We encourage all investors to do their own independent research about Cabarete and the Dominican Republic before investing. To help guide you, we have listed a few links below which will give you some information. Also we have copied 2 recent New York Times articles about Cabarete. Links: www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35639.htm - US Departement Of State DR background Information www.dominicanrepublic.com - Various Info about DR
New York Times - HAVENS; In pursuit of Fabulousness August 13, 2004 HAVENS; In Pursuit of FabulousnessBy KAREN ROBINOVITZONE sure way a destination can raise its public profile is by piggybacking on the reputation of a better-known spot that may, in the eyes of trend seekers, be losing some of its heat. Thus, Columbia County, in upstate New York, becomes known as the new Hamptons; Fort Lauderdale promotes itself as the next South Beach; and Atlantic City puts out the word that it is giving Las Vegas a run for its money. Well, say hello to the Dominican Republic, ''the new St. Bart's.'' Tourism is booming in the Dominican Republic, and so is construction of second homes for people from northerly climes. The trend doesn't appear to have been slowed by unsettled politics in Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic; by flooding that hit both countries this spring; or by the power cuts and high gasoline prices that recently had Dominican citizens demonstrating against the outgoing president. In the seacoast gated enclaves, an insular bubble of luxury far from the trouble spots, villas and condominiums are selling fast. Three years ago, Mikhail Baryshnikov visited the sprawling Southern Greek Revival beachside vacation home of his good friend, the Dominican-born designer Oscar de la Renta, in Punta Cana on the country's east coast. Mr. de la Renta and the singer Julio Iglesias are partners in the Punta Cana Resort and Club there. As Mr. de la Renta tells the story, Mr. Baryshnikov fell in love with the place, put his house in St. Bart's on the market and built one in the Dominican Republic. ''He thought it was a better environment for his children,'' Mr. de la Renta said in a telephone interview. ''And it's the best place to really get away to rest.'' ''There's so much building going on,'' said Amelia Vicini, a fashion editor at Town & Country magazine, who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. ''Every time I go home, I am amazed. The winter season is crazy, full of people -- celebrities, A-listers, everyone.'' Air service is increasing, too. In 2003, the Dominican Republic was the fastest growing Caribbean destination for American Airlines, which now has 10 flights a day there from Kennedy Airport, up from seven in 2001. In June, JetBlue made the Dominican Republic its first non-United States destination, offering daily flights for $199 each way from Kennedy. Dave Ulmer, JetBlue's vice president for planning, said that in addition to serving the large Dominican community in New York, the airline will be catering to the crowd that has made the country ''a hot leisure destination.'' (Recently, the airline was offering special fares of $69 each way, before taxes, for flights this fall between New York and Santo Domingo.) The Dominican Republic, south of Cuba and the Bahamas, is a direct three-and-a-half-hour flight from New York. ''It's so close,'' said Margarita Waxman, who lives in SoHo. When she retired recently from a public relations job at Bulgari, she spent $3 million on four acres of Dominican Republic beachfront for a new villa, passing up St. Bart's, where she has often vacationed. ''I go back and forth on a monthly basis.'' (Not only is St. Bart's farther away, but traveling there requires flying to St. Maarten and then taking a jumper flight.) But the big attraction is the combination of classic Caribbean assets -- ''the people are beautiful, the ocean is beautiful, the weather is beautiful,'' Mr. Iglesias said by telephone from the Dominican Republic -- and surprisingly favorable prices. When a 20-unit condominium building by the beach in Cabarete, on the north coast, went on the market in March, prices started at $50,000 for a small one-bedroom, said Peter Wirten, a broker with Josefina Covents & Associates in Cabarete, and he sold every condo within a week. The highest-priced unit, with two bedrooms and ocean views, was $125,000. The advantage is the same higher in the market. ''It's so much cheaper than St. Bart's, but no less lush and tropical,'' said Ereka Dunn, a co-founder of D2 Publicity, a lifestyle and fashion public relations firm in New York. She and her family are eyeing properties priced at $400,000 to $1 million at Sea Horse Ranch, a 250-acre development on the north coast with an equestrian center and a golf course and a spa in the works. (Ms. Waxman's property is there, too.) ''For our price range, you can get an amazing home, built out and furnished,'' Ms. Dunn said, at a third of the price in St. Bart's. A St. Bart's real estate agent, Alain Mora of CMI Real Estate, said that the two places aren't even comparable. ''You can be a king in the Dominican for very little money,'' Mr. Mora said. ''You need much more than that in St. Bart's.'' Houses that are $400,000 to $500,000 in an exclusive Dominican Republic development would start at $1.1 million in St. Bart's, he said. Until a few years ago, the Dominican Republic had a reputation as second-rate, and affluent shoppers for second homes largely stayed away. Then, in the early 90's, developers, most notably the Cuban-American sugar magnates Alfonso and José Fanjul, began attracting attention with luxurious gated communities on the water. Gradually, their marketing has paid off. The Fanjuls' Casa de Campo, on the southeastern coast about 90 minutes from Santo Domingo, now has 1,800 homes, with more being built at $400,000 to $10 million each. THE resort, which has attracted celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Sean Combs, though neither owns property there, has a private yacht club, shops and restaurants, a hospital and three golf courses, with a fourth on the way. Lisa Kirkman, general manager of Sea Horse Ranch, said that home sales there had gone up 50 percent in the last year and that prices had risen more than 250 percent in a decade. On the market there now are a four-bedroom, 4,304-square-foot house without water views for $1,050,000 and a four-bedroom, 7,409-square-foot house, also without water views, for $3.4 million. At Punta Cana, where Mr. Iglesias said that developers expect to add 300 homes and a third golf course in the next five years, the 35 homes now under construction start at $310,000, for a three-bedroom villa away from the water and rise to several million dollars for oceanfront properties. (Mr. Iglesias's own home in Punta Cana, a six-acre Balinese-style compound, presumably cost on the high side.) So far, at least, the Dominican Republic is also avoiding some pitfalls of places adopted by the jet set. ''There's a quaintness about it,'' Ms. Waxman said. ''It has all the beauty of St. Bart's, only more bohemian.'' Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster, a 55-year-old business developer from Argentina whose primary residence is in Greenwich, Conn., said that it was easier to have a house in the Dominican Republic than in St. Bart's. ''It is more accessible and easier to get staff.'' he said. He bought an oceanfront lot in Casa de Campo five years ago and built a 16,000-square-foot house in the style of the Mexican Pacific Coast. Such lots can cost several million dollars, Mr. Gonzalez-Bunster said, but the cost of custom construction is less than half what it would be in the United States. The Dominican Republic's half-discovered quality may not last much longer. ''Everyone is always looking for the next place, and it is definitely the D. R.,'' said Shawn Prez, national director of promotions at Bad Boy Entertainment, Sean Combs's record label, and chief executive of Power Moves Marketing and Promotions, a music promoter based in New York. He plans a music conference there next year that he hopes will attract hundreds of industry executives. The Dominican Republic, he said, is ''still sort of untapped.'' December 12, 2004Where the Wind Does the WorkBy JUDY TONGTWENTY years ago, the Canadian windsurfer Jean Laporte was beach-hunting with a friend, driving along the north coast of the Dominican Republic. After a few hours, they pulled over at a sign for Playa Cabarete. Mr. Laporte sat on the bumper sipping a Presidente beer while his friend ambled through a thicket of cocoa trees and found a bay. He went back for Mr. Laporte and took him to a white beach with sand soft as cashmere, sloping into luke-warm water. Mr. Laporte tested the waters with a board and sail, and decided he had found perfect conditions for windsurfing. Word about the spot spread quickly, and for years Canadians, Europeans and Australians have gone there to break their winter fasts. It is now considered one of the top spots in the world for windsurfing, as well as the newer sport of kiteboarding, which involves riding on a board while being pulled by a huge overhead kite. Now the wind has carried the noise of Cabarete to the United States, where the small town had largely gone unnoticed by Americans, even though it is only a two-hour flight from Miami. The town of Cabarete's atmosphere is all about a laid-back, tropical lifestyle revolving around sports, resting and partying. Young surfers start their day when the winds pick up just before noon and go into the late afternoon. After a full day on the water, they take a nap around 7 p.m. and dine around 9. After dinner, surfers and nonsurfers head over to a bar called Lax and swing in the rope chair hanging on the front porch while drinking mojitos or Cuba libres. Then they head down the beach to one of the dance halls blasting everything from Top 40 to salsa. After falling into bed just before the sun comes up, the surfers wake late and start all over again. The draw for kiteboard and windsurfing enthusiasts is the yearlong steady winds and water conditions suited for both beginners and experts. The main kiteboarding beaches are Bozo Beach and, farther west, Kite Beach. They are not hard to find - just walk along the beach toward the line of giant, colorful kites hanging above the horizon. Windsurfers hit the water pretty much anywhere, and there are also several breaks down the beach for traditional surfers. Sporting events, including the Cabarete Kiteboarding World Cup and the Red Bull Masters of the Ocean event, draw world-class riders, as well as thousands of spectators, to the town. Finding a lesson or a place to rent and buy gear is simple, as many of the hotels and resorts are attached to schools and centers. For a little variety, adventure tour operators in town, like Iguana Mama, (809) 571-0908, www.iguanamama.com , or Amber Coast Adventures, (809) 972-3065, ambercoastadventures.com , offer everything from cascading trips - where you use any means possible to climb up and slide down waterfalls - to hikes through nearby El Choco National Park to seaside yoga classes. But many prefer to just sit on the beach drinking Presidentes and margaritas. Ever since Mr. Laporte first set board to water in Cabarete, it has been growing to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. But in the last few years there seems to have been a boom. Three new resorts have been built, and nearly all the hotels and resorts have undergone renovations, while new bars and restaurants are constantly cropping up along the main street. Gabriele Krepp, the manager of Pequeño Refugio Hotel, said that when she first arrived from Germany over 10 years ago, Cabarete was a small village. "Then," she said, "there was the big bang of the all-inclusive resorts offering the Dominican Republic and also Cabarete for small money." A room for two at the hotel, (809) 571-0770, which opens this week after renovation, is $50 to $95, including breakfast buffet. Aware that part of the draw of Cabarete is its small village feel, the local hoteliers and restaurateurs set up an association to preserve the town's flavor. At the same time, the influx of foreigners doesn't necessarily alter Cabarete's secluded-paradise feel. Instead it is stirred by the presence of hundreds of expatriates who settle in Cabarete after visiting just once or twice, or "tourist locals" who stretch a two-week vacation to seven months. A stay in Cabarete is very affordable. Both inexpensive bungalow hotels and all-inclusive resorts can be found beachside, though it seems a shame to stay behind a resort's walls. Vacationing there can be so cheap that it is possible to pay for an all-inclusive resort and still taste all the local delights. Walking is the best way to get around since the main street is only about a half-mile long, but you can also hail a motoconcho, a taxi motorcycle that will take you anywhere in Cabarete for about 35 cents (10 pesos, at 30 pesos to the dollar) a person during the day and double that at night. Be aware, though, that no one wears helmets. For longer trips - say to neighboring Sosua to snorkel around the reef's blue waters - jump on a guagua, a minibus that is identifiable by its loaf shape and sardine-packed passengers. A ride costs 70 cents. There are also taxis and rental cars, although the free-for-all driving style may not be for everybody. Dining options are varied, in price as well as style. Satisfying meals can be as cheap as a couple dollars for a pizza at Pizza Via or as much as $20 a person for a full restaurant dinner eaten while curling your toes in the sand on the beach. The simplest culinary delight, though, is to buy a coconut from one of the women strolling the beach balancing a bowl of fruit on her head. With a large knife she will crack it open and cut it up in front of you, handing you pieces of the white flesh. Ms. Krepp said that Cabarete was great for everybody who likes beaches, activities and what she calls "the easy-going." "You do not have to windsurf or kitesurf," Ms. Krepp said, "to feel at home in Cabarete." |