For us, the
most visible abandoned project is the Unik Hotel (unique). It is situated on the main road on the south-western
side of the island. That’s the property
I, for a few years, jokingly referred to as my
future employer, with imaginary plans to be the general manager. Eventually, I realized the hotel was not going
to be finished anytime in my working lifetime, so darn it all, I just had to
retire.
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| Unik Hotel 75 luxury suites with a personal butler |
The Unik
Hotel was originally designed as seventy-five luxury suites, each with a personal butler. And then the worldwide financial
crisis of 2008 happened, and that dream went up in smoke. Inside are five hydraulic elevators still in
their crates, waiting to be installed. A
local businessman has in his storage facility the large screen televisions
purchased for the hotel in 2008. The
televisions are a little rusty and corroded after five years of sitting, but
the creditors won’t make the decision to toss them out. From the water, the property looks
amazing. It would be such an asset to
the island if the hotel is eventually completed.
Updated: opened as Impression Isla Mujeres by Secrets in 2023.
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| Unfinished condo project on Playa Media Luna |
Another
unfinished and very visible project is on Playa Media Luna, the northeastern
area of the island. This project progressed
as far as opening the display suite and selling a few condos before the
finances bottomed out. The location is
stunning, facing a crescent-shaped beach and the multi-hued waters. This beach is a favourite place for sea
turtles to lay eggs and a great spot to watch the release of thousands of baby
turtles in September and October.
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| Pretty home for pigeons |
But the one
that intrigues me the most is the blue and yellow-hued Moroccan-influenced building
that sits across from Oscar’s Pizza on the western side of the island. On our first trip to Isla in 2002, the colours
and design of the building caught my eye. Designed to be an apartment complex, its current occupants are hundreds
of pigeons nesting inside the domed structure; cooing, and courting. Every year, the paint fades a little more, not
catching my eye as readily as it once did. The complex was started by a local man who had done well in the Mexican
lottery. Perhaps lottery-mania caught
up to this dream.
There is
always hope, hope that some or all of these projects will be finished. Sometimes one person’s difficulties can be
another person’s opportunity.
Lynda and Lawrie
Murder. Mayhem. Revenge. Romance.
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