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Caribbean Business The ongoing transformation of Condado’s Ashford Avenue continues as Grupo Cacho takes the lead in two mixed-use projects valued at a combined $150 million. Together, the Laguna del Mar Plaza and Regency Condado Center projects will contribute approximately 1,500 much-needed parking spots to the area while adding another 130 luxury apartments to the growing list of upscale condominiums due to soon flood Condado. Developer Roberto Cacho, Grupo Cacho president & owner of the currently shuttered Regency Hotel and the 4,600-square-meter parking lot where Laguna del Mar Plaza will be built, told CARIBBEAN BUSINESS he has partnered with the Blackstone Group, the giant stateside private equity group that owns the largest inventory of hotel rooms on the island, to redevelop the Regency Hotel as a luxury, all-suite boutique condo-hotel. He explained that in addition to converting the Regency’s 130 guest rooms into 75 condo suites, an adjacent structure will be built that will include eight floors devoted to parking and an eight-floor tower rising above it that will house some 68 apartments of between 1,600 square feet and 2,100 square feet each. All told, including additional basement parking underneath the existing Regency structure, the Regency Condado Center complex will accommodate some 750 cars. According to Enrique Gutiérrez, president of architectural firm Gutiérrez-Látimer P.S.C., 300 parking spaces will be devoted to parking for Blackstone’s Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino, immediately adjacent to the Regency project. Another 200 spots will be devoted to the new condominium tower, 100 spaces for the condo-hotel and 100 spaces for commercial use, all in addition to the 50 existing spots underneath the Regency. For his part, Barry Lewin, executive vice president of operations for Blackstone’s LXR Luxury Resorts, indicated the private equity group has a 25% minority stake in the Regency project, while noting that a final agreement regarding specifics of the parking arrangement has yet to be reached. “We are working toward reaching an agreement regarding parking for the Condado Plaza and are very excited to be partnering with Cacho to see this project through to completion,” Lewin commented. The Laguna del Mar Plaza project, at 1014 and 1016 Ashford Avenue in the large lot immediately adjacent to the Ajilí Mojilí restaurant, will have another 750 parking spaces in addition to almost 8,400 square feet of retail space and 65 apartments. According to Cacho, the retail space will be divided among four establishments, two of which he indicated will be restaurants and the other two luxury retail stores on a par with the nearby Gucci and Ferragamo shops. Some 240,000 square feet of parking space will be distributed underground and atop a seven-level, above-ground structure, and the 65 apartments will be divided into two, 18-floor towers totaling some 221,000 square feet of residential space. According to Cacho, the Regency project will begin construction in March, with different components completed in stages. The basement parking addition is expected to take 12 months to build, the parking structure 18 months, the condo-hotel two years and the condominium tower three years. Construction of Laguna del Mar is scheduled to begin in May pending final approval of all pertinent permits, and the entire project is scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of 2010. Cacho indicated Westernbank is providing financing for both projects, while an unspecified, New York-based venture capital firm has signed on as a minority investor.
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