2 major builders eye Rocky Point

By Thomas Stauffer

Arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.20.2006 advertisement Two major resort developers have announced a $1.2 billion project within the Sandy Beach Resorts master planned community at Rocky Point.

Grupo SBR, which has built more than 1,500 units at Sandy Beach, about 60 miles south of the Arizona border on the Sea of Cortez, will team with Grupo Questro, the largest developer in Los Cabos, at the southern tip of Baja California.

The 630-acre project, known as The Joint Venture, will feature two 300-room beachfront hotels, 900 beachfront condominiums, an 18-hole golf course and resort with 1,000 homes and 1,000 more condominiums, and a convention and expo center to be built by the state of Sonora.

Rocky Point, or Puerto Peñasco, has long been known as a spring-break party spot, but an infusion of major capital is fueling the kind of development boom that Cabo San Lucas saw about 15 years ago, said Almer Elzink, marketing director for Sandy Beach Resorts.

“It’s really taking off,” Elzink said. “It’s the fastest growing tourist destination in Mexico, and what we’re doing here is constructing a master planned community that will really be a complete city.”

Sandy Beach Resorts, a 5,000-acre planned development, has primarily been built by Phoenix and Sonoran developers but has recently attracted major players from Mexico City, Cancún and now, Cabo San Lucas, said Bruce Greenberg, a Tucson real-estate appraiser and one of the most active real-estate consultants in western Mexico.

“This is a wonderful thing for Puerto Peñasco and Sonora,” Greenberg said. “They’re going to bring a well-recognized Cabos San Lucas resort developer in Grupo Questro to help spur continued development in Sandy Beach.”

The convention center, slated for completion in September 2007, will host the Border States Governors annual meeting shortly after its grand opening, Elzink said.

Rocky Point-based Grupo SBR is a group of 15 companies with more than 1,300 employees, and Los Cabos-based Grupo Questro is led by Eduardo Sanchez-Navarro, the heir to the Corona beer family, Elzink said.

● Contact reporter Thomas Stauffer at 573-4197 or tstauffer@azstarnet.com

http://www.azstarnet.com/business/161136.php

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