Mexican resort to fly down media

Three months into sales of pied-a-terres at the Nizuc resort and
residences in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, the developer hopes to create
more buzz by sending five real estate reporters on an all-expenses-paid
trip there.

The press, mostly from New York City (The Real Deal will not attend), will be flown to Mexico on May 15, a Thursday, and will stay at the nearby Paraiso de la Bonita Resort through May 18, a Sunday. The reporters will tour the Nizuc construction site, its on-site sales center and the surrounding region. 

Shvo, the marketing firm run by Michael Shvo, heads the project’s sales operation, as The Real Deal reported following Nizuc’s New York press launch at a Soho gala in January. In addition to Shvo’s four brokers based on-site, the developer, Mexico-based Alan Becker of Becker Arquitectos, assigned three other brokers from Mexico and Canada to the sales team. 

Potential buyers at Nizuc, which means “nose of the dog” in Mayan, will be feted at the beachfront sales office, where they can sit poolside with food service and take boat rides around the property. 

“We basically create experiences for people coming down there to give them the same feeling and the same ambience as when the project opens,” Shvo said. 

Twenty-two of the 40 residences released so far have been snapped up by American and Mexican buyers through word-of-mouth and some preliminary advertising over the last six weeks or so, Shvo said. He said Nizuc’s architecture, its remoteness and its waterfront led him to buy a two-bedroom unit himself. Shvo’s terrace will have a full-size pool overlooking the ocean. 

Of the 22 units purchased, four buyers were local, eight buyers hailed from Spain, five were from the United States and five were from elsewhere, said Becker, who bought a penthouse unit in the project.

Becker Arquitectos is building 160 one- and two-bedroom furnished residences and three three-bedroom beachfront villas. Prices will range from $1.3 million to $1.5 million for the apartments and $10 to $13 million for the villas. The five-star hotel will have 45 rooms and 16 large one-bedroom suites with full-time butler service. 

Hotel room rates will run from $900 for a standard room up to $10,000 or $12,000 for the villas, Becker said. Maintenance will run between $1,200 and $5,000 per month, Becker said.

The $180-million project is being built on an old Mexican presidential retreat that hosted former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, and the band U2. Becker purchased the beach-front property four years ago.    

GHM hotels and resorts, whose portfolio includes the Setai in Miami, will operate Nizuc. The architect on the project, Jean-Michel Gathy, also worked on Miami’s Setai. The interiors of Nizuc, slated to open in October 2009, are being done by Indonesian designer Jaya Ibrahim.