Arizona Realtor Licensing Renewathon in Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point)

Here is a nice article courtesy of AZ Central that spotlights the continued growth in Rocky Point and Rocky Point reservations.  Clearly, things continue to get better and better for Puerto-Penasco.  With the addition of the Sonoran Sky resort, new airport and freeways moving right along as planned, Rocky Point is poised for more growth.  To read the article click here

The Puerto-penasco.com staff would like to share this article about two very nice and family owned restaurants.  We overlooked adding this article back in November and if you are planning to visit Rocky Point and are looking for something authentic and good, read about these restaurants. Some of the members in our staff went to eat there with their family and they were very happy with the food and service!

2 Puerto Peñasco dining treasures

Selina Schuh Dopp
Special for The Republic
Nov. 9, 2007 12:59 PM

PUERTO PEÑASCO, Sonora - Finding a good restaurant in Rocky Point can be tricky. You either can end up in a tourist trap, eating poor imitations of familiar foods, or you can find a place so authentic that all you can order are brains and innards.

What if you want local flavor without deviating too much from the familiar?

Two restaurants near the fish market in Old Town fill the bill. Though many restaurants along the water serve decent fare, the constant pressure to hire mariachis ruins the enjoyment of the meal and the relaxation you might experience from the sound of crashing waves. More tranquil settings are available a stone's throw away. Leave the bustling main street behind and walk one block up the hill. READ more....

There are so many websites out there trying to advertise rentals by owners for Rocky Point that the market seems over saturated.  Today, I ran into what I think is the best website for rentals by owner I have seen in years.  The website is www.rprentalsbyowner.com.  If you are an owner and you are looking for ways to market your condo, this is the solution.  It is such a creative and efficient way to showcase properties..

Check out some of the listings by visiting the urls below:

Sonoran Sun - Las Palmas - Princesa  

Sandbar Paradise Beach Club is Rocky Point’s Newest Party Destination Puerto Penasco,

Sonora, Mexico  February 18, 2008 – Sandbar Paradise Beach Club brings a new level of appeal to the heart of Rocky Point. In fact, Sandbar is the umbrella name for three distinct hotspots: a fun sports cantina, an outdoor palapa bar with volleyball, and an open air dance club. La Culebra, a Latin cover band, makes the Sandbar Cantina swell with locals and visitors alike every Saturday night starting at 9pm.  The Cantina has been quietly stunning customers with some of the most exciting food found in Rocky Point. Victor the bartender impresses vacationers with his charm and his unique spin on common drinks.  

Here is a nice write-up from the Houston Chronicle.  It profiles a recent trip to Rocky Point as well as the potential of Rocky Point as a resort destination.  This is good press as it really exposes the fact that Rocky Point has a broader reach than just Arizona.  The author stayed at the Sonoran Sun Resort.

Here is the link

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/travel/5466350.html

If you hate the wait at the border on Sundays. Las Palmas Beachfront Resort is currently offering Sunday night for 1/2 price during March and April.   This allows you to avoid the Sunday wait, relax another day and come home when the border is more user-friendly. 

To those cappuccino lovers with a sweet tooth!...Churros and Burros.  Yes, this is the place. It has many other types of food but I was amazed by the taste of their original churro (cinnamon sugar, they also have churros with fillings) and their Vanilla Capuccino!!!!!!.  I love coffe and Sugar Free Vanilla Latte is usually my Starbucks choice but this was very very close to it and maybe better.

 I found out they are opening 2 other locations in Penasco.  The one I went to was on Freemont Blvd in a plaza named Placita Melanie.  I recommended, it was worth the stop...I needed that coffee :)

Check this article out from the Helium Report http://www.heliumreport.com/archives/949-cut-rate-condos-international-developers-roll-out-incentives

It looks like the resorts on Sandy Beach are looking to provide incentives to potential condo buyers.  The below is an excerpt from the link above.

      "In an effort to reach out to potential buyers, Sandy Beach Resorts, where prices on residences range from $210,000 to $5 million, is offering two incentives programs. The first amounts to a complimentary educational seminar where prospective owners are treated to a multi-media presentation about the area and resort, and legal and financial advice on purchasing property in Mexico, over a catered breakfast or lunch. The second, geared towards seminar attendees, is a mini-vacation to the location itself, which includes round trip airfare from Los Angeles, a two-night stay in one of Sandy Beach’s beachfront resort, meals, area tours, and activities like a yacht cruise and parasailing"

I have also noticed that the Sonoran Sky Resort has reduced the amount they require as a down payment.  The deals are out there to be had in this current market.  Rocky Point Reservations to Sandy Beach are picking up and these incentives might increase the desire to invest.

Being that it is Christmas eve in the height of the Holiday season, it is a perfect time to announce Holiday Specials for Rocky Point.  Many of the Rocky Point Resorts are offering a stay for 3 nights and pay for 2 Rocky Point Holiday special.  That is right, you pay for 2 nights and get the 3rd night for FREE.  This special runs through February 2008 at many of the resorts on Sandy Beach, call for details.  Call one of our phone agents at 1-800-997-9431 so you can find out what the participating resorts are.

From Paul T. (in Phoenix)

I was down there a few weeks ago and came across a new place that had pizza that was outstanding. Al Capone's pizza & beer. They have a bunch of flat screen TVs with all the American sports and easily the best pizza I have had in Mexico and better than most places in Arizona.

Pretty cool place, check it out!

DHS and the State of Arizona Partner to Further Advance Secure Identification Initiatives

Source: US Homeland Security Website

December 7, 2007 - The Department of Homeland Security and the state of Arizona signed an agreement for Arizona to create a new type of driver's license that will satisfy requirements of WHTI and be a basis for REAL ID, a key recommendation of the 9-11 Commission. Secretary Chertoff said, "Agreements like this one, and the others before it, move secure identification in the right direction, and I urge other states to do the same."

We will continue to research the new passport requirements throughout the year.  There is obviously much confusion.  In our return trip through the border last night, the officers at the border did not want to give a straight answer.  Our advice right now is to take a passport if you have one.  Now, if you don't have a passport, take a drivers license AND a birth certificate (If you don't know where your birth certificate is, contact your state of birth's vital statistics office by clicking here).  You could also take a drivers license and your voter registration card.  However, there is good news on the way.  We read this article in the Arizona Republic today....  Arizona could start issuing new driver's licenses with radio-identification chips next year that would be used in lieu of a passport at the U.S.-Mexican border.

From the L.A. Times's Real estate regrets in Mexico (reprinted in the Baltimore Sun)

PLAYAS DE ROSARITO, Mexico - The ripples of the U.S. real estate boom began washing up on the shores of this beach town a few years ago. Californians, feeling flush from the steep run-up in housing values stateside, pulled equity from their primary homes and snapped up vacation properties in northern Baja California as if they were buying $10 lobster dinners.

We nearly had ... fistfights" over choice units, said Michael Coskey, sales director of the Residences at Playa Blanca, ... "We were all appealing to people's greed."

Greed has turned to regret for some investors who now can't sell their Mexican properties.

Upward of 40 percent of the condos in some northern Baja projects were purchased by flippers who intended to resell before construction was finished...

But with contagion from the U.S. subprime mortgage debacle spooking many would-be purchasers and credit drying up, the Baja real estate market is flagging. Speculators are starting to sweat.

Speculators likewise are smarting in Puerto Penasco, also known as Rocky Point, a beach resort in Sonora state 60 miles south of the Arizona border on the Sea of Cortez, also called the Gulf of California.

Egged on by soaring real estate prices at home, Arizonans snatched up Puerto Penasco condos at "crazy" prices that topped $1 million for some penthouses, according to Dee Brooks, owner of Twin Dolphins Real Estate in Rocky Point.

She said many flippers haven't been able to sell their units. Meanwhile, the rental market is so saturated that most can't cover their costs by leasing their properties.

Here's the whole story.

From Raminova Announces Expansion Plan in the Americas

Raminova announces plans to invest approximately $650 million in tourism-related projects in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Panama City, Panama; Los Cabos, Mexico; and Puerto Penasco, Mexico, within the next year.

Raminova's expansion plan, as well as its first project in the Dominican Republic, Cana Bay Beach Club & Golf Resort, is featured in this month's issue of Smart Money magazine...

Raminova is a partnership between the Ramirez Group, a 75-year-old real estate developing company, and Caixanova, one of Spain's largest financial institutions.

Here's the full release, and here's a followup from GlobeSt.com

At the moment I'm unaware If Raminova has anything to do with Salvago Mexico - the subgroup of the Spanish utility Iberdrola that bought Laguna Del Mar a while back - other than the fact that they're both located in Spain.

With all the growth and construction going on, I've become increasingly interested in people's stories from the 'old times' of Puerto Peñasco, when everybody called the place 'a sleepy little fishing village'.

Lots of you seem to be famiilar with Puerto Peñasco from the 60's on - I'm guessing somebody made a killing selling fishing boats in Tucson right around that time. I'd like to start an ongoing collection of your stories about Puerto Peñasco. I'm looking for your stories, memories, and recollections of Puerto Peñasco from 'way back in the day' - especially the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

Anything goes - when you were there, what you did, who you remember, how you remember the Puerto Peñasco of the past. Send your stories to info@puerto-penasco.com! I'd love to hear them and, with permission, post them for others.

SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE ON THE VAQUITA MARINA: If you have even a passing interest in the Sea of Cortez, take ten minutes out of your day and read this article, and be sure to check out their slideshow as well.

NY TIMES ON THE VAQUITA MARINA: 02/18/2007 - And now, the NY Times chimes in , with Vaquita Porpoise, and a Way of Life, Face Extinction

GOLFO DE SANTA CLARA, Mexico — The fishermen gathered in the early evening light where the desert meets the blue gulf to talk over the way they had always lived off the sea and the fate of a small, endangered porpoise few of them had ever seen. Environmentalists from the United States and Mexico had begged the fishermen to stop using the gill nets that are killing off La Vaquita, or the little cow, a porpoise that now has the dubious distinction of being one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world...