President Danilo Medina visited Playa Grande on the north coast yesterday, Monday 11 March for the official groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of construction of the 6-star Playa Grande Aman Resort and Golf Course, which covers an area of 600,000 square meters.
Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia, Minister of Public Works Gonzalo Castillo, the founder and chairman of Aman Resorts, Adrian Zecha, Rees Jones, golf course designer, John Heah, Aman Resort architect and representatives of the local government and Dominican business community were also present.
The resort includes the renovation of the legendary 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Sr. golf course by his son Rees Jones and the development of the 30-suite Aman Resort, each with private pool, together with a beach club. A total of 38 golf, beach and cliff-side Aman villas for sale will also be built. This low-density development (35 rooms per hectare) stresses ecological conservation and the use of local materials for the construction.
“This is a US$500 million upscale tourism development in an area of 9.5 million square meters,” said Pierre Charalambides speaking for the investor group Dolphin Capital Partners during the event. “The ground-breaking ceremony at Playa Grande represents the start of a hugely exciting development for both Dolphin and the Caribbean region, creating the first Aman Resort in the Dominican Republic and the first golf-integrated Aman Resort in the world. We are honored that the country’s President and Minister for Tourism were able to attend the event, and look forward to delivering a world class residential golf resort and increasing the international interest and support for this beautiful location.” The owner of Aman Resorts, Adrian Zecha also attended. Future developments include boutique hotels, a beach hotel, a luxury ecolodge, golf villas, golf clubhouse, health and fitness spa, a beach village and sports facilities for tennis, horseback riding, and golf.
The Aman Golf Resort is expected to be completed and open in the first quarter of 2015 and during the construction period the first eight Aman villas closest to the hotel will be selectively marketed and released for sale.
The resort occupies part of an over 11km of seafront and an outstanding natural landscape, known as the Playa Grande Club and Reserve. The Aman Resort and Villas is the first phase of development at the site, with other future planned phases including the development of up to 400 residential villas, additional leisure facilities and equestrian sport facilities.
Speaking at the event, Mirtha Cabral, executive vice president for the developer Playa Grande Holdings said that the company firmly believes in a sustainable development model where the nearby communities can benefit and solid bases are set for organized growth that positively impacts the region. She said that the Playa Grande Foundation is running several community projects, such as a pre-school for 30 children in Abreu, and sponsorship of sports and cultural activities, such as Carnavarengue in Rio San Juan. She said that the guests at chains such as Hotel Aman spend more per visit and are potential investors in the country, and more likely to become involved in cultural and philanthropic activities that benefit the community. Employees will also benefit from the skills they will acquire during the training programs.