Mérida, Yucatán — It was over five years ago when we first heard of a massive project — a micro-city, actually — just south of the Periférico.
The factory along the Prolongación Montejo is now a memory. Now, there is rebar and fences festooned with flashy banners with vague messages in English: “Work,” “Live,” “Enjoy,” “Fashion,” “Where Life Begins.”
The slogans don’t do justice to the ambitious projects rising behind those fences:
Via Montejo is Yucatán’s largest ongoing development. comprising six office buildings and six luxury condo towers. Three-bedroom units are selling for under $200,000 USD, and two towers are already sold out.
An upper-end retail mall, possibly anchored with a department store, will face one of two artificial lakes. Parkland is integrated throughout. The U.S. Consulate will be stationed at Via Montejo, according to its advertising.
The developer, Inmobilia, also built Country Towers and the Yucatán Country Club.
Driving by, it is hard to detect a flurry of activity, but developers insist that there’s more going on than what we can see from the street. They have hired 800 construction workers to build “the most modern and sustainable micro city in Mérida.” But so far they have been mainly underground, building foundations and parking.
The priority now is the retail section — the Harbor Mall. Four cranes and 50 trucks have completed 36 percent of the construction, according to the Inmobilia project manager, architect Alberto Miranda Gallardo. The Harbor is on track to open as soon as February 2018.
Just beginning is work on the artificial lake and park. The entire project could take 10 years, according to Sipse.
“I think that is a record sale of resort rooms in this city,” he told Diario. “Here it is demonstrated the confidence that people have in Mérida and Yucatán.”
A traffic plan to accommodate residents, shoppers and workers is before the State Board of Roads.
