Just published "Caribbean Comeback: Why now is a great time to visit. From one of the worlds top travel advisor groups…The Dominican republic Is on the top destinations for the Caribbean in 2018. See the article link below. Great news for our development with arrivals on the rise and a strong economy and top destination from both Forbes and Virtuoso."
Water Sports at LOE
Playa la Ballena at Luperon Ocean Estates is one of our greatest assets. Beyond the clear blue Caribbean waters, natural coral reef and abundant sea life, we are blessed with many forms of water sports available to all our guests. In the coming months we will be issuing "travel style" posters to promote that wide array of water sports and activities available at the resort. For the active guest having access to paddle boarding, kayaking, snorkeling, scuba, wind surfing, finishing and many others is a key reason to stay and play at LOE
Luxury villa prices and values
One of the key principals of our resort development is luxury with value. Simply stated, in the Dominican Republic we can build luxury villas at fair prices that are luxury quality and well below North American market prices for the same level of luxury home.
The other big factor is the amazing views that each lot within the development enjoys. Before developing our selection of Caribbean styled villas for the development we studied the landscape of typical and luxury in the local market as well beach area offerings in North America for the same style, size and appointments to create a value driven luxury-built villa. The purpose is simple. Highly rent-able and built to last with strong ROI for each owner. The current average cost to build a new home in the US market is between $150.00 and $425,000/sq.ft.
This is average and not considered luxury. Luxury homes have a much wider range from a typical of $500 to over $3,000/sq.ft and up. The LOE offering of villas with a standard package that includes pool, kiosk and landscaping but not including furniture is an average of $174.00/sq.ft. hard to beat the value with luxury that we are offering, considering the unparalleled views and access to our private beach. As a reference most of the non luxury properties on the north coast that are not on the ocean and "might" have a view are typically condos and are above $230.00/sq.ft. Please take a look at our Villa section of the website and find the size and layout that fits your needs.
Live the dream…
Winter Rain Storms
Between January and mid February 2018 the North Coast of Dominican Republic received 26 consecutive days of rain. While the winter months can bring more moisture and rain to the island, this particular year was much stronger than what is typical. As a result of this weather condition we have pushed back our infrastructure construction schedule to wait for a dryer period of time. Our critical efforts to start the infrastructure roads, power, water and sewer elements are extremely challenging at our project site with earth that is soaked with moisture. Major excavation and earth moving will be all the more challenging in wet conditions. We will keep you all posted over the next few weeks.
Happy Holidays
At this time of year we wish to thank all of those individuals and companies that have helped our development move forward this year. Its been a great year filled with progress and executed goals to prepare for construction in 2018. May all your families and friends enjoy the holidays together. We wish you happy holidays and a great new year in 2018.
Note: The image above is our newest travel poster for Luperon Ocean Estates.
Luperon Ocean Estates.
General update: October 2017
Over the last several months and working throughout the summer. Our team has collectively accomplished a great deal. Engineering/permit drawings were completed in August. We are finalizing our permits for construction now with the City of Luperon. The first two of nine permits are all from the city of Luperon. These are required to move forward. The mayor and the city council have been presented our development and agree on the permitting our project. The balance of the permits are required but not until just before commencing the various aspects of infrastructure construction, such as electrical, water and sewer etc.
We are now in the wet season and we will not execute the infrastructures construction until January of 2018, otherwise we risk the heavy road grading and excavation eroding if there are heavy rains, like there was last year.
Look for more frequent updates on the general development between now and the end of this year.
Hurricane Maria update
September 21, 2017. Hurrican Maria past North NorthWest of Punta Cana. At this point the Maria was a category 3 with maximum sustained winds of 100 knots (115 mps) The effects on North Coast of DR into the Puerto Plata –Cabarete area was wind gusts of 50 knots with higher winds.
This storm unlike Irma was closer to our North Coast but lower winds. Santiago sustained more flood damage than the previous hurricane Irma in contrast. We are extremely fortunate in both cases. There is very little damage on the north coast and at the site.
Interesting fact: the US Navy has a weather station on the north coast of DR for 72 years. There is unique meteorlogical element to hurricanes on the north coast of DR. Due to the mountains between the north and south running west to east, these create a buffer for storms that have a tendancy to push storms off the coast. The last two storms are evidence of this unique occurance as you look at the path for both storms.
Hurricane Irma Update
Sept 8th. As of early this am. Our DR team is safe and sound. Now, the cleanup begins. the DR was spared the worst of Irma but still suffered significant damage. In Sosua there were recorded sustained 65-knot winds for 80 minutes around the middle of yesterday and the peak gust was 86 knots, almost 100 mph. And we were 90 miles from the center of the Hurricane!! But compared to what happened in Barbuda, Anguilla and St Maarten, we are very fortunate, indeed.
Apparently, 90% of structures on Barbuda were destroyed. On Puerto Rico, some areas will be without power for 6 months. Lots of brush and limbs and trees everywhere. The roads are semi-passable. Will report on Luperon as soon as we can, but I'm sure all was fine there.
It goes without saying but worth the comment. We are building extreamly strong and safe villas and structures. Hurricanes are extremely rare in DR, nonetheless we are building with the strong winds and potential in mind.
More to report early next week, when we can physically see the damage and report back. If any of our lot owners are in Florida, get out or get to a safe secure place.
Permit Drawings Completed
The day has finally arrived. Our engineering drawing for the LOE infrastructure were completed last week by Nazario Constructora SRL. We are finalizing a few minor details and will send out drawing set our for permitting in the next 2 weeks. There are a few required meetings with the City of Luperon that will take place within these two weeks and then the permit process can start.
The image captured here is our entry gate sign posted this week at the site. This is all temporary until the big trucks and earth moving are complete were we will build our final entry way gated entry. If you interested in this image, check out the website under the splash page text Beyond your dream….
Stay tuned – there is a lot happening at the site and with progress everywhere.
Viewing Platform Completed
As of today August 10th, our general contractor has completed a viewing platform at the top of the development. This is designed to show our customers and our sales team the views from a typical villa. The height is a close approximation to a second level balcony deck. This new update along with a general site clearing are all happening in the month of August.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Soil Testing Completed
As of Thursday this week, we have received the soil samples back from the lab with all the data for both the major and minor roads. These are a typical requirement of any engineering process
to ensure that the substructure of the earth in each section of the development can be engineered with the right road construction materials and technique. Our development goes from semi sandy
Soil at the lower end to harder earth and clay mix towards the highest sections. All of these are key to our engineer managing and designing roads that will work for the elevations and last for a long time. Stay tuned for more updates….
New Entry Gate
As of Wednesday this week, we can report that our new entry gate has been installed by our general contractor. After upgrading the access road, clearing the top of the site and preparing for a viewing platform in the last few weeks there is now a need to secure the site and keep all other local traffic off the site. Prohibiting any use or crossing of the development at this time is necessary for our site work to continue. Development sign and platform will be installed by early next week. Lots of great progress at the site in the last month and more to follow.
Stay tuned....
Tourist arrivals climb "historic" 6.7%
If you follow the national newspapers in The Dominican Republic, you can see the general state of tourism and other growth related infrastructure projects in the country.
This June 12th Dominican Today posted – Tourist arrivals climb "historic' 6.7% in the first 5 months of 2017. 2.7 million visitors entered the country at the various airports or 169,450 more than the same period in 2016.
This is continued great news for our beloved island nation of Dominican Republic.
Source: Dominican Today
Water well testing complete.
Last week we completed a test water well. This is compulsory to determine the quality and volume of the water on the site. The area chosen for this was on the Lower portion of phase one.
The testing was very successful and we can report today there is great quality of water and the volume easily support our needs for the resort amenity buildings and individual villas. This testing was a key part of the engineering of the development and informative on any filtering that may have been needed. The water test results will be back from the lab next week but all looks good for water quality and supply. The supply was strong enough in this area that the engineer has decided to all the general wells in this area. We will still have service outlets for general development use in all areas of the development. Each individual villa will have its own Cistern and well of 10,000 gallons, not to confuse anyone. But there is abundant supply for us as well as standard rainwater collection that will be included in all building and villas. Stay tuned.
Maimon coastal highway update.
Dateline June 29th, Luperon, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Our on site team has reported back that the updates that we posted in early may have been further improved. The Maimon Coastal Highway, which starts at the far western side of Puerto Plata at the point of the Amber Cove/Carnival Cruise all the way to Luperon. The highway passes directly by our access road that leads into Luperon Ocean Estates front door. In may we understood from the minister of tourism that The City of Luperon was upgrading the road from Luperon to Cambiaso, which is the cove and beach community just to the east of LOE, this week we understand that it will be continued further all the way from Cambiaso to Guzmancito ( small town between Maimon and Cambiaso) it was all done using Caliche brown material which is certainly not asphalt but a very big improvement from early in may when most of the highway from Cambiaso to Maimon was filled with large potholes and deep cuts from all the rain, not to mention at least 4 major water hazards. The repairs that are being done now from Guzmancito to maimon, second half of the road, they are using a more resistant material that locals call "Tosca or toca" which is the Grey material that you can see on the pictures.
This is truly great news for our development and all parties concerned. Stay tuned for more updates on this upgrade effort.
LOE site preparation
In the week of June 20th, we have deployed our contractor to the site to upgrade our access road and the top of the development site. As you may know we have a 1.6 KM access road from the Maimon coastal highway. Its has been eroding for the last few years and only passable with larger 4WD trucks. In order for our engineers to perform critical water tests at the lower portion of the property with a test well they need to bring a larger drilling rig truck. In order to get the rig on the site we needed to upgrade the access road and the main road within the development. At the same time we cleared a large section of the top entry area and will build a viewing platform for all owners and potential new customers to see the best villa views on the north coast.
This process was completed in only a few days and we are now able to get the drill rig on site and will commence with a viewing platform and a proper entry gate at our entry.
Stay tuned, more happening every week.
Soil testing completed.
In the last week our engineer and contractor completed critical soil testing in a large number of areas on the site. These soil tests inform us on the substructure of the earth where the roads will be constructed and how our engineer will then design the road impaction below each section of road. We have 57 acres with a variety of earth strata to contend with from sandy to clay. There are 18 locations soundings all 2 meters in depth. The tests have already been returned and analyzed by the time we write this post and our engineer has developed each section of roadway design already. This test is also used for our declaration of environmental impact that is a required study we must perform and submit to the government.
We are moving along at the current schedule to complete our permit package by the end of Aug.
Stay tuned for more news next week.
Maimon highway upgrade.
As luck would have it, last week the LUPERON area was in the process of upgrading the Maimon coastal highway. We viewed the process in action ourselves. This is an upgrade of the road from Luperon to Cambiaso which is the small local village to the east of LOE. They are adding new earth and caliche (gravel). This is an essential repair of the roads due to the severe rain that occurred last fall. The complete upgrade to asphalt is scheduled to be started in the next 8 months. This is very good news for our development as well as the area.
Contracts signed/ permit process underway.
Last week, May 10th, we officially signed contracts with our engineer, architect and general contractor. This is a very important step in the process for our development. We have spent the better part of a year developing the property to suit our new vision with the same team that is now officially moving us towards our permits. The architect and engineering firm along with the LOE team will work over the next few months to complete the various drawings and details required for the permit drawing submittal process. Electrical, water system, roads, treatment plant, soil sample testing, environment study will all be completed in various stages for the permit process.
We are on our way....
The process begins...
We are happy to announce that after a long and complete process with our US based development team and our DR design/build team, we are starting the engineering and permit phase of the Luperon Ocean Estates project in May. Our Architect and Engineer will be working for approximately 75 days to complete the construction permit drawing set, soil sample testing that is required, and pre-permit review. At the completion of the permit set the drawings will be submitted to the Departments that issue permits at the various levels. * Town Hall Urban Office * Ministry of the Environment * Ministry of Tourism* Ministry of Public Works.
These permits will take from 2-3 months to achieve. At that point we will be poised for the infrastructure construction to begin.
Stay tuned. There will be many more blog updates to keep everyone posted on the progress.
