President Danilo Medina visited the province of Maria Trinidad Sanchez on Sunday, 17 February for a ceremony marking the start of construction of the Costa Norte beach and golf development in Playa Grande beach. The project, which includes a boutique hotel and vacation property, will be developed in three phases by a US company, North Shore Land Holdings Inc. The company expects the completed investment to reach US$400 million over its 1.2 million square meters. The project is regarded as the largest investment ever carried out in Maria Trinidad Sanchez province, located to the east of Puerto Plata, since the completion of the Puerto Plata Airport and the Playa Dorada hotel complex in the 1970s.
Project director, Engineer Adolfo Ramirez said it would become a model for high standards and community involvement, with a first being the public beach access and facilities, a reported investment of US$2.3 million in new facilities. The first phase is located along the beach on the east side of Playa Grande. A boutique hotel will serve as beach club, with sports facilities. A second phase will be developed in the Punta Preciosa area with vacation homes and facilities including an equestrian center. A third phase includes the construction of four luxury villas on the mountainside of the property.
Ramirez said that while the Ministry of Tourism has authorized a room density of 30 rooms per hectare, Costa Norte will only be building eight rooms per hectare. He said they have worked closely with experts from the National Botanical Gardens to identify the areas of lower environmental impact for most of the construction to take place. This has resulted in irregular trails to prevent affecting native tree species.
Ramirez says they seek to attract ‘Gypsetters,’ or people who fuse the ease and carefree lifestyle of a gypsy with the sophistication of the jet set. These trendsetters are regarded as people with high income, solid cultural background and leadership in their countries. The community founders already include Boykin Curry IV, Scott Nathan, Jonathan Soros, Mike Novogratz, Charlie Rose, Fared Zakaria, Richard Mier, Chris Melony and Mariska Hargitay.