Cabo San Lucas is becoming an increasingly exclusive destination for American tourists and second-home owners. A two-and-one-half hour flight from Los Angeles, the area draws visitors primarily from California, Texas, and Arizona. With a booming tourist industry, the amount of developable land has shrunk as luxury resorts and condominium developments have flourished.

Johnson Capital is marketing the Cabo Del Este parcel for its American owners, who had bought it in hopes of developing it three years ago. The current owners have a complete business plan in place for a low-density, high-end eco-friendly development. In addition, they secured all the necessary entitlements and permits from the local government, according to John Purvis, senior analyst with Johnson Capital Mexico. He tells Globest.com that a buyer could adopt that plan or devise a new one.

Next week, the first potential buyers will tour the site, which has 2.2 miles of oceanfront on the calmer, eastern Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Peninsula. Benjamin Johnson, SVP of Johnson Capital Mexico, says interest has come from Mexican, European, and Middle Eastern developers, and they have also been marketing it to large private equity funds.

"There's a global credit crisis and a huge downturn in residential real estate, so we're going far and wide to market the property," Johnson tells Globest.com. "The buyer is likely to be a large, high-end resort developer or an investment group that understands oceanfront pricing." The parcel is priced at $25.19 per square meter.

"While pricing for finished products in Cabo is getting very expensive, raw land is still the cheapest of any of the three tier-one fly-in resort markets in Mexico," says Johnson, referring to Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun. Cabo is the only of those three markets that has any sizeable parcels of undeveloped land left, he says.

"Cabo has become the St. Barts of Mexico," says Purvis. "It's attracting very high-end development, and opportunities to build are running out."

Johnson Capital Mexico, a part of Johnson Capital International, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson Capital, based in Irvine, CA. The firm has eight US offices, one in Bangalore, India and two in Mexico.

Instant Insights /

Sea of Cortez Parcel on Block for $100M

Related Stories

Recommended For You