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ESCAPE TO ECUADOR

The planned Puerto Santa Ana aspires to be a tourist hot spot

By María Bird Picó

Step aside Saint-Tropez. Make way Miami. Ecuador is developing a $100 million coastal resort. Guayaquil, Ecuador, is home to one of the most ambitious mixed-use developments in the region, a riverfront revitalization project at the base of the El Carmen and Santa Ana hills.

It is not yet finished, but the site will soon be spotted from miles away, thanks to a Hollywood-style, strut-mounted sign on the side of the 260-foot-high Cerro Santa Ana that will read “Puerto Santa Ana.” Guayaquil, nestled on the Guayas River and home to the country’s main port, is Ecuador’s most populous city, with 2.5 million residents.

Once the entire 49-acre project is completed in 2010, the area will be a small, bustling town within a city, with plazas, a convention center, apartment buildings, hotels, stores, galleries, restaurants, museums and a variety of entertainment options. City officials expect 100,000 visitors daily. The various components of the project carry different names, but the revitalization effort overall is generally referred to as Puerto Santa Ana. One of the main attractions is the area known as Malecón 2000, in honor of its curving breakwater and boardwalk (malecón is Spanish for pier or jetty), which also provides a sheltered marina. Also up and running is the Malecón 2000 Shopping Center, consisting of 238 stores and 17 restaurants fronting the Guayas River.

The entire Puerto Santa Ana project has been divided into three zones — south, center and north — which are in various stages of completion. The center sector, consisting of Plaza Cívica, opened in late 1999.

The master plan is under the supervision of Fundación Malecón 2000, a nonprofit public-private entity. Baltimore-based Development Design Group was one of the design consultants on the master plan. Fundación Malecón executes the work contracts awarded by Fundación Guayaquil Siglo XXI (that is, 21st century), the municipal government arm overseeing the beautification of Guayaquil.

“The idea is to create a town center that faces the water and that blends in with Guayaquil’s vernacular architecture,” said Guillermo López, vice president of Development Design.

Part of the site once housed Cervecería Nacional, a Pilsener brewery, in the Barrio Las Peñas neighborhood. The task now at hand is the preservation of three of the brewery’s original buildings while tearing down the other structures, which are dilapidated, says Wilfrido Matamoros, manager of Fundación Guayaquil.

Some $5 million worth of infrastructure work is under way on the former brewery site, on top of the $14 million the city has already spent to prepare the site and build the breakwater, parks and plazas.

Puerto Santa Ana will boast 136,000 square feet of entertainment and retail, as well as two museums: the Julio Jaramillo Museum (honoring a local composer and singer) and a beer museum.

The municipality has set aside $10 million for 2006 to complete the refurbishing of the three preserved buildings and the laying down of infrastructure for the additional stages, says Matamoros. Then it will auction off land parcels for the development of apartment buildings, offices and retail.

“There is keen interest from developers and retailers who are well aware of the impact the area is going to have on the city of Guayaquil,” Matamoros said.

As befits the concept of a town center, the apartment buildings will have retail space on the ground level. The brick-and-cobble-paved avenue along the waterfront will boast galleries, studios and over 75,000 square feet of cafés, restaurants and street-level retailers. Topping this off will be 142 residential lofts and 7,500 square feet of offices. A second phase calls for a 250-room hotel and a television station.

The backdrop is Cerro Santa Ana, a 33-acre hill peppered with hundreds of homes accommodating 4,105 residents. A 456-step stairway works its way up the hill, flanked by street lamps, restaurants, cafés, shops and art galleries, all painted in bright colors. The bohemian ambience attracts tourists and local residents. At the top of the hill are La Plaza Mirador El Fortín, which features a lighthouse, the Plaza de Honores, the Santa Ana Chapel, the Open Museum and a police station.

The restoration of Cerro Santa Ana, starting in 2001, was one of the first steps in the city’s re-emergence. The cerro is now a key tourist attraction of Guayaquil.

The mixed-use project is but one part of Guayaquil’s overall revitalization. So far this year Fundación Guayaquil has spent $30 million on 19 beautification projects in the city, 10 of them completed in July alone, says Matamoros. The deadline for the other nine is next month. These projects include the paving of roads and the painting of buildings, as well as assistance to residents for improvements to the facades of their homes.

To fund the projects, the Guayaquil government assigns 10 percent of its annual public works budget to Fundación Guayaquil. “We are not only beautifying the city, but also following up with maintenance,” said Matamaros.

Guayaquil is currently the springboard port for tourists embarking on excursions to nearby beaches, the Galápagos Islands, and Machu Picchu, in Perú. An airport is being built only five minutes from Puerto Santa Ana.

But as Puerto Santa Ana takes shape, those tourists may start finding it harder and harder to leave for those other resorts.