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Porto Cupecoy Grand Opening Event
January 29, 2010 by OceanHome · 8 Comments
Porto Cupecoy Grand Opening Event: Friday, January 29
Porto Cupecoy, the 182-residence luxury seaside village developed by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., will be holding a Grand Opening event on-island on Friday, January 29. The white glove marina, luxury residences, gourmet restaurants and shops will welcome the first owners in the coming weeks. Porto Cupecoy is offering special pricing and incentives on remaining residences through the January 29 Grand Opening.
For those press interested in attending Friday’s festivities, the schedule of event is as follows:
12noon – 5:00pm Consumer open house
5:00pm Press tours of Porto Cupecoy
7:00pm Speeches by Filip Boyen, VP Operations for Orient-Express Hotels, Bernard Sarme and Commissioner William Marlin
Cocktail reception in central plaza
To RSVP for the event, please contact info@portocupecoy.com.
Orient-Express Director of Global Real Estate, Phillip Gesue was recently quoted as saying “…sales volume continues to build at an unprecedented rate with more than 10 units sold over the past weeks in anticipation of our Grand Opening.” Also fueling second-home sales are the project’s attractive price points, which range from USD $400,000 to $2.8 million per unit, thanks to pre-opening discounts and other pre-grand opening incentives such as 90% financing and two year’s complimentary homeowner’s association fees.
There are many factors contributing to the appeal and successes of Porto Cupecoy. Porto Cupecoy is the finest quality new development in the Caribbean, with tasteful European design including giant marble or travertine bathrooms, Viking stainless steel appliances, teak wood kitchens, oversized balconies and mahogany interior doors and millwork. Dutch St. Maarten offers a variety of highly-unique financial benefits for buyers, including no property taxes, no capital gains taxes, and lower than average closing costs for purchase. Additionally, non-stop flight service to St. Maarten has increased, making the destination one of the most accessible islands in the Caribbean. Finally, unlike many other condominium communities, Porto Cupecoy benefits from a large contingency of primary home buyers who are trading up to Porto Cupecoy from their primary homes elsewhere in St. Martin, St. Barts and the Caribbean, ensuring that the development will turn into a real community.
Located in the Caribbean’s Netherlands Antilles, Porto Cupecoy embodies the characteristics of a true Mediterranean village with high-end shopping, dining, services and amenities, in addition to residences and a luxury marina. The architectural inspiration for the property is Portofino, located on the Italian Riviera, and the community is similarly anchored around a marina, the most exclusive and upscale on the island.
The marina has a unique structure in that the majority of yacht slips will be owned by the community’s residents, and rented on their behalf by the marina management when they are not in use. Prices for yacht slips, including mega yacht slips up to 200 feet in length, range from USD $150,000 to $3 million.
Homeowners will be able to enjoy a wide range of on-site amenities, including tennis courts, swimming pools, several dining options, as well as concierge and “white glove” marina services. For residents interested in renting out their home or boat slip while not in use, the community has its own dedicated professional onsite vacation rental management program, creating hassle-free rental revenue for owners. The beach is immediately across the street, 50 yards from the community’s entrance.
For more information on Porto Cupecoy or to watch a “fly thru” preview video, please visit www.portocupecoy.com.
My wife and I bought our “pre-construction” unit back in May 2005.
Unfortunately there have many inumerable delays with regard to this project.
The latest coming as they celebrated their “Grand Opening” on January 29th, 2010. However, our units’ closing has been delayed several times in the last few months.
The latest update (03/02/2010) is that our unit will be ready on March 15th, 2010, postponed from November 2009 and again February 22nd, 2010.
We are not holding our breath, as we assume the unit will unlikely be ready at that point. This makes it very difficult to plan closing with the dates constantly in flux.
It is very discouraging to have waited almost 5 years from the inception of this project, and now with the economy going south, the sales figures are not what they have published.
70% of Phases 1,2,3,4 sold. Phases 5,6,7,8 are not on the market. That means 70% of half of the total projects 182 units. That is 70% of 91 units which is only 63 units sold, not a very encouraging number out of 182.
If they can actually deliver on the amenities and services they have touted for many years now, it may still end up a lovely project.
But the often and continued delays and mis-representations have been disheartening.
We hope to visit the project at the end of March 2010 to judge the status of the overall project and our unit in particular.
Will post our findings upon our return in April 2010.
Thanks for listening.
Marc & Naomi
This is a reply from the Porto Cupecoy Team:
Although Porto Cupecoy is late in completion, as many construction projects are, we have always maintained the highest quality standards for construction and have been described as the finest residential development in the Caribbean. Our unique Mediterranean design continues to be a success with buyers, resulting in 14 homes sold over the past 16 weeks.
Over 100 homes have already been sold at Porto Cupecoy, and families are now beginning to move into the community. Including February’s sales, we have now sold 75% of Phases 1 – 4, due in part to our attractive price point of $400,000 to $1,300,000.
We do have units that have not been offered for sale at this time, because they are located in the remaining 2 phases which are currently under active construction.
It is of paramount importance to us to create an exceptional experience for our homebuyers and homeowners. And while we more than anyone would like to close on homes, we are most concerned with completing the project to the highest level of quality.
The Porto Cupecoy team is working hard every day to exceed our customer’s expectations. And, we remain committed to doing just that.
Having said all that, we are very sorry that we have not meet the expectations of Mr. and Mrs. Morriss and are contacting them directly to address their concerns.
Hello again,
Well, I have been to the Porto Cupecoy project and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. The overall project is nearing completion and after many distressing emails I found it to be quite a bit nicer than I expected.
Our unit is not yet complete, and the new estimate is April 26th, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that date is pushed back a month or so. I did have a chance to go into my unit, and overall was pleased. Our particular unit has a big terrace (approx. 240 sq ft) with views of the pool and marina on the left, and the Caribbean on the right (we are up on Level 4 which is the 5th floor – they count the first floor as 0).
A couple of things to note. There are NO closets. They give a small allowance, in our case, I was told $2500 for closets. You can build your own, bring in an amoire, or any other configuration you want.
Also, no mirrors in the bathrooms, and no sconces in the bathrooms either. Those are for the owners to personalize. Not exactly like in the states.
They were working on the tennis courts and the plaza I was informed was sold out. Only one little bistro opened as of now. There is a nice market that is right on the premises which will undoubtable do quite well.
I spoke with Angie, the sales representative on site, and she believed that they are nearing a tipping point where people on the island are now aware of the property and want to get in. I am hopeful that over the next several months, it will become THE attraction on that area of the island.
So for now, that is all.
Overall, a big sigh of relief.
Will keep you posted on any further developments.
Thanks for the update, Marc. Sounds like things are coming along well.
Hello
I went to visit Porto Cupecoy 2 weeks ago, the quality of the buildings and materials used are cheap and bad quality, window frame are already twisted, balcony fences are shaking, tiles are damaged!
The parking is accross the street from the residence
The only thing I liked is landscaping
Who do you think you can fool?
Valerie
Writing an update.
Our unit will be ready for the walk through inspection on June 22nd. I believe them this time. I will keep you posted on what will be required by the builder to bring things to standard.
I am puzzled by the previous posting by Valerie. While Porto Cupecoy has certainly taken “island time” to build the structures, I found the buildings to be quite good quality. They used rebar and cement for the construction, to insure integrity during hurricane season, and while the balcony railings are a little bit chessy as they are green plastic, I found mine to be solid.
With regard to parking, the resident’s parking spaces are underneath each buiilding. The parking Valerie may be referring to is for guests.
I will be writing again once our inspection is complete. We may also travel to St. Martin this summer to take a look at our completed unit.
Thanks for the update, Marc! Let us know how it goes.
Hello again.
Well once again the timeline for closing had to be moved farther out on the calendar. We had set July 1st, 2010 for the closing, but now it looks like late July or even August is more likely.
This is a heads up for other owners, do not trust the timeline given to you. It will certainly not be accurate.
While our unit was in fairly good order, the elevator and stairs were not. They are 3 weeks away from completion.
I was assured that our unit was complete and ready to go…………….ahem…………….not to be.
While it may be expected that constrtuction and final touch-ups may be delayed, what continues to be disconcerting is the promises made by OEH. They continue to tell us the unit is ready, we make the effort to either show up personally, or have it inspected, only to find that it is not as they spoke. Not ready and still in need of several weeks work.
I would highly recommend to all owners, do not close until you or your inspector have seen your unit and building personally. Do not trust what OEH informs. We have been let down again and again.
We remain hopeful and will keep all updated.