Merry Christmas
By Michael Coskey
November has come and gone, here it is December already and Christmas is only a few weeks away. This is a great time to discuss with all of you where we are at with completion and delivery of The Residences and the opening of TheHotel. With all of the depressing news of bank failures, government bailouts, home foreclosures and the like, maybe some good news would be an appropriate Christmas gift for everyone.
This has been a difficult year for us, here at CDDG. As the economic downturn in the U.S. worsened, jitters over the election and the security issues here in Mexico all helped to slow sales of the condominiums at The Residences to a grinding halt, we got further and further behind in our delivery of the individual condos and in the opening of TheHotel. As we have watched other projects here in Northern Baja stop construction, close their sales offices and just “go away”, we have managed to survive and as I will explain later, succeeded in formulating a plan that will put us back to a construction pace that will rebuild the “buzz” that The Residences generated from the very beginning. So, for all of you owners at The Residences and One Eleven, Merry Christmas!
Banorte, the bank from Monterey, Mexico which holds our construction financing has seen the value of having a high-end hotel attached to a condominium project and has offered to come in as an “equity partner” and will assist us in getting to a place where we can begin delivering condominiums, hopefully by late Spring ’09. We are in the final stages of making these arrangements with Banorte and construction will be stepped up by mid-January, right after the first of the year. This “equity partnership” is similar to what we are hearing about in the news in the U.S., they will take “preferred stock” as collateral and fund the project to a point where we can begin to deliver the individual condominiums. By the time delivery starts, the lobby of TheHotel will be completed and operational, the convention area will be functional, two of the three restaurants will be open, as will both pools, courtyard finished and the parking structure open. TheHotel will not be operating in the normal sense of the word, everything will be in place, but the rooms will not be operational, which is actually good for the condo owners who will be participating in the rental pool, for all of the rental will go into the condos!
This is a shortened synopsis of how all of this will take place, there is much work to be done and everyone here at CDDG is excited to bring this news to you. We have all made major sacrifices, both professionally and personally to get our company to a place where we can make this announcement. In these troubling times, with business failures all in the headlines, we can stand proud and tell you that we as a company have done everything possible, walked through the worst economic conditions seen in decades to find a workable solution to a “less than perfect” situation.
On an even more positive note, as things become even “gloomier” in the U.S., the success of TheHotel becomes brighter. As we get closer to completion and to the opening of TheHotel, our sales and marketing team, on a very limited budget has booked to date, over $2M USD in event business in the convention area. Being only two hours away in drive time from the economic center of the Southern California, the 7th largest economy in the world and as travel habits are changing in the states, our consultants promise success and profitability for TheHotel and ultimately for The Residences. Not only can we draw from Southern California, but the business potential from the Mexican market, mainly Tijuana, the city that is converged upon by those that conduct cross-border business is incalculable. As we watch other investments decrease in value and businesses decline, we at CDDG are excited to share our place with you, as all of us find ourselves in the “right place” and have an opportunity to be successful through the more difficult times that are still to come.
We are almost there. Please be patient, there is much more to come. We will soon be contacting all of you individually in regards to financing and completing the purchase of your condominium at The Residences. Please work for renewed cooperation with First Title Services in regards to your closings. We at CDDG hope this is a very Merry Christmas for all of you.