 16,000 square-foot spa and beach club and 194-privately-owned beachfront and golf residences. Las Canas, a village with shops, the Heritage School and other public buildings is a work in progress. Sanctuary Cap Cana Golf & Spa The 176-suite Sanctuary condo hotel and Mandara spa blend elements of the Spanish colonial era, the Caribbean and modern minimalist architecture.

A big plus is the glorious white sand beach shaded by coconut palms and white canvas open “tents” and set up with uge cushioned double chaises, hammocks and lounges. Nightly rates are $350 to $7,000. In addition to the hotel, visitors can rent one of the 16 three-and four bedroom Caleton Villas with soaring thatched roofs and views of the sea and Punta Espada golf course. Nightly rates are from $1,800.

Source: www.golfcourserealty.com

Popularity: 83% [?]

LandAmerica Announces the Opening of LandAmerica Commonwealth Title Republica Dominicana.

Source: PR Newswire

LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. , Fortune magazine’s number one Most Admired Company in the mortgage services industry, announces the opening of LandAmerica Commonwealth Title Republica Dominicana, a joint venture of its Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company subsidiary.

LandAmerica Commonwealth Title Republica Dominicana is headquartered in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. It offers title, escrow, and other real estate transaction services to buyers, sellers, developers, and lenders throughout the Dominican Republic.

“The Dominican Republic has developed into a preferred destination for retired North Americans desiring a warm climate and real estate value,” said Marcos Troncoso, Manager - LandAmerica Commonwealth Title Republica Dominicana. “We provide our residential and commercial customers in the Dominican Republic with the same level of superior service that they are accustomed to receiving in the U.S.”

Troncoso explained that North American buyers, sellers, developers, and lenders appreciate having their real estate transactions in the country handled by a company with LandAmerica’s reputation for personal service and financial strength.

“Establishing a LandAmerica presence in the Dominican Republic is an exciting development for customers doing business in this important market,” added Frederick Persaud, Senior Vice President - Caribbean and Latin America for LandAmerica. “We are confident our new Santo Domingo office will play a key role in making LandAmerica the premier provider of real estate transactions in the Caribbean.”

For more information contact Marcos Troncoso, Manager - LandAmerica Commonwealth Title Republica Dominicana at (809) 565-5525 or mjt@landam-ctrd.com.

About LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc.

LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. is a leading provider of real estate transaction services with over 900 offices and a network of more than 10,000 active agents. LandAmerica serves agent, residential, commercial, and lender customers throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. LandAmerica is recognized as number one in the mortgage services industry on Fortune’s 2007 list of America’s Most Admired Companies.

CONTACT: Bob Sullivan, SVP - Investor Relations, +1-804-267-8703, bsullivan@landam.com; Lloyd Osgood, SVP - Communications Resources, +1-804-267-8133, losgood@landam.com, both of LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc.

Source: www.landam.com

Popularity: 22% [?]