Hunter Blair is an Atlanta-based home builder. Based in Managua,ECI is a resort developer also constructing projects in Belize andCosta Rica. Its subsidiary, Gran Pacifica Real Estate, isdeveloping the Nicaragua project. Gran Pacifica CEO and co-founderMike Cobb, says that idea for the company originated while he as ona humanitarian trip to Nicaragua to build a health clinic eightyears ago. As Nicaragua has recovered from its civil war in the'80s, it is emerging as a tourist destination.

"Nicaragua is the last country undergoing a transformation thathas occurred in every other Central American country," says Cobb.Tourism is now the country's second largest industry. He says thatinvestors in Nicaragua now are "able to catch it at the bottom ofthe curve."

Milagro del Mar is being marketed to baby boomers andsecond-home owners in North America. Expected to be fully completedin 2012, it will include a golf course, as well as pools, watercascades, exercise facilities, restaurants and retail shops.Residences will include condominium buildings and single-familyhomes.