Ground Floor: Sandcastles
Location: Mexico
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ShareApril 1, 2009
Bobby Gibson is intimately acquainted with the vacation habits of the jet set. His parents, Janis and Bob Gibson, founded Villas Caribe—a leading luxury-villa-rental company with properties in the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, and Central America. In 2002, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business and communications, the younger Gibson joined the family company as CEO. Along with his parents, he cofounded a second company, Luxury Villas International, which has residences throughout the world, including Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. In his most recent endeavor, Gibson has pushed the company into new terrain: fractional-ownership properties. Last year, he helmed the launch of a third company for the family, SandCastles, which offers deeded fractional ownership of beachfront villas. "Beachfront property with resort amenities," says Gibson, "is the SandCastles ideal."
Currently, SandCastles has three properties on the white-sand beaches of Mexico, each available for one-tenth shared ownership, which grants five weeks of annual use. (There are two additional properties currently in the negotiation stage: one on St. Barts and one on the island of St. John in the USVI.) The company’s signature property, Dulce Sueños, is located within a gated resort community in Isla Navidad, Costa Alegre, where giant tortoises come onto shore to lay their eggs each season. The four-bedroom, 4,500-square-foot, Mexican-style villa has more than 100 feet of private oceanfront and is adjacent to a 27-hole golf course. Staffed with a chef, a housekeeper, and a butler, the property, which is priced at $599,000 per share, is the most grandly appointed of the three and includes a 30-foot Grady-White Marlin docked in the nearby marina, a luxury SUV, tennis club membership, and an infinity pool.
Las Pergolas in Puerto Vallarta, the company’s second property, is a five-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot villa located in the mountainside of Conchas Chinas. Overlooking the Bay of Banderas, the villa features a Mexican Pacific architectural style. The fully staffed residence offers five-week shares for $430,000.
The third villa in the collection, Villa Paradise, a 4,000-square-foot, six-bedroom villa in Riviera Maya, is priced at $298,000 for a five-week share. Situated on Playa Paraiso, the fully staffed villa is designed in a classic tropical style with rattan furnishings and a palapa terrace, and comes with a minivan and watercraft. [ Emili Vesilind ]
SandCastles, 877.815.1242, www.sandcastles.com
1. JW Marriott Residences, Loreto, Baja
The town of Loreto was the first Spanish settlement on the Baja California peninsula roughly 300 years ago. Today it is the site of the first JW Marriott Residences property in Mexico. The project includes more than 800 feet of private shoreline and 201 condominiums. Ownership comes with an array of amenities, such as the resort’s 35-seat movie theater and kids’ pool with waterslides and a lazy river. From $750,000.
888.856.7386, www.liveloreto.com
2. Cipriani Ocean Resort
The MiMo-style resort plans to open in 2010 with 209 hotel suites fronting 600 feet of beach. Located next to the resort, a new tower—which broke ground this spring—will house 65 Club Residences. From $1 million.
888.233.8700, www.ciprianimiami.com
3. W Doha Hotel & Residences
The all-glass, W-shaped structure is near the Arabian Sea in Qatar’s capital city of Doha. Featuring bright interiors infused with Arabian elements, the building—comprising 291 hotel rooms and 154 rental condos—offers a poolside lounge with a hookah bar, two restaurants by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and a Bliss spa. Starting prices for monthly rentals are approximately $10,000.
974.499.6530, www.starwoodhotels.com
4. Cologna della Via
With a collection of 14 residences in five destinations, Resort Equities offers fractional ownership in private homes. The company’s newest property is a 500-year-old farmhouse in Tuscany. Available in one-tenth shares, the home sits on 20 acres and offers views of the countryside. One-tenth shares from $450,000.
866.655.9060, www.resortequities.com
