A feature in Fast Company has shed light on the controversial change to height permitted for tourism residential property in the Punta Cana destination. At the end of 2017, the Ministry of Tourism confirmed it had issued a resolution changing the permitted height in Cap Cana from maximum heights of 4 floors to 22 floors in Macao and 17 floors in Cap Cana.
The “coconut height” limit had been instated since the early years of Punta Cana development to conserve the natural beauty of the area and not repeat errors of other skyscraper beach destinations in the country and abroad. In the Dominican Republic, high rises authorized in the past for the southeastern beach destination of Juan Dolio are considered to have not been a plus for that destination.
The National Hotel & Tourism Association (Asonahores) says the procedures used to pass the resolution are in violation with the law. A meeting since then is pending with Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier García and Asonahores.
According to Fast Company, behind the resolution is the decision of the Medina administration to please US President Donald Trump. Fast Company says that while for Trump Haiti may be a “shithole”, the Dominican Republic “is a country that he clearly thinks could be a goldmine – and a potential windfall for his family’s business empire.”
Fast Company reports that its sources tell it that the Trump Organization is close to an agreement in the Dominican Republic with a developer to partner on the project Trump at Cap Cana on the southern end of the Punta Cana strip. While Trump had promised to avoid any new overseas deals while in office, the explanation given is that “this is not a new deal but just consistent with an existing licensing deal that the company signed with a local developer back in 2007.”
That 2007 deal for condos at Farallon Trump at Cap Cana, nevertheless collapsed leaving many Dominican investors with hefty losses.
Fast Company reports that in January 2018, “Trump’s partner on the island, the powerful Capa Cana Group, was granted permits and financial incentives to build 17 towers, including the Condos Playa Juanillo project, which has reportedly been linked to the Trump Organization.
Former Dominican ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Vega, is quoted giving insights into why the authorization: “Here in the palace, the president’s thoughts are that this U.S. president is angry and we better not get in his way,” says Bernardo Vega, the former Dominican ambassador to the U.S. “We don’t want to cross him.”
Vega told Fast Company that President Medina “wants the Trump family to invest in tourism in our country, and for that has forced the Minister of Tourism to change the rules and allow high-rises on the beach in Cap Cana and Punta Cana.”
Vega, nevertheless, would later tell Fast Company that the country’s tourism minister used the name of the Trumps to pressure the private sector into supporting the proposal “and not because they have decided to invest.”
Richard Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, reportedly told Fast Company that the Dominican deal is an ethics problem for the Dominican Republic and “one more example of a foreign entanglement for the Trump business empire that creates conflicts of interest.”
Painter notes: “But to have U.S. public officials, as opposed to just U.S. companies, causing foreign governments to behave this way–in part to ingratiate themselves with our president–is very disturbing. The message is that you should destroy your environment for the benefit of the Trump organization as a way to get your country off the White House ‘s–thole list.’”
Read more:
Fast Company
Raw Story
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DR1 Forums
Newsweek
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12 February 2018
