Plaza Las Americas, virtual tour

For a virtual tour of how the revamped Plaza Las Americas will look inside, visit this youtube video posted by Manavion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO402M57RcE

Getting airborne, sin topes!!

Construction of the new highway to Morelia's International Airport is plugging along as you can see. Once finished, it will take roughly 20 minutes from MLM to Morelia center.

Right now the old way winds through 2-3 towns with several topes (speed bumps) in each, taking 45 minutes by cab, depending on how daring and reckless your driver is.

These photos were taken in December 2007, near the center of Charro. I believe the highway will start at the Charro exit off of Camelinas, it will cross the old airport road just east of the airport, continuing on and connecting you to the Mexico City-Guadalajara toll road.

Three industrial parks are planned in the area, one in Zinapecuaro, not too far east of the airport, the other is an expansion of the present Ciudad Industrial on the eastern side of Morelia, and the 3rd will be a high tech center in Tres Marias, offering both lower and upper middle class wages.

Bosques Monarca

The second major player in la Nueva Morelia is Francisco Medina, a local entrpreneur with auto dealerships throughout Mexico. He is the principal owner of all the land up here near Jesus del Monte that will become Montaña Monarca. The company GICSA is the contractor behind the Paseo de Morelia mall. They are a large contractor out of Mexico City, it is rumored that Carlos Slim is behind GICSA. Paseo Morelia will be the largest mall in the GICSA system, and one of the largest in Latin America.

As stated earlier, Enrique Ramirez has his pet golf course, not to be outdone, Francisco "Paco" Medina is now constructing his up here. Below are the photos of what will become Bosques Montana CC. Keep in mind, 3-4 months ago, I was walking through these woods, they were just starting to move dirt around.

The photo at the right was taken from the highest point in the perimeter road that runs around the golf course. The brick structure in the middle (click on photo to enlarge it) is Los Corporales Salon de Fiesta. The white tower for the tech would be just outside of this photo to the left. The author´s home is in the distance in line with Los Corporales at the far tree line.

This photo was taken from the same spot, just moving left. The Tec Tower can be seen, and behind that in the distance, is the new construction for Paseo Morelia. You are looking north. The foreground sandy areas are where the golf course is.

Same vantage point, just moved the camera to the left, Golf holes in foreground, the white buildings in the distance are in the gated community of Punta Monarca. I really believe that Bosques Monarca will be the neighborhood to live in Morelia. Much more naturally scenic than Tres Marias.

Here is part of the perimeter road around the golf course. After hiking through these woods over the years, my only hope is that they will zone this community for at least 1 acre lots.

Monarch Mountain Project

This blog was created to inform my family and others interested in the new mega-development in Morelia that is being billed as the ¨New Morelia¨. It includes the Montaña Monarca project, and Ciudad Tres Marias.



These 2 major developments include many gated subdivisions with names such as Punta Monarca, Bosques Morelia, Torres Monarca, Paseo de Morelia Mall, Tres Marias Golf and Equestrian club, Bosques Montaña Golf Course, Tecnologia de Monterrey campus Morelia, UNAM cumpus Morelia, Jefferson High School, Varmond School, etc.




The photo below shows the tower in the Torres Monarca project, which is near the Tec de Monterrey. It was taken from the balcony of my bedroom, hence you can see why I have a vested interest in the Montaña Monarca Project.



I am by no means an expert on this. What I state in this blog is based on chismes (gossip), and what I have learned from forums in Spanish on the internet. I hope those that are informed of new developments in these projects will share their knowledge with me by leaving comments in either Español or English. I hope to update this with more photos as the months progress.








I took this graphic and photo off of another site. They show the small strip mall in front of the Tec de Monterrey Campus. If you drive towards Jesus del Monte out of Santa Maria in Morelia, you will come to a traffic circle. Going right at this circle will bring you to the Tec campus, further on are several developments, the Torres Montaña, and the new golf course calles Bosques Montaña. (see below)










Going around the traffic circle (left), will lead you to this dead end street. The construction for Paseo de Morelia is just to the left of this photo. This avenue will eventually be connected to the 2 tunnels (4 lanes in total) that will wind down to the intersection of Camelinas and Blvd. Sanson Flores, near the IMSS.






PASEO DE MORELIA, CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS JANUARY 2007

These photos were taken at the end of the street leading down from the traffic circle. Somewhere below these trees will be 4 lanes of traffic going through tunnels. This is a reality, tunnel construction starts any day now. It has been approved by the government, and a contractor has already gone through the solicitation process. The contractor is from a mining company in Northern Mexico, Chihuahua I believe.

This photo below shows you the view up here. The cathedral is just to the right of the construction shack, through the trees.


Entrance to mall, and beginnings of the construction. If you scroll up to the first photo with the horses. You will see the construction grading in the background. This is how the project was 2 years ago. But with the elections in the past, construction has started anew within the last few months.





Paseo Morelia is a small part of what is planned for the "Nuevo Morelia".

You have two major players in this arena. The first is Enrique Ramirez, of Organizacion Ramirez fame, his project is the Tres Marias Country club, whose course was designed by Jack Nicklaus (www.tresmarias.com.mx). It hosts a LPGA tour event every year. ¨"Ciudad Tres Marias" is currently building a highway connecting it to the airport. It is home to several schools, including the UNAM satellite campus.


Enrique wishes to construct one of the largest Convention centers in Mexico to attract corporations to locate their corporate offices here for their executives, kind of like a mini Stamford CT, I guess!

One company that is rumored to have signed on is Posadas de Mexico, this is a computer image of its proposed corporate tower to be built in Ciudad Tres Marias.







Of course, Organization Ramiriz also owns Plaza Las Americas, which is getting a facelift. I have driven by those boarded up construction site, but did not realize the extent to the cosmetic surgery to be performed. Below are some computer renditions of the design and photos of what is going on behind those fences. It surprised me.