Blue Mall - Open!

Where are the fotos?

where is this exactly in relation to puerto plata

Robert said:

I'll let you take them when you take your wife shopping.
Bring your wallet, you're going to need it

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Frank ignore Robert you won't need your wallet, just a small stack of credit cards will do!:bunny:

Sounds great.

I just hope they did a better job on the concrete entrance for the parking garage than the owners did on the new mall here in Santiago. Amazing that someone could spend so many millions of dollars and then have a driveway entrance that is a disaster.

I went to take a look at the prices at Geox (shoe store) compared to Canadian and US prices. They were about 5% off.

Not too shabby.

Krisspy cream.............I'm impressed........Those doughnuts are off the charts!!!......Don't kno if it will work here.....But I encourage EVERYONE to try one........

Robert said:

The finishing is excellent, better than I have seen in any building here.

The shop fitting is also top notch. I'm guessing they imported a ton of materials and labor, as it's not available here or I have never seen it used before.

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Believe it or not their is enough labor experience here to do finish construction work on par with anywhere else in the world. Problem is few businesses are willing to spend the extra 10% to get there. No doubt because they are running low on funds at the end of the proeject due to poor planning or execution.

Frank the Tank said:

Where are the fotos?

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Thanks Pichardo. It looks very very nice.

Robert said:

I disagree. Some of the methods used in modern construction and finishing are not used hear, so they have never been exposed to them or they are so new that they have to import the skills.

Have a friend that does lots of construction of fast food outlets in the USA.
I met him while he was overseeing a McDonalds being built here.
They imported everything, including some of the labour as they could not source the skill sets required locally.

Look at the amount of European and Latin American labor used in building the new over passes, road construction, Blue Mall, IKEA etc. They have to import the skills in some cases to manage the construction and train the local work force.

It happens in many developing countries, just like it happens in the DR.

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About right there...

Most new stuff in skilled/high end constructions/stores in the DR has been on need to import the craftsmanship to a good portion. The skills/know how is however quickly transferred to the local crews after the first few works, resulting in the local sourcing for those projects being available more and more.

Are we there yet? Not by a long shot! We could say that they have learned/copy the skills to do the work, but craftsmanship itself is still a work in progress here...

Blue Mall was completed with 90% DR work force; the high end was imported and done by foreign expert labor. This is not bad considering that some 8 to 12 years ago it was 50/50 at best...

The DR is a developing country where these types of skills/know-how will need the next three decades to come full circle, if the ratio of development is kept as of now.

Take the Metro work on the L2, where 100% of the work until now has been done by 100% local manpower/skills. The L1 was at best 70% foreign on the first half year of work, later reduced to a 40/60 on benefit to the local side.

If you think the Mall looks good, the security is even more impressive as it was done US Casino style, with secret corridors and all the works. The security detail got trained by foreign experts, in order to accomplish the task if needed. Most high end stores work on plastic than cash, for certain amounts above a limit.

The tower is to be done in a second phase, but instead of office space and such, it will be a 12 floors (+?) high end hotel.

There's no discernable competition between Blue Mall and Acropolis, the clientele goals are on two different levels...

I can only wonder what's in store for the Punta Cana's Blue Mall in project now...

Robert said:

Just took a walk around the new Blue Mall on the corner of Gustavo and Churchill, WOW!
...
Lots of places in the food court. All the usual names, plus ones I haven't seen here before. Sloppy Joes, Krisspy Cream etc.

The parking is pretty good as well

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Krispy Kreme, you mean like THE doughnut shop? Like the double greased fried, sugar coated melt-in-your-mouth artery clogging heart attack?

Or do you actually mean Krisspy Cream? I hope not!

Damn... Why does SD get everything good? All we get is Chili's. I'd be willing to trade!

Maybe it'd be good business to start shipping doughnuts on the metro and sell them outside pricesmart. Pricesmart is way outclassed by KK.

Robert said:

Just took a walk around the new Blue Mall on the corner of Gustavo and Churchill, WOW!

This is a very nice mall, by far the best in the DR.
It's super high end and it shows in the stores and level of detail.

This is for sure going to be a huge thorn in the side of Acropolis.

Lots of high end stores, great for walking, 5 floors of temptation

About 30% of the stores are open right now and the rest in various stages of completion. It looks like all the space has been sold or has a store.

I noticed a real Colombia and also Timberland store.
I have no doubt they will have heart attack pricing

Lots of places in the food court. All the usual names, plus ones I haven't seen here before. Sloppy Joes, Krisspy Cream etc.

The parking is pretty good as well

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is krisppy cream open??????
bob

I will repeat for the most part the skills are available here to do really good finishing work. Certainly, certain some newer and materials and construction methods aren't utilized here but for the materials in question there are certainly qualified labor.

The important factor as to why imported management was more than likely needed on the project is just matter of scale. After all it would be difficult for the locals to gather the experience required here in the DR to do such a large project. Another more specific example would be for example the laying of tile: there are certainly qualified people here but when you are talking about doing large expanses of floor the local methods of leveling a floor probably won't cut it; ie you're going to have to work with a surveyor in order to get everything level or at the design grade if so specified.

As far as roadwork, there are qualified engineers here, just look at the cable span built in San Pedo de Macoris. Unfortunately, there are a lot of engineering and contracting companies imo that aren't really qualified too.

Robert said:

I'll let you take them when you take your wife shopping.
Bring your wallet, you're going to need it

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cancel your credit cards Man, cancel them all!!!!
Robert just wanna see you down and bancrupt, lolol.
Mike