Front Elevation: Endless Appeal
Los Cabos continues to hold Americans’ popular imagination.
Print
Email
Bookmark
ShareApril 1, 2008
Mexico’s "miraculous" Baja air prompted American author John Steinbeck, during a 1941 expedition through the Sea of Cortés, to pen that "a dream hangs over the whole region." At that time, the peninsula’s southernmost tip—where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortés—was home to little more than a fish cannery and a few scattered rancheros. Known today as Los Cabos (Spanish for "the capes"), the area is a popular resort destination that first became famous for its sportfishing in the 1950s. The early 1990s introduced golf to the region, and in a few short years, this coastal desert will reinvent itself again, with the addition of two new marinas, a dozen master-planned communities, and several more golf courses, spas, restaurants, boutiques, and limited-entry social clubs.On Los Cabos’ eastern cape is San José del Cabo, a quiet town
with an emerging art community that has retained its Spanish Colonial charm. A
30-minute drive west is the party town of Cabo San Lucas, which contains a
bustling marina, a vibrant nightlife, and the oft-photographed rock formation,
El Arco (The Arch). Connecting the two towns is a 20-mile stretch of beachfront
property, commonly referred to as "the corridor."
It’s the new Riviera," says Discovery Land Company CEO Mike
Meldman, who is developing two private golf course communities—the
Chileno Bay Club and the El Dorado
Golf & Beach Club—along the corridor.
Perched on a bluff overlooking the popular body of water for
which it is named, Chileno Bay is a 1,200-acre property located on the site of
the historic Hotel Cabo San Lucas, originally built in 1961. In addition
to preserving select aspects of the landmark hotel, Discovery Land Company plans
to add a private residential community that will be complemented by a newer
hotel, a private marina, a yacht club, and two Tom Fazio–designed golf courses.
No homes will be built along the fairways of the property’s two courses to
ensure that golfers can enjoy ocean views from nearly every hole.
The Discovery Land Company’s other project—El Dorado Golf &
Beach Club—also caters to golfers. Features on the 18-hole Jack Nicklaus
Signature course include four "comfort stations" that offer everything from ice
cream sundaes to margaritas, as well as a ninth-hole beach palapa where
golfers can break for massages and lobster tacos.
Situated between the two Discovery Land properties is Rosewood’s Las Ventanas al Paraiso, which opened in 1997. As the area’s first luxury resort, Las Ventanas was one of the pioneers of Los Cabos’ initial real estate boom, offering one- to three-bedroom villas that front the sea. "We weren’t selling many one-bedrooms, so we replaced them with two-, three-, and four-bedroom penthouses, complete with rooftop terraces and at least one hot tub or infinity plunge pool," says Erika Hernandez of Las Ventanas Real Estate, an exclusive affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates. "When you buy in Cabo, you need something larger than a one-bedroom because people almost always want to come with you when they find out that you have a place down here."
Other options include whole- and fractional-ownership programs
offered through Olamar, Esperanza, and Querencia. The
Olamar community, which broke ground last year on five residential buildings
that will each be five stories high and contain two units per floor, will offer
one-eighth fractional-ownership shares in the mid-$300,000 range and
whole-ownership penthouses for approximately $5 million. The neighboring
Esperanza—a serene adobe-style Auberge resort with views of El Arco—offers 63
two- to four-bedroom residential villas. Opened in 2001, the resort recently
underwent a $10 million revamp and subsequently raised its fractional-ownership
prices to $1.5 million for a waterfront villa. But perhaps most representative
of Cabo’s real estate growth is the nine-bedroom home offered for $12.2
million on the mountain side of the corridor in the Querencia development.
Indeed, a three-bedroom home that may have sold in this area for $800,000 six
years ago might now sell for as much as $3.5 million.
