'Punta Arrecifes,' Donald Trump's Billion-Dollar Project, Cancelled in Cozumel The Yucatan Times
go to original February 19, 2017

Environmental conservationists were opposed to “Punta Arrecifes”, a project that implied severe ecologic devastation. (Union Cancun)

For the inhabitants of Cozumel, Donald Trump is a well-known name, and not precisely for being the current president of the United States.

For the citizens of the island, as well as for businessmen and politicians in Quintana Roo, his name is linked to “Punta Arrecifes”, a 3-billion-dollar project that back in 2006 tried to build a complex over a virgin area at the eastern part of the island, but due to the opposition of the conservationists, it did not materialize.

The proposal, aimed at the tourism sector with high purchasing power, was practically an island within the island, since it included hotels, commercial plazas, airports, marinas and water channels communicated to the sea. “Punta Arrecifes” was disguised as a sustainable tourism project, but, according to conservationists, it would have meant an ecological threat with negative impact to the fragile ecosystem of the island.

...When the plan was made public, environmentalists opposed it from the beginning, calling it “a damaging and predatory project”.

The plan was to build, initially, 2,868 rooms and 210 residences, which included townhouses and villas; it was a big project considering that the Isla Cozumel Hotel Association currently has 3,200 rooms registered.

Trump’s interest to concretize the project were so ambitious, that even Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. visited the island, and were attended by the then-major, with whom they made air-routes at the southwest part of the island.

...To date, it is unknown what the status of the “Punta Arrecife” project is or if Donald Trump will seek to retake it, but it is rumored that the current President of the United States has invested a significant amount of money on local and state politicians to rush his request, although this information has never been confirmed.

Read the rest at The Yucatan Times

Related: Newly Open Trump Tower a Beacon of Controversy in Multicultural Vancouver (Lethbridge Herald)

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