Mexico Is City-Building – Creating a Deep-Water Port and New City at Punta Colonet

Oct. 6, 2008 - PRLog -- The Government of Mexico is committing $5 Billion dollars to transform a sleepy seaside town on Mexico’s Baja California into one of the world’s busiest shipping centers, providing once-in-a-lifetime business opportunities for U.S. and international investors.

The window for submission of construction bids was just extended to January 26, 2009, to allow foreign bidders time to sort out the current global financial mess. The government’s Secretariat of Comunicaciones (SCT) says 61 companies have already indicated their intention to bid, guaranteeing that this mega-project will go forward. Officials of the Secretariat have recently traveled to Singapore, Paris, Japan and other global investment centers to promote interest in the project.

In just 3-5 years, Megapuerto De Punta Colonet, or the Megaport of Punta Colonet, will handle six million containers a year – twice the total number handled in all of Mexico in 2007. Volume is expected to triple within 15 years. Most of the freight will arrive from Asia, destined for the United States.

A thriving city of 200,000 will spring up from sand and farmland, with all the housing, commerce, roads, schools and infrastructure needed to accommodate a surging population. Eighty-thousand workers will be employed just by the port itself.

Total near-term investment could exceed $12 billion dollars, according to some estimates, to build and maintain the port, city, new rail line to the U.S., airport(s), highways, industrial parks, residential areas, hotels and more.

Initial port work will include development of a deep harbor with 10 docks and four cranes per dock. Phase two will double that capacity.

Punta Colonet, 150 miles south of San Diego, will be the terminus of a vital new rail connection to U.S. freight transfer cities, possibly including Yuma, Arizona or El Paso, Texas. The new route will allow trains to avoid congested tracks in Southern California.

The bold project, championed by Mexico president Felipe Calderon, is urgently needed to relieve chronic freight bottlenecks at the United States’ largest ports, Long Beach and Los Angeles, California. Once built, Punta Colonet will compete directly with those operations. (California’s freight dominance is also being challenged by expansion of Canada's northern Prince Rupert Port and a $5 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, which will speed Asian freight to Miami, Atlanta and other southeastern U.S. cities.)

Facility construction costs will be borne by the private companies that will operate the Punta Colonet megaport. Mexico is committing nearly $50 billion a year in public/private funds until 2012 to build the comprehensive infrastructure the new city will require. Calderon sees the investment as a good way to offset the U.S. economy’s dramatic slowdown.

Bidding on port facilities opened August 28, 2008. Bids were expected from Empresas ICA SAB, the country's largest construction company, billionaire Carlos Slim’s Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina SAB and the building unit of Grupo Mexico SAB. The winning bidder will receive a 45-year concession to operate the port and rail line.

The Mexican government is currently negotiating with railroads, to resolve routing issues, and with Mexican mining group GML, to settle certain land ownership disputes. With so much at stake for both Mexico and the U.S., all obstacles are likely to be overcome in short order.

For those businesses eager to capitalize on the extraordinary commercial opportunities of the Punta Colonet project, valuable domains (web addresses) like MegapuertoDePuntaColonet.com, PuntaColonetProperties.com, PuntaColonetJobs.com and PuntaColonetHomes.com are available for purchase, at those addresses. Business opportunities will abound in nearby communities as well, due to the overflow of new residents, significant improvements to Highway 1 (that connects Punta Colonet to the U.S.), and radically higher standards of living. Domains like RanchoCepeda.com and RanchoSanRefugio.com are likely to attract a good deal of interest. More info at PuntaColonetInfo.com.

Vast fortunes will be made as Mexico creates a metropolis on its Western shore.