With a re-elected intendente (governor), a proposed new port, five-star hotel, and bridge over Laguna Garzón, it seems that Rocha, the department situated on the Eastern coast of Uruguay, is about to take off.

Palm trees and sand dunes, fishing towns, and natural preserves—Rocha is a throwback to a time when the land was minimally adorned, and the people did everything a little slower. It is also a department historically plagued by unrealized projects: fish plants that are advertised, but fail; ports that are proposed, but do not materialize; a half-built bridge that has sat for several decades unfinished. But this is all changing—poco a poco, Rocha is heating up.

The reelected governor Artigas Barrios will not make drastic changes for his second term., rather he will continue to focus on the three sectors that are the lifeblood of Rocha: tourism, fishing, and international trade. He will finish the paving of department streets, and work to finish the bus terminals in Rocha, Punta del Diablo, and Chuy. But more than any other project, Barrios is very committed to completing the Port of La Paloma, which he sees as fundamentally important for Rocha, as it will provide access to international trade routes.

Barrios is not alone in his support of the port. Newly elected Uruguayan President, José Mujica will seek regional support for the development of a deepwater port in Rocha department in an effort to facilitate financing for the project, an official from the presidential office recently told BNamericas. The project would require an estimated US$1bn investment, and was originally submitted to Uruguayan authorities by the Spanish firm Benel in 2007. The port was partly designed to serve a US$2bn pulp mill that Portuguese pulp and paper firm Portucel Soporcel is reportedly considering building in Uruguay.

In addition, the Swedish-Finnish firm Stora Enso, in association with Chilean company Arauco, was considering building a pulp mill in Fray Bentos, near to Uruguay’s existing Botnia pulp mill. However, with current tensions between Argentina and Uruguay regarding the Botnia mill still high (Argentina claims it’s polluting the waters of the Uruguay river), Mujica expressed concern over the mill’s proposed location.

The companies then announced their decision to search for a new location for the mill, local newspaper El País reported. An analyst involved in both initiatives told BNamericas: “Now that the pulp mill will not be built in Fray Bentos, it is very likely to be built near La Paloma, where authorities and private firms have been discussing the development of a deep-water project for years.”

Another project in the works is the building of the bridge of Laguna Garzon, which until recently, was opposed by the ruling leftist party. Now however, all candidates agree on the necessity of realizing the project, which will act as a coastal interface to connect Rocha and Maldonado.

There is also talk of a new five-star hotel and casino for the department. As of now, Maldonado (the department where Punta del Este and Jose Ignacio are located) is known as the more luxurious of the two tourist destinations. Locals in Rocha are saying it’s now time to change that preconception. A luxury beach resort is what they think will do the trick, and they believe the state needs to make it happen. There is also a proposed four-star hotel in the border town of Chuy, home to a Duty Free locale. The parent company of the store, Duty Free America is planning on investing US$20 million to expand their area of operation from 600 square meters to 6,000 square meters.

Given the high number of tourists who visit Chuy, the Panamanian subsidiary (who runs DFA in Uruguay) is evaluating a proposal by Uruguayan representatives for the construction of a new four-star hotel in the city. It would include 25 rooms and would be run by a Brazilian hotel chain. Andrew Mendelsohn, director of DFA to Uruguay, told the newspaper El Empresario that “there are few hotels in the area so the proposed option could be a good opportunity.”

With so much movement happening in Rocha, it’s no wonder it’s making headlines. And as one of the four best real estate opportunities in the world right now (according to Ronan McMahon, Executive Director of Pathfinder International), the coast of Rocha is worth exploring for your next investment. McMahon stated that the region presents an unbeatable combination of natural beauty, security, and affordability.

In 2012 the Jockey Club will reopen as the 5-star Pestana Montevideo Hotel. Pestana plans to spend $20 million on restoring the building to its original greatness, while updating it with modern amenities. The facade is mostly in tact and will be cleaned and illuminated. Restored marble columns, bronzed window frames, and art deco interiors will be paired with the latest in technology. Brazilian architect Jaime Morais is in charge of the restoration.

In addition to restoring the building, Pestana will also open a street-level restaurant that they hope will become the “in-place” to grab a drink or share a brunch. Montevideo is almost entirely lacking brunch options, so expats and locals alike will surely be pleased with the addition. The hotel will have 100 hotel rooms, a spa, a pool, a gym, and various conference rooms. Target clients are tourists and corporate visitors, making the Pestana a rival to local hotels like the Sherton and the Melia, both in the Punta Carretas neighborhood.

However, the difference is the character and rich historical value that comes with the Pestana. The remodel will surely spur similar new projects along 18 de Julio, one of Montevideo’s primary thoroughfares. The street is lined with a montage of architecture: art deco gems contrast with seventies-style modernist blocks and big chains like McDonald’s. According to the El Pais article, changing the aesthetic of 18 de Julio, beginning with Plaza Independencia and moving toward Ejido, is a priority for the city government. This implies not only remodels but also working together with business owners, street peddlers, and trash collectors to ensure safe and orderly sidewalks.

In similar news, Sofitel Luxury Hotels acquired the Casino Carrasco Hotel in Montevideo after signing a management contract with Carrasco Nobile S/A. The building sits at the shore of the Carrasco neighborhood but has long been abandoned. However, the building still turns heads. Or at least mine. Its grand re-opening is slated for 2011. The newly restored hotel will offer 116 rooms, a 450-seat conference centre, a lobby bar, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a gym, and a casino. In addition, it will host a French restaurant, 1921, which is the date of the hotel’s original completion.

Both projects imply millions of dollars of investment. However, they do serve as a large-scale model for investment opportunities in Uruguayan real estate. A potential expat could think to do a similar, albeit smaller, remodel. For example, on a recent weekend visit to La Pedrera, Uruguay, my friends and I found a house for sale perched perfectly on a hill, overlooking the sea. We agreed it would make an incredible bed and breakfast. It was agreeable in size and cozier than neighboring options. The view could also not be beat.

With tourism on the rise, investing in real estate in Uruguay is a great option. Remodeling a property into a hotel or hostel could provide an expat with full-time, part-time, or project-based work.

While we could plan a trip for ourselves, we decided we would like someone else to do it for us. There are a lot of travel agencies and tour companies in Uruguay. There is a fine one right here in Atlantida, where we live. However, we decided to try Geant Travel, an adjunct of the large Geant supermarket.

Why Geant? Well, I guess it’s advertising mostly. Over the past few months there have been a couple of television ads featured repeatedly. In one of them, a pleasant middle-aged travel agent approaches a hotel seeking a good rate for his clients, an anxious but enthusiastic family, who are standing in the background. After much friendly negotiating with the hotel manager, he procures the lodging for a fraction of the quoted price. In the other commercial, the same agent negotiates successfully with an airline. The commercials are humorous while effectively presenting the message that Geant can get you the best deal. This message sounded good to us.

We checked the offerings posted on their Internet site and found one that appealed to us a lot. It is a ten-day bus trip to the region around Salta in northern Argentina. You spend two nights on the bus, which has seats appropriate for sleeping and excellent services including meals, and seven nights in hotels. The hotels, which we also checked online are all fine quality and include breakfast. Your other meals while not on the bus are extra. The tour package was an amazing $614 per person. We quickly made the decision that this was the tour for us and went to the office where Pamela, a most pleasant agent, made the booking and accepted our deposit of $200. The receipt promises el precio mas bajo para viajar, the lowest price for travel. For this trip for sure, that is true. By the way, making the commitment early is also a good idea. The package cost now, closer to the departure date, has risen to $675 per person. Still a great deal, but we like our deal better.

We were excited about our plans and soon shared them with another expat couple living in Atlantida. They were so impressed that they immediately booked to come on the same tour. We are happy to enjoy the experience with friends. We can hardly wait until the departure date, near the end of March.

If the trip works out as well as advertised, we just might try one of their other offerings, like a nice package tour to tropical Brazil in July, as an escape from part of the cool Uruguayan winter. Our holiday escape of the moment, however, will be Argentina.

Easy access to interesting neighboring countries like Argentina or Brazil or Chile or Bolivia is just one of the many wonderful things about life in Uruguay.

The Uruguayan government has put in place a number of incentives to encourage local and foreign investors to put money into certain industries, and tourism is one of them.

In 2008, 1.75 million tourists visited Uruguay, an increase of 12% on the year before. And already figures for 2009 show an increase compared to the same time period last year. Tourism is an important growing industry in Uruguay, and the government knows it.

Incentives for tourism
To sustain and develop investment in the industry, the govenment is giving tax breaks for tourism projects that offer lodgings—including hotels, apart-hotels, hostels, and resorts among others—and to tourism-related projects that offer cultural, commercial, sports, recreational, entertainment, and health service facilities.

What does this mean for you? Well if you do set up a hotel or guesthouse, your project will be exempt from corporate income tax, and capital and asset tax for ten years. And you will benefit from tax exemptions on the purchase or importation of fixed assets for equipping or refurbishment of equipment. Exemptions also extend to the acquisition of goods and services for construction or improvement of the project.

If you do decide to take this route, or to take advantage of any of the tax breaks available in Uruguay, we would encourage you to get some professional advice. Fischer & Schickendantz Attorneys is one of Uruguay´s leading law and foreign investment advice firms, based in Uruguay’s capital Montevideo.

Fischer & Schickendantz—Uruguayinvest Foreign Investment Advisors, (Managing Partner Juan Federico Fischer), Rincón 487, Piso 4, Montevideo 11000, Uruguay; tel. (+598)2-915-7468 ext. 130; cell (+598) 99 925-106; fax (+598) 2 916-1352; e-mail: jfischer@fs.com.uy; website: www.fs.com.uy.

Cultural Incentives Fund
In March of this year, the government announced the launch of a new cultural incentives fund, put in place to encourage artistic and cultural projects in all corners of the country and sections of society. Businesses who make a donations to this fund will be able to offset their contribution on their tax bill.

Donations can be made to a general fund, a fund for individual sectors, or to one of the funds set up for specific projects. You can download the application form here (website in Spanish).

For more contact Cultural Incentive Funds, Juan C. Gomez 1276, 11100, Montevideo, Uruguay; tel. 916-98-16; e-mail form here; website: www.fondos deincentivocultural.gub.uy.

Other industries that the Uruguay government offers tax incentives for include forestry, agri-business, and fishing. We’ll be covering these tax breaks in future issues.

Carlos Páez Vilaró was born in the capital city of Montevideo, on November 1st, 1923. His artistic vocation led him to travel the world and visit the biggest cities, until he came back to Uruguay during the 1940’s to composecandombe music, the African-Western rhythms that were popular in the country.

His art allowed him to travel the world painting, composing, and sculpting. Of all his many creations, Casapueblo was his biggest most prominent sculpture in which it was possible to live, paint, and host the friends he made in life and on his travels.

The workshop and museum of Casapueblo is open year round and visited by thousands of tourists from all over the world. The house was donated by Páez Vilaró to encourage an interest in his creations accomplished throughout his successful life. Conferences, presentations of books, and events related to culture take place in its many rooms.

Casapueblo is a unique piece of construction, which, at first sight, has not respected any previous molds or outlines, but followed the ideas of a genius to shape a sculpture and dwell in it.

According to the chronicles written inside Casapueblo, Carlos Páez Vilaró, without being an architect, was inspired by the ovenbirds and the countrymen who rely on adobe to build their houses. As a result of the sea, the Mediterranean style was inevitable, with its wide white balconies looking onto the horizon, the dawn, and its seagulls.

The guest who once said that Casapueblo was “the Uruguayan Greece” was right. He just happened to forget something: Up there, at the highest dome of this unique marvel, once lived a wise and young artist called Carlos Páez Vilaró, who was the creator of a mythology with sea and jungle creatures as well as people from the Carnival and from all the cities in the world. They have inhabited this incredible place for years.

The information in this article has been reproduced here with the permission of www.welcomeuruguay.com.

Editor’s note: These properties are provided here to give you a guide of the type of real estate on offer. They were listed as for sale at the time of publication.

A Winery at Canelones
With a half million bottle capacity yearly, this winery, located in Canelones, just outside Montevideo provides a great opportunity for anyone who fancies themselves as a bit if a vigneron. The two-acre property includes a commercial winery comprising 382,000 liters of tanks and a small house with two rooms and a bathroom. The asking price is US$98,000. An additional 12 acres of land adjacent to the winery can be purchased for a further US$60,000. For more see http://www.viviun.com/AD-62540.

Largest Private Casino/Hotel Resort In South America
Located in Punta Del Este, this property (445 acres in size) consists of more than 74 acres of pristine beachfront, and over 370 acres behind main road.

The property consists of:

• A 120,000-square-foot private casino
• A 40-story hotel tower with 680 ocean view rooms
• Three 30-story apartment towers
• A 40-story tower, holding 80 luxury condos and a private beach.
• The largest convention center in South America
• An 18-hole golf course 
• Polo fields
• Multi-purpose stadium
• Helipad

The property is just 10 minutes from the international airport, downtown Punta Del Este, and many well know tourist attractions. It’s listed at 
http://www.viviun.com/AD-8969.

Ocean-View Apart Hotel With Leased Restaurant
This seven-story terrace building with operating restaurant is situated in a prime location in Pocitos, one of the most elegant quarters of Montevideo, and 200 yards from the best beach of the city. It is also near shopping centers, the World Trade Center, the yachting club, and the golf club.

The ground-floor restaurant covers 1,200 square feet and seats 60 inside and 40 outside in the sidewalk cafe. The property is fully equipped and is currently leased for about US$1,200 per month (US$14,000 per year). The current tenant has 3-1/2 years left on the contract. The restaurant was recently renovated with two new bathrooms.

Apartment highlights include open fireplaces, balconies, terraces, outdoor barbecues, and an ocean view from each floor—although the only really good views are from the top three floors. This property is listed at $350,000. For more see: http://www.viviun.com/AD-124689.

Three Star Hotel For Sale In Punta Del Este
With a perfect location just above the marina, around the corner from the lighthouse, and two blocks away from the beach (Playa de los Ingleses) and Avenida Gorlero (the main shopping drag), this three-star hotel is listed at US$900,000. The property comprises:

• A spacious reception area
• 48 rooms with private bathroom
• Equipped cafeteria with snack bar, 
• A meeting room for 60 people
• Ten indoor parking places
• Two lifts

For more see http://www.viviun.com/AD-1662.