Monday, May 3, 2010

Be careful what you wish for...

For many months now home owners in Loreto Bay have been hoping for a buyer to step in and save the day. We’ve known for some time – unofficially – that the buyer is Homex, a Mexican company that previously specialized in low-income housing in Mexico, but is now embarking on an ambitious resort-building plan across Mexico.

Then several weeks ago we noticed a flurry of construction activity north of AV and we learned – unofficially again - that part of their resort-building plan includes constructing 803 units of apartments, townhomes and garage homes in the area just north of Agua Viva, with the first two model homes to be completed by May 25 (we’ll believe that when we see it, but they have made a lot of progress as seen in the photo above). That area was always slated to be a part of Loreto Bay, but now it appears it will be a separate community, apart from both Agua Viva and the Founder’s Neighborhood. And according to the site plans, this project will also include several pools and a beach club for those residents use only.

So to sum up, the only thing we know at this point is that we are not being invited to Homex’s party. We won’t have pool or beach club privileges and we didn’t even get this news firsthand. Instead, we got it via a “pass it along, por favor” from a Homex rep to a Loreto Bay home owner. That’s offensive and too reminiscent of Re:Play’s style of re:laying news through a third party.

It’s clear that Homex is not anxious to start any kind of dialogue with Loreto Bay home owners. While we’ve been waiting anxiously for news, they’ve been very industriously getting all their ducks in a row with nary a word to us.

But that won’t deter us from asking questions and demanding answers. We’ve been shut out of any conversation for years now, first with Loreto Bay Company, then Citigroup and its minions, which include TSD/Loreto, Re:Play, Alvarez & Marsal and Cushman & Wakefield. This is really getting tiresome.

In an effort to get the ball rolling on a list of questions for our new homies at Homex here goes:

What are your plans for the estuaries? Your site plan notes lakes not estuaries. Do we take that to mean these will remain stagnant, mosquito-breeding algae-filled ponds?

What are your plans for the Paseo and embankments? Will you work with Fonatur to pave and beautify the road leading into Loreto Bay from your development?

What do you plan on calling your development? Since you will not be a part of the Loreto Bay project, we hope you’ve come up with a different name.

Although this is not a question for Homex to answer, it is one on the minds of every home owner in Agua Viva: How much more are Agua Viva home owners going to have to shell out to have even the semblance of a real community? Back to Homex with three remaining questions: Will you help us at all? What exactly are your intentions regarding our phase of the development? And why haven’t you reached out to us yet?

The very fact that Homex hasn’t offered any official acknowledgement of the purchase and their plans does not bode well for us, especially those of us in Agua Viva, which looks more like a bombed out area in Baghdad than a high-priced development in the Baja.

Maybe we should have been a little more specific about what we were wishing for in a buyer…