Why is Jardines de Coson website shut down?
Hi,
I just joined this forum and thought I would also share my experience with Jardines de Coson. I reserved a condo back in 2006 through Gold Leaf RE at an ICG event. I have made 2 trips to DR to check out the Samana area as well as the Jardines site.
My most recent trip was in June '09 - I was in Santo Domingo for a volunteer trip to help build a small school & install basic water filtration systems for a rural Haitian "immigrant" village, and I stayed a couple of days extra to check progress at Jardines. I tried to email Albert Defazio before my trip, but no luck, maybe out of town?
Instead of flying the shuttle plane like the 1st time, I had a local contact drive me up the brand new highway (very nice) that connects Santo Domingo to Samana - about 3 hour drive, very scenic. I noticed quite a few Jardines billboards as we approached Las Terrenas, along with many other project signs. My local contact (also in RE industry) said this highway should bring a lot of weekend traffic up to Samana area from Santo Domingo (but tolls were pretty steep though).
In Las Terrenas, I stopped by the local Century21 office to get their take on Jardines - the realtor there said she didn't know why this project had dragged on for so long, heard there were some drainage issues for the land that required additional work, better to buy in one of the other projects that had finished during the same time and closer to town.
I stopped by the Jardines office - closed, noone there, probably out of town?
There was also a HUGE new condo beach resort project in town - Balcones de Atlantico - that had Phase 1 units completed in less than a year; upscale, lots of yuppies from Santo Domingo visiting the project, units $400K+. Lots of construction activity going on, tons of bulldozers moving around, very impressive.
When I went to see the Jardines project, it was neatly fenced and had a sign for some "Jose Ignacio" local construction company. The model villa was 60-70% done and Las Terrazas townhome project had basic shell/walls completed. A couple of Caterpillars parked idle, and 1 local worker not doing much.
What disappointed me was the the entire Jardines side of the land had no progress - still coconut trees and original ground cover.
Here's what I don't understand - I was told that the developer owned the land free & clear already. So far, I think at least 25% of the purchase price (and maybe more) has already been paid (in escrow at Stewart Title? I'm not sure). With no land financing expenses & 25%+ in purchase installments, I was expecting to see more progress on the Jardines condo portion of the land, no?
Did all of this $ go into the neat fence and fixing the drainage issues?
And now the website has been shut down?
In this day & age, it should not be that difficult (or expensive) to keep the buyers updated as to what is going on with the project - an email every few months, a basic website w/ photos & updates, don't you think?
I'd love to exchange contact info w some of you on this forum - based on the impressive credentials & background of the developer, I really was expecting better communication than this.
Hi,
I just joined this forum and thought I would also share my experience with Jardines de Coson. I reserved a condo back in 2006 through Gold Leaf RE at an ICG event. I have made 2 trips to DR to check out the Samana area as well as the Jardines site.
My most recent trip was in June '09 - I was in Santo Domingo for a volunteer trip to help build a small school & install basic water filtration systems for a rural Haitian "immigrant" village, and I stayed a couple of days extra to check progress at Jardines. I tried to email Albert Defazio before my trip, but no luck, maybe out of town?
Instead of flying the shuttle plane like the 1st time, I had a local contact drive me up the brand new highway (very nice) that connects Santo Domingo to Samana - about 3 hour drive, very scenic. I noticed quite a few Jardines billboards as we approached Las Terrenas, along with many other project signs. My local contact (also in RE industry) said this highway should bring a lot of weekend traffic up to Samana area from Santo Domingo (but tolls were pretty steep though).
In Las Terrenas, I stopped by the local Century21 office to get their take on Jardines - the realtor there said she didn't know why this project had dragged on for so long, heard there were some drainage issues for the land that required additional work, better to buy in one of the other projects that had finished during the same time and closer to town.
I stopped by the Jardines office - closed, noone there, probably out of town?
There was also a HUGE new condo beach resort project in town - Balcones de Atlantico - that had Phase 1 units completed in less than a year; upscale, lots of yuppies from Santo Domingo visiting the project, units $400K+. Lots of construction activity going on, tons of bulldozers moving around, very impressive.
When I went to see the Jardines project, it was neatly fenced and had a sign for some "Jose Ignacio" local construction company. The model villa was 60-70% done and Las Terrazas townhome project had basic shell/walls completed. A couple of Caterpillars parked idle, and 1 local worker not doing much.
What disappointed me was the the entire Jardines side of the land had no progress - still coconut trees and original ground cover.
Here's what I don't understand - I was told that the developer owned the land free & clear already. So far, I think at least 25% of the purchase price (and maybe more) has already been paid (in escrow at Stewart Title? I'm not sure). With no land financing expenses & 25%+ in purchase installments, I was expecting to see more progress on the Jardines condo portion of the land, no?
Did all of this $ go into the neat fence and fixing the drainage issues?
And now the website has been shut down?
In this day & age, it should not be that difficult (or expensive) to keep the buyers updated as to what is going on with the project - an email every few months, a basic website w/ photos & updates, don't you think?
I'd love to exchange contact info w some of you on this forum - based on the impressive credentials & background of the developer, I really was expecting better communication than this.