gringorio - 7-8-2004 at 05:37 AM
Almost Paradise
Broomfield firm envisions $2 billion resort in Mexico
By Matt Branaugh, Camera Business Writer
July 5, 2004
Danny Mostajo, age 7 at the time, felt the tug on his line and steadied himself for a catch. He expected a tug ? after all, it was his first trip to
the Sea of Cortez in northwestern Mexico, a place known for its vast marine life that perfectly captured his family's passion for fishing.
But he didn't expect the 40-minute battle, a clash that nearly brought his opponent out of the water four times, only to scramble successfully back
under the surface. Spent after the fourth round, Mostajo turned to his dad and told him to the cut the line.
"No," his father told him. Grit it out. Reel it in.
"When you're 7, it feels like a whale," Mostajo recalls. "That thing fought and fought and fought. It was amazing."
Finally, the fish ? a 20-pound Yellowtail ? succumbed.
"Then I was hooked," Mostajo says.
So hooked that Mostajo has returned, some 33 years later, with a new, gigantic catch to grit out and reel in: an elaborate, high-end resort built on
5,670 acres he's assembled in Baja California Sur, along the Sea of Cortez's eastern shore, through his Broomfield-based limited liability company
Legato Development.
His dream is to create a private, year-round escape ? a six-star resort potentially worth $2 billion upon completion 15 years from now. Mostajo, who
lives in Louisville, says he knows the value of that escape because that's what he wants to capture for his own wife and three children, ages 10, 3
and 1.
Of Hawaiian and Filipino descents, Mostajo, 40, began scouting out potential vacation spots 2 1/2 years ago, and he headed back to the Baja California
Sur.
He originally found one lot, then realized he could acquire 1,800 acres and partner with some friends and family to make the costs of buying
relatively the same. Then he discovered additional neighboring land, giving three miles total of white sand beaches and coastline, and a dream of
something bigger emerged.
He's spent the past 2 1/2 years negotiating with the three families who own the acreage, and assembling a team to help. Last August, he sold his
self-made, 12-year-old beauty products distribution business, Spectrum Salon Consultants, in a multimillion-dollar deal to Florida-based Beauty
Alliance, clearing the way for him to focus solely on Legato, which employs eight other people.
Mostajo envisions a vacation mecca that spares no expense and draws appeal both near and far. The location is just 2 1/2 hours away by plane from
Denver and 35 minutes by car from the sur's capital city, La Paz. And it's several hours away from tourist-laden Cabo San Lucas.
"It's a place where a lot of memories will be made for a lot of families," he says.
Rights to buy the land from the three families are already secured. So is the financing, although the company says it isn't ready to disclose its
financiers until after the land closes later this month.
Ground should break in August. By the end of 2006 or early 2007, the first phases of the development should open.
Legato will offer 611 total residences, ranging from 15-acre estate lots to villas to fractional units split by multiple owners. Those who become
residents of Legato will receive access to an oceanfront golf course designed by professional golf player Ernie Els, common plaza areas with shops and
arts activities, a ranch for horseback riding and mountain biking trips and a European village-styled marina capable of housing Legato's private fleet
of sport fishing vessels for boating, scuba-diving and sport fishing.
Other amenities include a sports field large enough to house an NFL training camp, a sports center equipped with an NBA-sized indoor basketball court,
a weight room, tennis courts and wellness spa, as well as a beach club, a restaurant/bar/dance club, an organic farm, a chapel and a
professional-quality recording studio.
Those who visit Legato as guests of its hotels will enjoy six-star accommodations and some beach access, but will have to pay to access other
amenities enjoyed by the residents. Mostajo plans to build four hotels, with the first an 80-room site designed by a group founded by Horst Schulze,
former vice chairman of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.
The idea is to draw musicians, athletes and movie stars to a safe, private place where they can bring their families while they train, record or
relax. The concept fits the area well, given that Rancho Las Cruces, a decades-old resort that served as a hangout to Desi Arnez, John Wayne and Bing
Crosby, is a neighbor.
Mostajo says the Legato concept only works by targeting the affluent. He still anticipates drawing a wide variety of residents, with home prices
ranging from $350,000 to $10 million.
"It is what it is," Mostajo says. "You can't be everything to everybody."
Saving the sea
Those who describe the place use words like mystical, beautiful, awe-inspiring.
Baja California Sur shields the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California, from the Pacific Ocean, creating a cove of clear, mid-70 degree
waters filled with what some consider the most diverse underwater ecology in the world. The relatively calm waters are frequented by sea turtles,
marlin, humpback whales, mahi-mahi, manta rays and 150 of the world's 400 shark species.
Waters lead into white-sand and pebble beaches, which lead into desert-like terrain and hills, which eventually roll into mountains.
"This is a very rare piece of dirt," Mostajo says.
La Paz, the capital city of more than 150,000 people averages 104 degrees in the summer and 52 degrees in the winter. It was a landing point in 1535
for Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortez, according to the city's tourism promotions.
For all of its wonder, though, the area finds itself in the midst of a major transformation. In the past 12 months, 250,000 acres have been acquired
by various parties ? representing about $10 billion in developments ? in places north of La Paz, Legato says.
The Sea of Cortez finds itself under siege, too.
A gathering of 400 people in Tucson, Ariz., last month focused on the damage suffered by the sea from several factors, most notably shrimp trawling
practices by commercial fishing. Efforts are underway to curb destructive methods, but much still needs to be done, observers say.
"The impact the commercial fishing has is the most serious impact down there for the Sea of Cortez," says Donald Thomson, a retired marine biology and
oceanography professor from the University of Arizona who has studied the gulf since 1963.
Many view tourism, particularly the kinds that encourage scuba-diving, boating and other forms of eco-tourism, as a potential way to save the sea,
Thomson says. A project like Legato, at just shy of 6,000 acres, will have to be careful not to affect the local environment in other ways, he adds.
Mostajo says Legato is predicated on the natural beauty of the area, so damaging the local environment would only damage the resort's ability for
success. Architecture will help blend buildings into the natural settings, he says, and less than 1,000 hotel rooms or residences will ever get built
on all of the acreage, giving it lower densities than standard resorts.
The three families who own the acreage will own houses at Legato. About 2,000 jobs will be created by the development.
Ultimately, Mostajo envisions building similar-styled resorts under the Legato name in other parts of the world. He plans to spend a lot of time at
Legato, and eventually will live there. He looks forward to taking his dad, now 68, fishing there, not to mention his own children.
"It's a place where my kids won't grow up too fast," he says. "That's where I'll grow old."
Contact Camera Business Writer Matt Branaugh at (303) 473-1363 or branaughm@dailycamera.com.
There goes the neighborhood!
jrbaja - 7-8-2004 at 07:48 AM
surfer jim - 7-8-2004 at 08:08 AM
My check is in the mail.....
La Paz?
Jack Swords - 7-8-2004 at 08:34 AM
Actually, Rancho Las Cruces is N/E of La Paz driving by the dump. The area is beautiful and just up from La Ventana. Water for a golf course?
Marina? The seas in that area are among the worst I've seen, totally exposed to the yearly hurricanes coming from the south. I watched two ferries
burying their bows in a norther last January as they went between this area and Isla Carralvo. Couldn't get near the shoreline. Las Arenas hotel is
still damaged and closed from two hurricanes ago. Las Cruces is a high-end development. If it has to be, sure wish Mexicans were the developers.
The charm of La Paz has been that it is still a Mexican town.
this is a nice one.
capt. mike - 7-8-2004 at 09:01 AM
hope it succeeds. wish i could buy in. maybe in 10 years i will.
can't stop progress. but i give it 50/50 only, lots of variables. better chances than loreto bay i'll bet.
DanO - 7-8-2004 at 09:06 AM
$10 million? No problem, lemme just find my checkbook . . .
Mike
jrbaja - 7-8-2004 at 09:15 AM
I think you need to spend a little more time "down to earth" so to speak. Especially in Baja.
It's really nice the way it is. If you prefer development, fly over southern california. That should be enough for anybody! There's plenty of desert
in your neck o the woods. Build away!
Let's have just a few places left on the planet that aren't Stepford Pink and infested with suv's, hummers and obnoxious people with too much
money..
Barney - 7-8-2004 at 01:42 PM
JR, I'm with you. If you want to see the grandure of development in baja, you have but to visit Rosorito or Cabo. Not at all the the quite towns they
once were.
The developers had their way with those ares and look what happened. Some thing should be left alone, if not just for the sake of beauty.
sorry i was trained in classical economics
capt. mike - 7-8-2004 at 02:27 PM
and theories. emotion has no play in the market place. laws of supply and demand rule.
like it or not, it will happen or not because it can or can't.
one is free to not go if they don't like it or move if it comes to them and they don't like it.
big deal.....
let freedom ring!!!!
Now there's an open mind
jrbaja - 7-8-2004 at 03:07 PM
Geez dude, what exactly is it that you like about Baja, the potential to develop?
Don't think I wants to be breathin any of that phoenix aire, yer scarin me.
Let freedom ring hahahahahahaaha
You mean, let it ring through the soundproof walls and fences like up there dontcha?
[Edited on 7/8/2004 by jrbaja]
JR, i don't disagree with you and respect
capt. mike - 7-8-2004 at 04:25 PM
your love of old time baja. the thing is i don't agree with you either. it's neither! Economic theory says all emotion has no place in the equation.
it's like mother nature dude....yeah, the little fur seal is so cute, then WHACK! here comes old mister Killer whale, shark or polar bear and bites it
in half.....too bad - it's the food chain man.
I don't have time to get all worked up over if some piece of beach may have finally gone to it's higher value in the world cycle. And i am all for
preserves as long as someone can afford to preserve something, let 'em man! again it's a free market issue regulated by supply and demand. things are
going to happen one way or another anyway! unless market interference mechanisms (i.e. CONTROLS) are enacted that is. Remember our dead friend
communism? well that whole dogma was about CONTROLS.
me , i'd rather die like pat henry before i let the gov control me. that's why i say let freedom ring!
wilderone - 7-8-2004 at 04:43 PM
Mike, if you'd do a little more training, you'd find that classic economics and theories encompass the whole rather than the immediate. It goes
beyond supply and demand (and in this case, I really don't think that artists, musicians and athletes are at a loss to snap up 15-acre estates and
villas), to include cause and effect, and the ensuing economics as a result. It sounds very similar to all the promises of the LoretoBay developers -
which they say will need and attract about 5,000 local residents to create and maintain - virtually a small town. Of course, from the article, we
know nothing of the actual planning and how he expects to deliver on these promises. There is nothing said about sustainability, solar electricity,
management, etc. And it appears that there are plenty of other developments ongoing, making the supply side even more unbalanced. Mostajo and his
ilk are a cancer on our earth - diabolically opposed to the moral obligation that we human beings have to keep our earth in a state that will nurture
all of its populace for all time. Just because you "can" doesn't mean that it's right. Mostajo, from -- ohmigod -- Kentucky, has little
understanding of the essence of Baja California, and I will remain hopeful of his failure, for the sake of Baja California - the once magnificent
peninsula.
If it weren't for the fact
jrbaja - 7-8-2004 at 04:55 PM
that I watched s.cal become what it is, I might tend to agree with you.
Except for the fact that most of them are miserable in spite of their money, they all frown to and from their way to work and generally hate their
jobs, and spend most of their vacations down here in a foreign country. WTF ?
Is that good? I'm hearing the same stories about Phoenix. Yikes Man.
The old Joany Mitchell song, pave Baja and put up a friggin pink condo?
To me it is the same as paving Yellowstone or one of those overcrowded national parks they have in the states. Except much worse. This hasn't been
overpopulated or destroyed YET.
There are many places left to develop without destroying unique environments such as Baja. Why not Alaska for instance. That even belongs to you
guys. Sort of.
Take your friggin bulldozers and go away! Come back when you can appreciate what's left of the beauty of the planet.
[Edited on 7/8/2004 by jrbaja]
Markitos - 7-8-2004 at 06:16 PM
I for one like La Paz the way it is. But the funny thing is the local people have nicer cars and homes then I do! Not all of them but alot of them.
I'll bet they might be looking at more develepment as being in they'r best intrest. I dont think they will ever let CABO happen there, but a lot of my
freinds there dont mind making some money off turistos. Thank god baja is a huge place and we all allways find a beutifull lonley sunrise if we look
for it.