Cartade country club project to launch January
Published:Friday | November 5, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Real-estate developer Robert Cartade's newest project has passed the scrutiny of local and national planning authorities, but is pending approval from the Real Estate Board, he said this week.
The National Environment and Planning Agency, which last year put a 'multi-agency' team on the project review, has now signed off on the complex, which is to be called Little Bay Country Club, clearing one of the biggest hurdles for the developers who will be constructing inside an ecologically sensitive area of Negril known as Ireland Pen, near Bloody Bay in Negril.
The J$3-billion development comprises 170 villas, studios and two-and three-bedroom townhouses.
Cartade is now doing the preparatory infrastructure work on the 23-acre site acquired from the Urban Development Corporation and has already "put up a wall" around its perimeter.
The developer, who operates Selective Homes Limited, had established a subsidiary operation, Selective Homes Negril Limited, with partner Andrew Girod to do the project.
Cartade said the designs for the units were being finalised and that there would be an official groundbreaking of the project sometime in January. No price has yet been set for the units, and will not be until the Real Estate Board gives its stamp of approval, he said.
His target market is hotel executives, professionals and foreign buyers. Initially, Little Bay was to be marketed mainly to hotels as a secluded estate for their executives, but Cartade said last year November, when the Financial Gleaner first reported on his latest venture, that market research indicated that only half the development would have been taken up by that segment.
The development will include 'super' studios, of 600 square feet each; town houses of 1,200 to 1,800 sq ft; and three-bedroom villas of 3,000 sq ft.