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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Tijuana condo boom

    Tijuana condo boom: The new San Diego?

    Tijuana is experiencing a residential building boom in the upcoming years.

    Phillip Molnar


    José Luis Corona didn’t expect to move back to Mexico when he left for the United States 12 years ago, but that was until he saw the Horizonte luxury condominiums in Tijuana.

    The 54-year-old, originally from Mexico City, already owns a home in Chula Vista but decided about a year ago to get a $290,000 condo in Horizonte, which features a roof garden, gym, security and views overlooking the Club Campestre golf course and much of the city.


    Corona, who works for an aerosol can manufacturer with offices in San Diego, said the quality he gets at Horizonte is substantial for the price — around $500,000 to $750,000 less than what the average new condo built in the last two years goes for in San Diego County.


    “I like both places,” he said, “(but) I think things are improving a lot in Tijuana.”


    Corona is one of hundreds of Mexican nationals who have embraced homeownership in Tijuana, a city long known for its transient population.


    Developers are in the process of constructing roughly 2,000 condos over the next two years with towers that will drastically transform the skyline of Tijuana. Some of the planned towers, already approved by the Mexican government, are more than 30 stories and will become the tallest buildings in the city.

    The Bajalta development will include 400 condos, a hotel and office building and mall. (Artha Capital)


    The prices are much cheaper than what is expected on the American side of the border, but aren’t exactly going for a paltry sum. Prices typically vary from $200,000 to $300,000 per unit, but there are some penthouses that have reached $700,000.

    About half the buyers are Mexicans who work in San Diego County, according to real estate agency Probien. The other half are Mexicans who have benefited from Tijuana’s growing manufacturing sector or are retirees.


    Americans are a non-factor, making up less than 2 percent of pre-sales, Probien said.


    The building boom makes it the biggest residential construction push in the city in a decade and the most condo building in its history.


    “Give us five years. The whole city is going to be vertical,” said Sergio Gonzalez, business developer for Probien.


    It isn’t just the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s estimated 25,000 to 30,000 workers who cross the border northbound every day to work who can afford a new condo.

    Developers say there is pent up demand from years of meager construction during the recession and drug violence from 2008 to 2010.


    Probien said it gets frequent calls from people looking for single-family homes, but like San Diego, the amount of buildable land is shrinking. So, developers have turned almost exclusively to condos.

    Tijuana’s builders must contend with the shadow of Trump Ocean Baja, and other projects that went bust, causing Americans who invested to lose out on thousands of dollars.


    Those projects failed, city leaders said, because they were financed by pre-sales of condos, so when the economy took a dive and some buyers pulled out, those projects abruptly halted. Today, developers working in Tijuana say most of the new development is already financed so construction won’t stop if buyers back out.


    “There’s a lot of capital in Mexico right now,” said Hector Bustamante, director general of Bustamante Realty Group.

    “The difference (from before) is we have experienced developers and we are doing our due diligence.”


    Bustamante estimates more than $100 million will be invested in Tijuana condos over the next three years.


    The crown jewel of Tijuana’s residential building boom is Bajalta, a 63-acre development in the center of the city with 400 condos that is scheduled to start construction this winter.

    The first residential units and retail components are expected to be finished by 2019.


    Bajalta will have four residential towers, an office tower, hotel and a mall. The developer of the project is Mexico City-based Artha Capital (Almost all new condo construction in Tijuana is financed by Mexican sources). Bajalta is designed by New York based-SHoP Architects, which worked on the Uber headquarters in San Francisco and Google offices in Mountain View.

    Abril Rodriguez Commercial Director for Adamant explains the building. (Alejandro Tamayo / San Diego Union-Tribune)



    Mario Roberto Rubio, Artha Capital project director, said sale prices for the condos have not been set, but pre-sales will begin in November. The development is at the intersection of Agua Caliente and General Abelardo L. Rodriguez boulevards, the site of a former paint factory.

    Artha Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on real estate investments in Mexico, says it has more than $500 million in assets under management. Its other current projects include a 2.9-acre shopping and entertainment center in Yucatan; a 13-story mixed use project in Veracruz with a three-story shopping center, movie theater, 10-story office tower and five-story hotel; and a 14.6-acre project in central Mexico with nine six-story office buildings.


    For most of the projects, pre-sales typically require a 15 percent to 30 percent down payment. The majority of developers and real estate agents in Tijuana are not as open about revealing sales prices as in the United States, preferring instead to wait until projects are closer to completion.


    The flashiest new project is Adamant Tijuana, a 32-story tower near Estadio Caliente, the stadium used by Club Tijuana. Out of 180 units, 142 have already pre-sold, Adamant said.


    Aimed at millennials, the developer Milk Life Investments is using flashy videos and glossy promotional materials with models in swimsuits, fashionable young people driving sports cars and parties with people drinking champagne.


    Adamant condos are smaller than most in Tijuana, about 400 to 950-square-feet for the majority of units. They run from $77,500 to $191,000.


    It markets “sexy amenities,” like a pool terrace, sun deck, yoga studio, lounge games room, lounge, gym and guest suites.


    Milk Life Investments, based in Mexico City, is currently building two other Adamant towers in Puebla and a third in Querétaro.


    The first development most border crossers will see is NewCity Residencial, off Boulevard Padre Kino less than a mile from the border, which has ambitious plans to build more than 400 condos. For now, around 60 are for sale for $220,000 to $400,000.

    Construction on NewCity began in 2006 and will include seven towers. The luxury condos are two to three bedrooms and some are already for sale. For example, a 1,883-square-foot three-bedroom unit with four bedrooms is going for $350,000 onVivanuncios, a Mexican website similar to Redfin or Zillow.


    NewCity’s Diamond Tower, 27 stories at 334 feet, is now the tallest building in Tijuana. The development also will include NewCity Medical Plaza, a 26-story tower with doctors offices, a medical lab, a surgery center, and a 140-room hotel. The fourth residential tower is expected to be completed by December 2017 but there is no set date yet for when a fifth tower will be completed.

    With more than 20 building projects in the works, Tijuana condo developments are changing the landscape of the city. Pictured: Construction workers working at Angular a 48-unit condo development. (Alejandro Tamayo / San Diego Union-Tribune)


    Another closely watched project, Cosmopolitan Residences, is aiming to become LEED certified, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. There are just seven buildings in the city that have the environmentally-sensitive designation, says the U.S. Green Building Council.
    Cosmopolitan’s 42 units will range from 1,453 to 7,168 square feet and cost $400,000 to $700,000, making them some of the most expensive condos in the city.

    Buyers in Tijuana have a much more challenging job finding a condo to purchase than their neighbors across the border. It can sometimes be difficult to find prices and locations of the latest projects. Very few developments have individual websites, and the ones that do often don’t include prices, size of units or detailed information about when construction starts or ends.


    American Buyers

    With condo and home prices rapidly rising in San Diego County, some real estate watchers are predicting Tijuana will become a viable option for San Diegans. But, buying instead of renting can get complicated.

    Americans can buy a condo in Tijuana by establishing a trust with a Mexican bank that typically costs $2,500 and up, according to attorney Ben Rosen. It usually has a yearly fee of $500.


    The trust runs for 50 years and whoever is a beneficiary of the trust can renew for another 50 years every time the deadline comes up. There can be multiple beneficiaries, and substitutes, so it is possible to pass the property on to children.


    Adamant Tijuana promotional video


    Still, broker Herb Kinsey, owner of MLS Baja Website, highly suggests getting a lawyer to help with the transaction and to keep in mind foreign buyers waive rights to Mexican government intervention in the case of a property dispute.

    Also, he said not all real estate agents in Mexico are equal.


    “If you are told by a seller or agent that this beautiful piece of land on the border or this lovely house on the beach does not need to be in a corporation or in a trust,” he wrote on his website, “or it does not need to be closed by a notario, walk away immediately . . . and very quickly!”


    The U.S. State Department does not keep track of how many Americans live in specific Mexican cities, just that there are more than 1 million U.S. citizens living in Mexico. Some experts say 50,000 Americans live in Baja California, but finding the exactly how they know that can be arduous.

    Sergio Arturo Gonzalez of Probien explains the cost of condos in Tijuana. (Alejandro Tamayo / San Diego Union-Tribune)


    Greg Shannon, a San Diego developer building a boutique hotel in Tijuana, said it makes sense for San Diegans to seek housing south of the border, especially with increasing prices.

    The median home price in San Diego County hit its highest point in a decade in August, $498,000, said real estate tracker CoreLogic. Meanwhile, rents have gone up 8.9 percent in the last year, averaging $1,743 a month, said MarketPointe Realty Advisors.


    About 52 percent of San Diegans owned their own home in 2015, but that figure has continued to decline from its 1960 peak of 58.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census. San Diego County’s homeownership rate in 2015 was one of the lowest of any metro area in the United States and below the national average of 62.9 percent.


    “I think it makes a lot of sense depending where you work,” Shannon said of Americans living in Tijuana. “I know a lot of people that enjoy the lifestyle. It’s definitely more laid back.”


    Shannon and others acknowledge the border crossing as the biggest barrier for San Diego workers living in Tijuana, although recent improvements have made the trip much easier. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s SENTRI system, which allows for pre-screening of travelers, can — on a good day — make the trip less than 10 minutes.


    Even with new ways to speed up crossing the border, horror stories of getting stuck at the border for hours are common place.

    Highland La Cacho will have 24 units and be complete in Winter 2016. (Probien)


    San Diego real estate consultant Gary London said he anticipates closer ties between the two cities in the coming years, largely because of housing costs.

    “The pressure for inexpensive quality housing might find its way in Tijuana in the same way it finds its way, to a much larger extent, into Murrieta (Riverside County),” he said. “It’s simply too expensive for people with low-paying jobs to live here.”


    London said San Diego’s dependence on Tijuana workers, especially in the hotel industry, and a substantial number of their children attending school in the United States, have already laid the ground work for future housing solutions.


    “This idea that they are building large condo projects in Tijuana is unprecedented,” he said. “It makes it feel more like San Diego.”


    Yet, Probien’s Sergio Gonzalez says he needs to be realistic about Americans buying condos in Tijuana. He knows the border crossing is an issue, there is a language barrier and San Diego is an amazing place to live.


    “It takes a village. It takes the government. Municipal, federal and state government to actually make this work,” he said.

    “For us to appeal to the American market, everyone needs to work on this.”


    San Diego Union-Tribune page designer Ricardo Guerrero and videographer Alejandro Tamayo contributed to this article.

    Horizonte Luxury Condos in Tijuana will have 56 units ranging form $250,000 to $700,000. It is expected to be completed in Winter 2016. (Probien)


    Tijuana's NewCity Development


    Adamant Tijuana, a 32-story tower near Estadio Caliente, the stadium used by Club Tijuana. Out of 180 units, 142 have already pre-sold. (Bustamante Realty Group)


    http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...921-story.html
    Last edited by JohnDoe2; 11-22-2016 at 09:31 PM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    New Tijuana condo towers will hit record heights


    Construction for the Sayan Campestre luxury condos will include 99 luxury condos in a 32 story building. This luxury unit is one of the largest and is purposely designed to look directly out towards the golf course from the 6h floor. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)


    Phillip Molnar Contact Reporter


    Blink and you might have missed a drastic change to Tijuana’s skyline.

    The Mexican city continues to transform as the rush for condos fuels new high-rises,including the tallest building in its history to be completed by the end of the year.


    There are roughly 400 new condos opening in 2019, with most squeezed into abandoned lots around the city’s exclusive golf course. Similar to San Diego, land constraints are pushing planners to strive for higher density and stoking tension in already congested areas.


    Since 2016, at least 1,000 new condos and apartments over 30 residential buildings have risen across Tijuana.

    Seventeen of the city’s 20 tallest buildings were constructed in the last decade and there’s no slowdown in sight.


    The city’s growth has been overshadowed bynews stories that have propelled the city onto the international stage.

    Images of Central American migrants overwhelming the city and a staggering murder rate — a record 2,518 homicides in 2018 — have dominated most news coverage.


    However, economically, things are looking up. New President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has introduced an economic “free zone” along the border that increases the minimum wage and reduces income taxes. For affluent Mexicans already in the city, there are more housing options than ever before.


    The crown jewel of the city’s growth this year is the 32-floor Sayan Campestre next to the city’s central golf course, Club Campestre de Tijuana. When it is completed in December, the 395-foot tower will become the city’s tallest building — unseating a condo tower constructed in 2008, the NewCity Diamond Tower, by roughly 60 feet.


    Sayan Campestre will be arguably the most high-end place to live in the city, with access to the golf course, valet parking, a car wash, outdoor gardens, a gym and spa, childcare, a sports bar, two to three parking spots for every condo, a park-style outdoor space overlooking the golf course with Armani furniture, and plenty of security.


    Costs for the units range from $450,000 to $1.35 million, making it the most expensive of all Tijuana developments. Views from units are of the golf course, considered one of the most ideal locations in the city because of its exclusive access.


    Much of the residential development the past few years has surrounded the golf course and it is beginning to look a bit like New York’s Central Park where high-rise development surrounds open space. Unlike New York City, the general public does not have free access to the green area, further illustrating the divide between the rich and poor in the city.


    A rendering of Sayan Campestre, to be completed in December, will be the tallest building in the city. (Sayan)

    Sayan, based in Puerto Vallarta, is spending about $35 million on Sayan Campestre, said Rodolfo Aguilar, architect and partner in the project. To make sure they didn’t go broke on such an expensive project, the plan was to sell 35 percent of the condos in eight months. They sold 40 percent in the first month.

    “We realized there was a lot of need for this,” Aguilar said, as he strode across the dusty concrete frame recently of a soon-to-be posh residential tower.


    About 420 laborers grind away daily at the concrete frame, using heavy machinery to dig its parking structure, carry endless rows of pipes and otherwise completely transform the site, a burned down seafood restaurant.

    Their furious pace comes to a halt around noon when workers bring back food from street trucks and restaurants, and the smell of carne asada permeates the site.


    By December, a sleek silver building with balconies for new residents to look across the city will be in its place.

    To understand what is happening in Tijuana right now, you have to go back to the Great Recession, which was bad across the border in San Diego County, but just as dreadful in Mexico. Residential construction slowed considerably, which real estate workerssay meant a lot of built-up demand later.

    “In 2007, Tijuana was in a coma,” said Sergio Arturo Gonzalez, business developer for the real estate agency Probien Bienes Exclusivos . “Nobody built anything.”


    Almost all new buyers are affluent Mexicans who either saved up when there weren’t a lot of homes to buy or who had good paying jobs in the United States. In other cases, Mexican-Americans are buying after deciding to retire in Tijuana, say real estate agents. Also, people who want a home-away-from-home because they are in the city frequently are also becoming owners.


    Additional development around the golf course includes the 38-unit Liv La Recta project and the 120-unit Levant Campestre, both opening in early to mid-2020.


    Levant Campestre has one to three bedroom condos that range from 869 square feet to 1,776 square feet. Costs start around $167,000 and go up to $314,000. The 18-story building from Monterrey, Mexico-based Insar is also heavily focused on amenities with a pool, child play area, clubhouse, concierge, game room, outdoor space looking over the golf course and a joint basketball court/soccer field.


    Levant project leader Adriana Gaxiola said 70 percent of the 120 units have sold and most buyers have been Mexican, but there have been a few Mexican-Americans.


    Liv La Recta has condos from 1,603 square feet to 2,895 square feet, with costs starting at $350,000 and going up to $500,000. Even though the building is also 18 stories, it only has 38 units, meaning fewer owners in the building.


    Nallely Garcia, commercial manager for developer Urban Living, said 17 condos had sold so far with all buyers being Mexican and many of them being retirees. She said older buyers told her that they want to give their current homes to their children so they are down-sizing in the high-end condo.


    Liv has also had plenty of amenities to woo buyers, such as a gym, pool, roof terrace and garden, concierge, closed circuit cameras and event room.


    The project is from Tijuana-based Urban Living, which is one of the biggest developers in the city. Their projects, all at different stages of development, include eight office buildings, five hotels, four residential towers and two mixed-use developments.


    Mixed-use


    Like San Diego, there is a lot of need for buildings that mix multiple uses because of limited land. While on a much smaller scale, Tijuana has also seen more proposals for mixed-use buildings and adoption of co-working ideas.

    With that in mind, Cosmopolitan Group opened a hybrid co-working space and apartment building recently — part of its “Eazy Living” brand and named Eazy Rio — in the city’s business district Zona Río. It’s a bit like a WeWork office where people rent a small office space, except you can take a nap in your own apartment during lunch hour.


    The Eazy Rio completed project in Tijuana, will include 69 rental apartments and 17,760 sq ft of office space for tenants. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)


    On one side of the building, 96 apartments rent for around $1,000 a month and are 516 square feet to 645 square feet. The other side of the building, separated by a door that can only be opened with a key, holds 17,760 square feet of office space aimed at startups and companies new to Tijuana.

    “No one else offers something where you can work and live at the space place,” said Michael Goldstein, who heads the Eazy Living division. “You could go to the office in your pajamas.”


    It costs $99 a month to use an open area of the co-working space where someone could just sit down and turn on a laptop. Rent for a desk is $149 a month and an enclosed office space, where the person doesn’t have to take home materials at the end of the day, goes for $450 a month. That’s about a quarter or less of the prices of similar offerings at WeWork in downtown San Diego.


    Goldstein said they have already received interest from several American businesses, many of whom have said they felt overcharged in previous Tijuana office buildings.


    Cosmopolitan Group is one of the biggest developers in Tijuana and has been at the center of rising tensions over new construction, recently over a road to a new residential tower. Opposition to its Life condo tower, across the road from Club Campestre de Tijuana, has led to media coverage in local publications such as Frontera, and coordinated protests.


    Parents and others are worried about the safety of students on the road leading up to its 45-unit building. It had been used by students of nearby schools for years.

    The company says it will work with officials to make the students’ path safer, but will not abandon use of the road.


    Alameda Otay


    A condo in the Alameda Otay development is walking distance from a Caramel Macchiato at a new Starbucks, the latest horror film at Cinemex and Buffalo wings at Porter’s sports pub.

    The 40-acre Alameda Otay masterplan community is similar to Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch masterplan in San Diego County — albeit on a much smaller scale — in that it looks very similar and has a mix of residential, retail, some office, one hotel and future plans for more uses. It is east of downtown, away from a lot of the hustle and bustle, and only a few blocks from the city’s main airport.


    It is also near the economic engine of the maquiladoras, factories that produce many products purchased in the United States and feature a smorgasbord of foreign investors. Many American and Asian executives who run the maquiladoras have bought condos in Alameda Otay’s housing offering called Magnitud, said Raymundo Arnaiz, a director with housing developer Frasa.


    “There is a need for residential around here,” Arnaiz said in during a recent tour.


    Magnitud condos range from $154,000 to $220,000, and are 914 square feet to 1,280 square feet. The $12 million first phase of 120 condos will be completed in February 2020, eventually expanding to a total unit count of 240.


    There is a lone showroom of a Magnitud condo as the development is just a concrete shell at the moment. It has made enough of an impression that Frasa said half the units have already sold.


    In the living room of the condo is a wraparound gray couch facing a flatscreen television and what looks like 1950s Americana accents throughout. A sort of Jackson Pollock-inspired painting with gold, blue and black stripes hangs on the wall. The view out the window is of Magnitud’s concrete frame with workers darting in and out.


    Rendering of the planned Magnitud development (Frasa)

    https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...228-story.html

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  4. #4
    Moderator Beezer's Avatar
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    If it is safe to "retire" in Mexico … then it is SAFE to send all 25 million of their illegal aliens back home!

    Go contribute to your building boom and build further INLAND away from our border...thank you

    Shut the border down...it is SAFE for Mexico to keep all the illegal aliens they have allowed through their Southern Border.

    They let them in and they can keep them to Make Mexico Great.
    ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE "BROKEN" OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

    DO NOT REWARD THEM - DEPORT THEM ALL

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