Month: July 2019

The opening of One&Only Private Homes, scheduled for the summer of 2020, will usher in a new ultra-luxury destination in the Riviera Nayarit. Under the name of Mandarina, the project is also opening the Rosewood Resort & Spa in 2022.

 

One&Only Mandarina is established as an exceptional concept in the American continent. In addition to hotel spaces, it includes 55 private residences. Designed by Rick Joy Architects, each of its accommodations is immersed in virgin natural settings.

 

“Rick Joy is recognized for achieving true communion with nature through his designs. His philosophy makes a lot of sense with our project: to preserve the environment while providing travelers and residents with invaluable experiences, “said Ricardo Santa Cruz, Head of Business Development for Mandarina at RLH Properties.

 

He also explained that One&Only Mandarina Private Homes will operate as an extension of the hotel. Hence, residents can access the services offered by the brand: concierge, private chefs, Spa, Kids Club of almost 7,900 square meters, as well as exclusive restaurants for adults and others with a family atmosphere. This, without forgetting the private and picturesque One&Only Majahua Beach Club.

 

Mandarina has a total area of ​​265 hectares and a great diversity of ecosystems. Santa Cruz points out that to the south is One&Only Mandarina in an extension endowed with elevations and a dense jungle vegetation conducive to developing numerous routes for mountain biking and hiking.

 

Exclusive Experiences

 

“The land comes to a plain where the equestrian center and the world-class polo club will be located, these – due to their degree of specialization – will give Mandarina a very different feeling from other destinations,” said Santa Cruz. At Mandarina Polo & Equestrian Club runners of all ages and skill levels will gather to learn, practice or compete. “With innovative architecture, it will coordinate effortlessly with the surrounding nature and the comforts of Mandarina.”

 

On the northern flank of the equestrian center, on top of another mountainous area, the Rosewood Resort & Spa will rise. With spectacular views of the sea, this complex will also have residences of privileged status.

 

“11 years ago, my partners and I began to visualize a different destination in the Mexican Pacific. After an intense search, we found this place that has all the characteristics we were looking for. It is located just under an hour from the International Airport of Puerto Vallarta and will be only half an hour once the fee road that comes from Guadalajara is concluded,” he said. He also mentioned that Mandarina is located a few minutes from Sayulita and San Pancho.

 

Finally, he added that RLH Properties is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange and specializes in the acquisition, development and management of high-end hotels and resorts. “Our solid experience in the field made it possible to overcome the challenges of a project of these dimensions. Thanks to the confidence that anchor brands have, Mandarina is developed successfully.”

 

Originally posted on Forbes Mexico

Ricardo Santa Cruz has over 12 years’ experience in land acquisition and real estate development in Mexico, having negotiated and acquired more than 1,600+ hectares of strategic development property on the Pacific Coast. He is the Chief Business Development Officer of RLH’s Mandarina project and was responsible for negotiating the purchase of its 260 hectares. Ricardo currently oversees all sales and marketing efforts for Mandarina. Haute Residence caught up with Santa Cruz to discuss how Mexico’s real estate landscape has changed in the last 10 years and trends luxury buyers are having in Mexico:

 

How did you get involved in real estate?

 

When I first graduated from college and moved back down to Mexico, I opened up a healthcare supply company, which I still have to this day. Ten years into that, a real estate opportunity came up along the coastal area of Mexico near where I was living. I started to get involved in acquiring some beachfront property and one thing led to another.

 

How has the real estate landscape changed in Mexico in the last 10 years?

 

In the last 10 years, there has been a large increase in the amount of master-planned communities developed which are now being anchored by the most internationally recognized luxury hotel brands. This is very attractive for buyers because knowing that a well recognized, discerning luxury hotel brand is willing to make a long term commitment to a development gives buyers a greater sense of stability and validation of their investment.

 

What are some trends you’re noticing that luxury real estate buyers are looking for in Mexico?

 

Ease of accessibility. People want to be able to fly into a destination that has a lot of airlift into the major cities and proximity when they land. Buyers know they’re going to get a lot of use out of the home because it’s a quick and easy flight. The other thing they’re looking for is master-planned communities. It’s all about the experience. They want there to be something for everyone to do whether it’s active or lounging.

 

Is there a project that you’ve worked on recently that is your favorite?

 

Mandarina is the one I’m most excited about. It’s opening in a year from now.

 

What advice do you have for anyone who wants to buy or invest in real estate in Mexico?

 

Understand what your personal goal is with the purchase because that can steer you in several directions. If you’re not part of a master-planned community, you have to really analyze the area around your home. Once you find the property you like, make sure you get the property team to guide you through the process.

 

*Originally posted on Haute Residence.

From a yacht anchored offshore, I can barely make out the structures hidden in the dense jungle. The dramatic volcanic rocks rising out of the water are topped with what appears to be just a canopy of trees. As I squint I begin to notice contemporary villas nestled into the lush hillside above the beach. These are the beginning of One&Only Mandarina Private Homes in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. Concealed within the jungle is not just the villas but also boundless life-enriching amenities.

 

Although they are still being constructed, awaiting buyers’ preferences for 2020 completion, each of the 55 four-to-eight-bedroom villas that comprise One&Only’s first residential property has a unique footprint based on its location in the terrain. With more space per lot than any other development in Mexico, the natural biodiversity thrives and provides tranquil and comforting privacy.

 

The homes seamlessly blend into the jungle with stone accents (think bathroom counters cut from single slabs of marble), earth-toned walls, outdoor soaking tubs, light-filled living rooms made for entertaining, and infinity pools that drop off to the jungle. The contemporary structures, designed by Rick Joy Architects, and the landscape transport you to South East Asia (although you’re only 30 minutes from the Puerto Vallarta airport). Open floor plans contribute to an airy atmosphere, allowing you to feel one with the natural surroundings. You look out the glass walls to tropical plants and vast ocean and hear nothing but the sound of the waves. The ambiance is unparalleled, but it’s the amenities that really make it.

 

It’s a place where the sun rises over misty horse pastures and you can watch the sunset from the fire pit at the end of the jetty, cocktail in hand. The hours in between can be spent at the Majahua Beach Club, paddle boarding down the winding estuary that runs through the property and enjoying a poolside dinner prepared by a renowned, Michelin-starred chef. Plus, all of the amenities of the adjacent 108-room One&Only Mandarina resort are available to homeowners, from turndown service to access to the nature-inspired spa. For the adventurous ones, the property encompasses extensive hiking, biking, and riding trails, as well as a climbing wall and zipline. Here, boredom is unlikely, and that’s a lot to say for a secluded beach community.

 

The property also has a Kid’s Club you would feel proud to send your children to. The club’s designer won an Oscar for her set design of Moulin Rouge, so it looks straight out of a movie. Complete with a butterfly sanctuary, treehouses, ancient petroglyphs found on the land, and Juan’s House—a fictional character’s hut where kids can learn about the insects that inhabit the land—the club allows children to immerse themselves in the jungle. And that’s not even all of it: Mandarina also has a farm where they can get acquainted with animals.

 

But the animals aren’t just for the kids…If you had to choose between petting horses and avoiding getting hit by a golf ball, which would you choose? It’s a no brainer if you ask me, or Mandarina Chief Business Development Officer Ricardo Santa Cruz. Over dinner in nearby Punta Mita, Ricardo explained that he intentionally did not build a golf course and instead included an equestrian center, based on the connection humans have with horses and the time-consuming and excluding nature of golf. Mandarina Polo & Equestrian Club offers stables, polo fields, and jumping and dressage arenas. Plus, it’s the sister club to Aspen Valley Polo Club, so members enjoy the same rights.

 

Just a 15-minute drive away, the beach town of San Pancho offers an authentic Mexican experience worth leaving Mandarina for. The town is colorful and as beautiful as it is slow-paced and relaxed. Cobblestone streets are lined with pastel buildings draped in bougainvillea and tiny shops. Restaurants like Organi-k (for hearty acai bowls and poke) and Barracuda (for amazing ceviche and tacos) are not to be missed.

 

Jungle isn’t what you typically think of when you think of Mexico, but its part of what makes Mandarina unique. The flourishing landscape draws you in and the sleek architecture and endless amenities of One&Only Mandarina make you want to stay. It’s not often you go somewhere that is not just beautiful and luxurious but also undeniably special; it is a place anyone would be lucky to call home.

As the world gets increasingly crowded and less green, there is a growing impulse to get back to nature. Consider Indonesia’s recent proposal to move its capital away from overcrowded and sinking Jakarta and perhaps to the rainforest regions of Borneo as one promiment, urgent example.

 

In South India, Nomadie Resorts intents to build tended, light-on-the-land “treehouse” dwellings on stilts in a cove along the Arabian Sea, as part of a permaculture farm-to-table eco-spa/retreat adjoining the rich estuary of the Aghanasini, the last undammed river in the Indian subcontinent.

 

Just hours away from the Bay Area, Giants pitcher Mark Melancon has his sights on Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit region, where a 19,000-square-foot hilltop home, in a forested tropical development called Mandarina, is being readied for him.

 

Melancon frequently vacations near there with his wife and three children at a condo in Punta Mita that they have owned since 2013. It overlooks the Pacific and is a place for watching humpback whales, and Sayulita, a popular and vibrant surfer paradise just an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, is very close by. But all that pales beside Melancon’s future hideout, which shares those assets and yet seems a planet away.

 

Mandarina, where the 34-year-old All-Star player might someday retire, is a 640-acre nature preserve, pieced together over a decade with individual properties that once made up a land cooperative. The preserve is the brainchild of Ricardo Santa Cruz, who teamed up with four other partners and RLH properties to realize his dream of an enclave where nature could prevail.

 

It’s touched forests crown several promontories of the Sierra Vallejo range, with views of the ocean and of inland flatlands surrounding an estuarine lagoon. Its hiking and riding trails as well as secluded beaches along a coved, mile-long coastline are enveloped with a silence that allows the sound of waves and the rustle of leaves to waft across the vast terrain.

 

The pitcher recalls seeing the virgin jungle when he toured the property for the first time two years ago with Santa Cruz. “There were no roads to drive on, or flattened lots to see,” Melancon says. “Just people with machetes clearing the way in front of us.”

 

“I was still saying ‘picture this’ because nothing was built,” Santa Cruz recalls. But within 24 hours Melancon became the first to buy into Santa Cruz’s vision.

 

The idea: keep the land as natural as possible. The plan includes 55 discrete villas — designed by none other than Arizona architect Rick Joy, of Utah’s Amangiri Resort fame — that will be carefully sited on high ground with indoor/outdoor great rooms and, as much as possible, tucked out of view from each other.

 

The modernist villas and attendant amenities, such as cantilevered club pool with sunset views, are to be the first branded private homes run by One & Only Resorts, a company whose near-legendary luxury services that Melancon had enjoyed and appreciated in other parts of the world. The company was tapped to run a One & Only Mandarina spa and hotel; at the north end of the state, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will manage Rosewood Mandarina residences and a future hotel. For the flatlands between the two residential components on higher ground, Santa Cruz plans a polo field for international tournaments and equestrian events and an animal farm with ponies for children to ride.

 

“One thing we wanted to stay clear of was golf. It is a dying sport and it takes too long to play. An, in an environmental sense it goes against everything we are vying for,” Santa Cruz says.

 

So, forget lawns. Landscaping will be kept to the barest minimum — homeowners will only own the footprint of their houses — to let the forest flourish naturally.

 

While polo fields do have to be maintained, between tournament seasons they can easily become multipurpose playgrounds for social evenings when cowboys can demonstrate lasso tricks around campfires. And even stabled horses can be heard at a distance. “The sound is very soothing and you feel like you are in nature,” Santa Cruz says.

 

“I grew up riding horses and I felt this adult playground would also be heaven for kids because they would be able to ride and play polo,” Melancon says. “I felt it was a home run. I was in.”

 

Melancon’s eight-bedroom, $9 million villa will be ready next year and, like the other 20 or so homes that are expected to be underway by the time the One & Only Mandarina hotel opens in 2020, it will echo many of the natural stone and wood features of the lofty hip-roofed model dwellings that have now been constructed for prospective buyers to see. Many details were fine-tuned for Melancon after visits to Studio Rick Joy in Tucson, Arizona. The kitchen got bigger, the pool got wider. “It is not a cookie-cutter solution and every home will be slightly different,” Melancon says.

 

His home will include separate lanai-like pavilions, a children’s pool, an infinity pool that will appear to hover above the bluff, hot tubs, a media room, a casino, a wine room and of course, a weight room.

 

“I work out every day,” the athlete says, because to him fitness is paramount. A partnership with Mayo Clinic will ensure all that Mandarina residents will have access to top medical care, and Melancon likes the resort’s energy-efficient building designs with circadian lighting systems and Delos environmental and wellness sensors.

 

“Air filtration gets neglected in coastal properties,” Santa Cruz notes. “When you are not using the home, humidity becomes a problem, so the Delos system maintains the home’s humidity, which prolongs the life of everything in it.”

 

Melancon loves all that but, ever the daredevil, he has his eyes on something more important.

 

“One of the coolest features we’ll have is a hot tub that hangs off the cliff edge,” he says.

 

*Originally posted in Senses Magazine