Discovery Land Company has developed close to a dozen golf communities, six of them with courses designed by Tom Fazio. The seventh is expected to open sometime this summer, at the 585-acre Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club in the Bahamas.
The gated, guarded, automobile-free community is located along Great Guana Cay, part of the Abaco Islands, and it’ll eventually have 248 estate houses, 100 single-family houses, a marina with slips for more than 150 mega-yachts, 22 boathouse villas, and a private beach club with 30 cottages. (If you’re wondering, Fazio’s 7,327-yard track is almost completely surrounded by houses.)
Fazio’s previous work with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land includes Iron Horse Golf Club in Whitefish, Montana; Gozzer Ranch Golf & Lake Club in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and Madison Club in La Quinta, California.
Discovery Land says it closed on nearly $43 million worth of property at Baker’s Bay last year, but caveat emptor: The hurricane season in the Bahamas lasts from June through November.
BakersBayClub.com, DiscoveryLandCo.com
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
grenada Will the Government Pony Up?
It appears that the government of Grenada is willing to jump-start the floundering Four Seasons resort project south of St. Georges.
Earlier this year, the government said that it would consider making a $100 million loan at a discounted rate -– a 25-year term at 2.5 percent interest, with no interest for the first five years -– to the project’s developers if they can’t rustle up the money on their own.
The question now is whether Cinnamon 88, the British entity that’s been trying to develop the 400-acre Mount Hartman Estate property for years, will bite on the offer.
Cinnamon 88, which is led by Robin Paterson and Mike Pemberton, wants to build the biggest Four Seasons resort in the world, including a 124-room hotel, 100 waterfront and golf course villas, 55 houses on nearby Hog Island, a spa, a tennis center, and an 18-hole golf course designed by Mackenzie & Ebert, Ltd., a firm based in Northgate, England.
“Ideally, we would like to see that project get off the ground as early as 2010,” Grenada's finance minister told BBC Worldwide Monitoring in March.
Cinnamon88.com
Earlier this year, the government said that it would consider making a $100 million loan at a discounted rate -– a 25-year term at 2.5 percent interest, with no interest for the first five years -– to the project’s developers if they can’t rustle up the money on their own.
The question now is whether Cinnamon 88, the British entity that’s been trying to develop the 400-acre Mount Hartman Estate property for years, will bite on the offer.
Cinnamon 88, which is led by Robin Paterson and Mike Pemberton, wants to build the biggest Four Seasons resort in the world, including a 124-room hotel, 100 waterfront and golf course villas, 55 houses on nearby Hog Island, a spa, a tennis center, and an 18-hole golf course designed by Mackenzie & Ebert, Ltd., a firm based in Northgate, England.
“Ideally, we would like to see that project get off the ground as early as 2010,” Grenada's finance minister told BBC Worldwide Monitoring in March.
Cinnamon88.com
Sunday, June 20, 2010
morocco The Crown Prince Takes a Shine to the Golden Bear
Earlier this year, Jack Nicklaus discussed a very productive recent trip he'd made to Morocco, which he visited as a guest of the Royal family.
While there, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based designer secured three projects from the nation’s Crown Prince, Moulay Rachid, a passionate golfer who, Nicklaus said, “asked me to re-do his course where they have their championship.”
That would be the Red course at Royal Dar es Salam Golf Club in Rabat, the site of the annual Morocco Golf Open. The 7,400-yard track is part of a 45-hole complex that was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1971.
Nicklaus also closed on a pair of new commissions. One will be built on coastal property, presumably in or near Rabat. The site was chosen, Nicklaus said, because Rachid “knows that I would like to have a seaside golf course.”
Nicklaus discussed these projects at a press conference before the Masters. He didn’t address the third project, but it could take shape at Royal Dar es Salam, which is located on a 1,000-acre inland parcel just minutes from downtown Rabat.
“That’s a pretty nice trip,” Nicklaus concluded.
Who could disagree?
While there, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based designer secured three projects from the nation’s Crown Prince, Moulay Rachid, a passionate golfer who, Nicklaus said, “asked me to re-do his course where they have their championship.”
That would be the Red course at Royal Dar es Salam Golf Club in Rabat, the site of the annual Morocco Golf Open. The 7,400-yard track is part of a 45-hole complex that was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1971.
Nicklaus also closed on a pair of new commissions. One will be built on coastal property, presumably in or near Rabat. The site was chosen, Nicklaus said, because Rachid “knows that I would like to have a seaside golf course.”
Nicklaus discussed these projects at a press conference before the Masters. He didn’t address the third project, but it could take shape at Royal Dar es Salam, which is located on a 1,000-acre inland parcel just minutes from downtown Rabat.
“That’s a pretty nice trip,” Nicklaus concluded.
Who could disagree?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
british virgin islands Wanted: Golf Course
If you've got an itch to build the first golf course in British Virgin Islands, your first call should be to Kederick Pickering.
Pickering, one of the territory's elected officials, recently beseeched his colleagues to support the construction of a golf course and a high-end hotel, as part of a broad-based effort to attract wealthy vacationers.
“People don’t go on holidays just to lie on the beach and read a book,” said Pickering, who evidently never met my wife and daughter. “If you are going to be in the high-end tourism, you have to provide the quality of entertainment people need.”
Obviously, those needs extend to golf. The way Pickering sees it, BVI is already losing golfers to islands like St. Thomas, St. Croix, and Puerto Rico, and he worries that Cuba -- “Things are changing in Cuba,” he warned -- will soon start to siphon off even more of them.
“We can talk to thy kingdom come, but we need a golf course,” argued Pickering, in comments reported at BVInews.com. “We have to come to a common understanding, or we are going to lose the people we are trying to attract.”
One other thing BVI needs, according to Pickering: a marina capable of hosting mega-yachts.
Pickering, one of the territory's elected officials, recently beseeched his colleagues to support the construction of a golf course and a high-end hotel, as part of a broad-based effort to attract wealthy vacationers.
“People don’t go on holidays just to lie on the beach and read a book,” said Pickering, who evidently never met my wife and daughter. “If you are going to be in the high-end tourism, you have to provide the quality of entertainment people need.”
Obviously, those needs extend to golf. The way Pickering sees it, BVI is already losing golfers to islands like St. Thomas, St. Croix, and Puerto Rico, and he worries that Cuba -- “Things are changing in Cuba,” he warned -- will soon start to siphon off even more of them.
“We can talk to thy kingdom come, but we need a golf course,” argued Pickering, in comments reported at BVInews.com. “We have to come to a common understanding, or we are going to lose the people we are trying to attract.”
One other thing BVI needs, according to Pickering: a marina capable of hosting mega-yachts.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
cambodia The Royal Treatment
How many of you have dreamed of stumbling upon a secret island paradise and transforming it into a posh resort that attracts vacationers from all over the world?
These days, Neak Oknha Kith Meng is living the dream.
Meng is the chairman of Royal Group, which has secured a 99-year lease from the Cambodian government to develop a virtually untouched place called Koh Rong Island. The sparsely populated, 19,000-acre island –- only 1,382 people live there, most of them fishermen who are barely scraping by –- lies about 30 minutes by boat from Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s largest coastal city. Koh Rong is unspoiled and full of possibilities, with pristine beaches and verdant rain forests, and the nation’s tourism officials believe it can become the centerpiece of a destination they’ll market as “the Asian Riviera” or “the Indochina Riviera,” whichever sounds better in a TV commercial.
“This is a place that people haven’t discovered yet,” Meng told Bloomberg in 2008.
They will. Royal Group recently unveiled a master plan for what it’s described as “Asia’s first environmentally planned island.” The company figures to develop about 12,250 acres of Koh Rong with thousands of villas, dozens of hotels, a casino, a hospital, a beach club, restaurants and night clubs, two or three golf courses, and an international airport.
Only one problem: Koh Rong lacks the essential services we all take for granted. Before it can become “the Asian Riviera,” it needs roads, electric power, drinking water, phone lines, sewage systems, even a port where ferries can dock.
To develop all the infrastructure, Meng needs to raise $150 million, maybe $200 million, and he’s enlisted CB Richard Ellis to help him do it.
Of course, Royal Group is good for at least some of the money. Meng’s company, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, owns a bank, an insurance company, an advertising agency, a hotel, a night club, and the nation’s top-rated television station. It sells cell phone and internet service, distributes Samsung and Siemens electronics, and operates a bunch of Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants.
It also has a partner in the golf business.
Royal Group is developing Koh Rong with Millennium Group, a Hong Kong-based firm led by Martin Kaye, who just happens to be a former director of CB Richard Ellis. One of Millennium’s subsidiaries is developing the Dai Beach Eco-Tourism Resort on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island. Dai Beach will have a 36-hole golf complex.
RoyalGroup.com.kh, MillenniumGroup.net
These days, Neak Oknha Kith Meng is living the dream.
Meng is the chairman of Royal Group, which has secured a 99-year lease from the Cambodian government to develop a virtually untouched place called Koh Rong Island. The sparsely populated, 19,000-acre island –- only 1,382 people live there, most of them fishermen who are barely scraping by –- lies about 30 minutes by boat from Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s largest coastal city. Koh Rong is unspoiled and full of possibilities, with pristine beaches and verdant rain forests, and the nation’s tourism officials believe it can become the centerpiece of a destination they’ll market as “the Asian Riviera” or “the Indochina Riviera,” whichever sounds better in a TV commercial.
“This is a place that people haven’t discovered yet,” Meng told Bloomberg in 2008.
They will. Royal Group recently unveiled a master plan for what it’s described as “Asia’s first environmentally planned island.” The company figures to develop about 12,250 acres of Koh Rong with thousands of villas, dozens of hotels, a casino, a hospital, a beach club, restaurants and night clubs, two or three golf courses, and an international airport.
Only one problem: Koh Rong lacks the essential services we all take for granted. Before it can become “the Asian Riviera,” it needs roads, electric power, drinking water, phone lines, sewage systems, even a port where ferries can dock.
To develop all the infrastructure, Meng needs to raise $150 million, maybe $200 million, and he’s enlisted CB Richard Ellis to help him do it.
Of course, Royal Group is good for at least some of the money. Meng’s company, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, owns a bank, an insurance company, an advertising agency, a hotel, a night club, and the nation’s top-rated television station. It sells cell phone and internet service, distributes Samsung and Siemens electronics, and operates a bunch of Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants.
It also has a partner in the golf business.
Royal Group is developing Koh Rong with Millennium Group, a Hong Kong-based firm led by Martin Kaye, who just happens to be a former director of CB Richard Ellis. One of Millennium’s subsidiaries is developing the Dai Beach Eco-Tourism Resort on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island. Dai Beach will have a 36-hole golf complex.
RoyalGroup.com.kh, MillenniumGroup.net
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