The other day we visited Little Peter Caye to check on the new owner’s progress in development. I knew the new owners were contractors and they told me from the beginning that they wouldn’t waste time on their project. They were eager to get going.
It’s not that I didn’t believe them, because I did. But I was still shocked! These guys kicked butt!
During the escrow process the buyers hired Carlton Young, Owner of Young’s Engineering Consultancy in Belize City to give an opinion of the island’s feasibility for building. After a few tests, the island was given a clean bill of health and the sale closed.
Carlton is a terrific civil and structural engineer that knows his stuff on island property. We highly recommend him for your due diligence period investigations of soil and building feasibility.
Once the sale closed, the new owners of Little Peter didn’t waste any time getting to work. Permits were immediately applied for and then the project hit the ground running!
It’s important to note that this is a personal estate project among a group of close friends. It will be completed at their leisure with no real timeframe attached. So work may progress quickly, then stop for a few months, then start back up again.
Even though I knew they were serious about getting started, I was still blown away by the progress made in just a shade over 2 weeks. The quality was top notch, easily some of the best I’ve ever seen on any island.
The initial project was to get a caretaker house and pier built. Since this was a new undertaking by seasoned contractors, they knew what they wanted to achieve but still had to learn the secrets of where to get the best pricing on quality components and then getting them out to the island. This was no small task.
Ultimately, supplies were purchased in Belmopan and loaded onto an 18 wheeler for transportation to Sittee River where they were then loaded onto several small skiffs for the 8 mile journey to the island. This of course took many trips back and forth to get it all out there.
The crew camped out on the island while building and worked continuously until the pier and house were near completion. The long term plans call for a big palapa on the end of the pier which will add quite a few feet to the length of the structure. But for now the goal was to get the majority of the pier built and the caretaker’s house dried in.
Keep in mind we were there during a “work-in-progress” so there were still small details needing completion. A couple weeks after these pictures were taken the owners came back down and installed the plumbing, electrical, and septic system in the house so it’s fully habitable and environmentally sound. I’ll get those pictures during my next trip!
Getting this much accomplished would be a truly remarkable achievement in the US with plenty of Home Depots to supply whatever you need. But imagine doing it on an island in a small foreign country, 8 miles off shore, without a barge, in 15 days!! It’s just amazing.
I expect Little Peter will be a frequent stop for us to show our clients how it can be done and that it really isn’t as hard as it seems.
The good news is these owners are interested in helping their new neighbors accomplish the same thing. So preparations are underway to offer construction services for our clients. Since we’re all neighbors here, we might as well work together to get the highest quality work for the best price we can.
Being from Texas, they understand the high expectations of foreign buyers because they have the same concerns. So if you would like a referral to some great people with amazing construction management abilities, let me know and I’ll gladly make the introduction.
We’ll keep you posted on the progress. We might even get some videos of this one. The owners said they’re video documenting everything along the way.
Well we’ve finally done it. We’ve made a visit to Honduras’s Bay Island of Roatan. What a cool area. We’ve come home with one of the most exciting Private Island listings we’ve ever had. Castaway Island is a private island estate with a home that could stand up against any home, in any high-end subdivision in the world. The location is incredible with all the diving, fishing, and sailing that Roatan is so known for. This is a fully furnished home featuring 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, 5 acre island, plus a 1/4 acre mainland lot with permits for another house and dock for $3.1 million. Take a look at Roatan Castaway Island!
I wish it wasn’t such bad weather. But, we made the best of it.
We really put ourselves behind with this trip. There are several new islands we’ll be listing in the coming days so please check back over the next 2 weeks. As we emerge from a huge to-do list that built up as we were gone, we’ll post more new islands for sale. If you haven’t signed up for the updates, please do so. We’ll let you know as new islands come available and anytime we have price changes. We hate spam and promise not to send you useless emails!
It’s hard to describe what it’s like shopping for islands. The days are long, the sun is hot, and the water can beat you up at times. Other times, you get drenched in rain squalls. But overall it’s a great experience! Here is a short video of a day in Belize.
Of course sometimes the day doesn’t go as planned! The locals just don’t seem to understand we’re on a schedule. A storm could roll in, the batteries are dead, the boat could break down, the captain could show up late, the marina takes their sweet time launching the boat, the taxi gets a flat, the gas station is out of gas, the toilet paper got wet, and on and on. So, we’ve learned to go with the flow. When you get to Belize, remember to just slow down and make the best of the time you have. If you don’t sweat the small stuff, you have a lot more fun.
We have a client in the South Pacific that is interested in doing a joint venture involving the trade of Condos in the Caribbean. These condos don’t actually need to be built as yet. If the project has been given all approvals and it’s well into the development process, the project will be given serious consideration. If you happen to be condo developer with the ability to do a $50-60 Million deal, and would be interested in partial trades, please give us a call or email.
Well since everyone else is doing it, we’ve decided to try blogging too! There’s been so many times we’ve wanted to post something interesting on our site or tell our island clients about something but it just didn’t warrant sending out an email to everyone. This seems like a perfect place for us to keep you all informed, while doing it on your terms. You can check the blog anytime you’re thinking about it instead of us interrupting you with an email you don’t necessarily want. We’ll still be sending out our emails and may even use the blog posts to do so when we feel it is important information. But, for the most part, this will be a way for us to show you some of the more interesting things we do, share neat pictures with you, and a story or two about our island adventures.
This will also be a great place for us to pass along some of the knowledge we’ve gained of island development and cutting edge new technologies that will serve the island or resort owner.
Now and then we’ll create a survey to ask your opinions of what you’d like to see, what you’d like to learn, or just run some of our ideas by you for feedback. We’re constantly trying to improve our service and using a few surveys will help us put our energy in the right place.
Feel free to comment on any of the posts. I assure you, we’ll read them all.
