The Race to Kill Baja and the Sea of Cortez

Here is basically a press release from a yachting publication–announcing the plans for a new mega-resort marina scam on areas that are unsuitable for this type of development. The failure of the Baja Boom (turned Baja Bust) has not dissuaded the state-financed tourism development machine in Mexico to think rationally about Development. Instead there is development any cost for projects that have little relationship to the overall infrastructure and investment needs of the Mexican economy.

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Bird’s-eye View — This aerial photo shows the Sea of Cortez entrance to Rio Teacapán and Laguna Agua Grande, near where Fonatur plans two new marinas by the end of 2012, and a mega-resort similar to Cancun to be completed by 2015.

Two Marinas Planned for Huge New Sea of Cortez Resort in 2012
By: Capt. Pat Rains | Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:29:00 AM
Last updated: Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:29:00 AM

Mexico president Felipe Calderon announced plans for a huge new tourist development, including two marinas on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez.

Bird’s-eye View — This aerial photo shows the Sea of Cortez entrance to Rio Teacapán and Laguna Agua Grande, near where Fonatur plans two new marinas by the end of 2012, and a mega-resort similar to Cancun to be completed by 2015.

Described as twice the size of Cancun, the new beachfront development will initially cover 7.5 miles of Sinaloa coastline in an area about 80 miles south of Mazatlan. Stretching over 5,884 acres, the mega-resort will encompass the vast Laguna Agua Grande waterway and several canals, plus the seaside towns of Isla del Bosque and Teacapán at the border with Nayarit.
The fishing port of Teacapán lies about 40 miles north of Isla Isabela, which is a protected nesting zone for frigate birds and blue-footed boobies. Although Isla Isabela is a popular cruising and fishing destination, the tiny island has room for only a handful of oceangoing yachts in two small fair-weather anchorages.

Logistically, new marinas nearby on the Sinaloa mainland would provide recreational boaters with safer berthing, fuel, shelter from bad weather and shorter offshore passages between existing destinations.

The two new marinas will provide a total of 1,000 slips designed “in harmony with the Escalera Nautica marina model,” according to Fonatur, the federal agency tasked with developing tourism infrastructure. Fonatur completed nine other full-service marinas now operating under the Singlar banner, and most of them are currently for sale or have been sold to private investors.

According to Barnard Thompson of Mexidata.info news service, the project is “provisionally called the Pacific Coast Integrally Planned Center.” Thompson said the first phase of the Sinaloa CIP is slated for completion in 2012, and will cost an estimated $139 million.

“The final stages of the phased developments are to be completed by 2025,” Thompson said. “This is much the same way that other Fonatur master-planned seaside resorts — such as Cancún, Los Cabos, Ixtapa, Loreto and the Bays of Huatulco — have been done.”

Besides the two big tourist marinas, the plan calls for four golf courses, about 44,200 hotel rooms (including hotels and condominiums), a 5-mile beachfront walk and a light railway (an existing rail line runs from Hermosillo to Puerto Vallarta), plus a new airport.

“Based on what has been learned from other CIPs such as Cancun,” Thompson reported, “hotels will not be allowed right on the beach. The required buffer zone will be 300 meters. Hotels will also have a maximum height limit of four stories.”

This huge new development “will be in the midst of the Sinaloa National Wetlands, in part on the near-5,000-acre Rancho Las Cabras, owned by former Sinaloa governor Antonio Toledo Corro,” Thompson’s report stated.

“Fishing is big in the region, commercial fishing (and shrimp farming), and of course sportfishing,” the report continued. “Several species of protected sea turtles come to area beaches; and, at sea, among the many species found are billfish, humpback whales and white sharks.

“Of historical significance, there are large oyster shell mounds near Teacapán that experts say were harvested by indigenous peoples living in the area as long as 4,000 years ago,” the report said.

Local fishermen and panga boat operators at first protested against this development, fearing they would not be allowed to chauffeur the avalanche of new tourists to the indigenous villages, historic oyster mounds and other ecological tours. After agreements were reached last year with hundreds of local ejido members, the resort plans have gone forward. But it still has to clear environmental hurdles.