Condos come to pristine Rocky Point estuary

PUERTO PEÑASCO, Mex. — A Tempe-based company is building a super-sized condominium project with all the frills overlooking one of Rocky Point’s most fragile marine habitats.

This summer, Canusa Homes will start building five 21-story condos, 30 beachfront homes and a man-made lake where endangered and protected birds nest on their way between North and South America.

The Pointe de Las Conchas project is yet another sign that the marriage between tourism and foreign investors is turning this once sleepy fishing town on its head.

“Rocky Point is probably one of the fastest-growing resort areas in Mexico right now,” said John Alty, the project’s Rocky Point-based sales manager.

Two million tourists are expected to head for Rocky Point this year, he said. But with its proximity to Phoenix and Tucson, its plans for a second airport and a highway project to lure more Californians, “it’s going to be a whole new batch of tourists coming down here,” Alty added.

Canusa is banking on the rush. Alty said the company bought the 24.2-acre site from a local Mexican family in December 2005 for $17 million. The land sits at the end of the main road into Las Conchas and overlooks Estero Morúa, one of six high-salinity estuaries in Rocky Point.

Alty said officials for the Mexican government have visited the site twice without complaint. The company, whose principles are in British Columbia, awaits city permits to start work, he said.

The Pointe will have a manmade lake atop the dune for kayaking and paddle boats, a 37,000-square-foot lobby with a five-star restaurant and shops, and a total of 800 living spaces. Condos on the 8th floor and above will have an outdoor spa, he said. About 400 workers will be brought in from Guadalajara, Mexico, to build it, Alty said.

The prices range from $265,000 for a one-bedroom condo to $3.8 million for a 6,900-square-foot penthouse.

But officials for the Centro de Estudios de Desiertos y Oceáno, or CEDO, are fighting the project with an online petition. Staff biologist Alejandro Castillo López says the mega-project will harm an established nesting area for the least tern, a diving seabird that is endangered, and other animals.

Alty said the company’s biologist found that no least tern nesting sites are near the project. “We will not be affecting the estuary at all,” he said. “Our property does not go down to the estuary.”

Castillo López disagreed, saying CEDO studies show otherwise. He also points to a 1996 study by biologists in Ensenada, Mexico, which found least tern living in Estero Morúa.

While being interviewed at the estuary by a reporter, Castillo López spotted four different bird species, including the least tern. All-terrain vehicles drove out onto the dune, and a yellow Hummer SUV parked out on a sandbar below it.

Mexican authorities have asked for more time to review the project after receiving mountains of data and studies from CEDO. The group is encouraging the use of ecotourism here, like narrated kayak tours of the estuary.

CEDO has helped oyster farmers secure grant money to build restaurants and buy kayaks for this purpose. They say it will be better than condos — a market that at least one local Realtor said is already oversaturated.

The idea that more multi-family housing might come to the estuary disappointed Arturo Candelaria, who came to Estero Morúa with family and friends to escape the din of Rocky Point.

When told that condos were coming to the site, he looked out at the estuary and shook his head at its swollen banks. “So I’m pretty sure they’re going to destroy this place, right?” he asked.

“We come here because it’s pretty quiet,” said Candelaria, 36. “It’s more difficult when you go to the city. It’s not intimidating here — yet.”

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