New 22-room hotel.(PUERTO RICO)

0 Comments | Caribbean Update, July, 2009

New Zealand entrepreneurs Simon Baeyertz and Marina Kucina are preparing to break ground on their new hotel in Esperanza, Vieques, reports Caribbean Business (May 28, 2009). El Blok, a 22-room boutique hotel, will be Puerto Rico's latest LEED-certified hotel featuring a design by the architectural firm Fuster & Partners.

LEED is the acronym for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, a Green Building Rating System developed by the US Green Building Council. Baeyertz and Kucina will invest an initial US$5 million, with financing support from R-G, to develop the property that will also generate 20 jobs once fully operational. "This is a dream come true for us," said Baeyertz, a retired entrepreneur who has traveled around the world but decided Vieques was the...