Puerto Rico has authorized construction of a new $2 billion luxury development in the southwest region of the island despite environmentalist outcry over the strain it will put on resources and wildlife.
Escencia, as the project is called, will occupy 2,000 acres in Cabo Rojo along the coast. The development will include 500 luxury hotel rooms, 1,200 private residences, two golf courses, an equestrian center, a school from kindergarten to 12th grade and a 24/7 medical center and more.
According to a statement from global investment firm Reuben Brothers and the real estate development company, Three Rules Capital, more than 75% of the project will be dedicated to conservation and green space, including restoring roughly 33 acres of wetlands and rehabilitating coastal dunes and mangrove ecosystems. The development will also be powered by renewable energy and have its own water and energy infrastructure.
So far Mandarin Oriental and Rosewood Hotels & Resorts have joined the project.
Environmental groups decried the authorization.
“Citizen participation is not a favor granted by an agency; it is a fundamental principle of due process and an indispensable guarantee when our natural resources, water, communities, and the future of the municipality are at stake,” the Defend Cabo Rojo Coalition said in a statement to the Associated Press.
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