morocco Kyle Phillips Makes Alliances

     Will a Moroccan golf developer’s second community in Marrakech be a mirror image of its first?
     Alliances Group’s 475-acre Al Maaden community, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, opened in 2010. Like most traditional, Western-style golf communities, it features an 18-hole golf course flanked by houses, a few hotels, a shopping area, and the usual recreational amenities.
     Alliances’ forthcoming 625-acre community, Akenza, appears to be cut from the same cloth. It’ll have a golf course, 1,050 villas and apartments, three hotels, a shopping area, and recreational attractions.
     There may even be some similarities in the golf courses. The 18-hole track at Akenza, like the one at Al Maaden, will be designed by Kyle Phillips, an architect based in Granite Bay, California.
     The course at Akenza will be Alliances’ third solo effort in Morocco. Its first, at the Port Lixus golf community in Larache, opened in 2009. If you’re wondering about the community’s the master plan, it does indeed closely resemble the ones created for Al Maaden and Akenza. One difference: Port Lixus’ 18-hole track was designed by Enrique Saenger, a Spanish architect.
     Alliances hasn’t yet set a date for Akenza’s groundbreaking. “Residential sales have slowed, so the developers are going to park it for a while,” says Phillips.
     The course at Akenza will be Phillips’ third in Morocco. His 18-hole track at the Taghazout golf community in Agadir, a coastal city, is under construction and expected to open next year. Whereas most golf communities line their courses with houses – Phillips calls them “18 sausage links engulfed by development” – the course at Taghazout will be a walker-friendly “core” layout. “It’s going to be a pretty neat golf course,” he believes.
     It’s worth noting that Alliances is a minority investor in Taghazout.

     The original version of this post first appeared in the February 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.