The La Paz Gold Cup 2008 Black & Blue Marlin Sportfishing Competition is coming up in just a few days. This event is in his second year and we are proud to announce to be part of this sport fishing competition as a supporting sponsor.

Our subdivision, NewTek Construction Solutions, a longtime La Paz “resident” is happy to support the Beneficiaries of this great southern Baja sporting event. Ciudad de los ninos y ninas de La Paz and the Rotary Club. The first annual La Paz Gold Cup created over $1,500,000 Mexican Pesos in Prize Money and the La Paz Prosthetic Clinic was the the beneficiary of all net proceeds. The Rotary Club is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas

Category “A”

• Black & Blue Marlin (200 lbs. minimum)
• *A 2008 PICK UP TRUCK for largest fish over 400 pounds


Category “B”


• Catch & Release Black, Blue & Striped Marlin

ENTRY FEE: $7,500 Pesos per team 1 to 4 Anglers ($2,000 pesos per Additional Angler)

A map of the fishing grounds can be found here to view.

Even with all of the recent market upheaval, bad news, adjustments, panic and fear, there is good news!
I find it interesting that we speak to developers every week who have gone to this site and looked at properties and emailed us or called asking about development possibilities, some have come to La Paz, others are planning to come soon….so there is good news out there! It is good news for La Paz and for Baja Sur in general. There is money out there that is ready to be spent, yes…. people are cautious…as they should be, but at the same time, money is not worth much sitting in a bank account accumulating interest…it has to go to work… and those investors who see that this is also a time of opportunity are going to be rewarded in the future.

The European markets are also spending time looking over what we have. There is already a great deal of money invested in Baja and La Paz, and the East Cape and more investment money from the European markets is going to flow into Baja Sur developers compare the cost of beach front properties in La Paz, to other areas of the world. At least three times a week we receive a call from an investor, inquiring about the area, and the prices per square meter. Right now it is an exceptional value; no one will argue that point. The troubled times that we are going through now, will turn around. We have been here before when the dot com bubble burst, we lived through that down turn, we will live through this one as well.
Those investors that can see this as an opportunity, are cautious, do their homework and due diligence, invest now, will see the price of their real estate increase substantially as we bounce back from this speed bump!

The nation’s buildings have traditionally been built around sustainable principles. But developers are investing in more sophisticated green tech, too. When KMD Architects was recently tapped to design a new ecofriendly headquarters for the Cinepolis cinema chain in Morelia, Mexico, the San Francisco-based firm joined a growing number of architects making their green mark south of the border. Mexican buildings have traditionally incorporated sustainable principles, including using local materials such as naturally insulating adobe, and using courtyards with fountains to cool indoor spaces. Recently, sophisticated green technologies—photovoltaic cells and on-site waste treatment—began working their way into development.

Throughout Latin America, only two buildings, one of them in Mexico, are LEED certified. But the list could grow. Six Mexican projects have registered with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for LEED certification. And in 2005, Mexico founded its own green building council (MexicoGBC), the first in Latin America. “Mexico’s building and construction industry is just waking up and realizing that we are big players,” says Cesar Ulises Previno, MexicoGBC president. “We have a lot of potential to make a difference.”

Some companies decide to build green because they want to set a precedent, says Carlos Fernandez del Valle. This was the case with Cinepolis’s 162,000-square-foot headquarters. Occupying just 10 percent of a hillside site, four low-rise buildings will feature rooftop gardens, daylighting through low-emissivity glass, and ventilation from windows that open onto interior courtyards. Cal;culated estimates that operating costs will be 30 percent lower than comparable-size buildings in Mexico. Another project among the fresh green crop is a $12 million, 119,000-square-foot office building in Guadalajara designed by TEN Arquitectos. The 14-story tower features a woven steel-mesh skin that protects it from the elements and reduces the strain on heating and air-conditioning. Behind this screen, operable windows in the glazed curtain wall allow for natural ventilation.

As energy costs rise alongside concerns about climate change, Mexican businesses are realizing that sustainable development is worth the investment. But the government has yet to define standards for determining efficiency, Previno says, let alone offer incentives to developers who go green. “There are buildings here incorporating solar power, recycling water, but how can we define what falls into ‘green’ and what doesn’t if we don’t have a formal checklist?”

MexicoGBC is currently creating a LEED program tailored to the country’s needs. There are also signs that the government is showing interest in sustainable development. It tapped Alberto Kalach to design the new Biblioteca Vasconcelos public library in the capital city. Kalach’s aesthetic features plain concrete and wood, which reduce the use of paint. “When you don’t spend energy making an extravagant facade, you consume less energy building it,” he says.

With ample daylighting and an on-site water-treatment plant, the 500,000-square-foot library campus embodies both traditional Mexican approaches to green architecture and more sophisticated technologies. “There’s a lot of intrinsic knowledge in the design features of Mexican architecture and construction,” Previno observes. “We need to rescue those good values.”

Credits on this content go to Architectural Record

For those in the green building industry, the annual pilgrimage to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Greenbuild Expo starts this year on November 19th in Boston with keynote speaker Desmond Tutu. Last year over 20,000 participants from 66 countries went to network and learn about the latest innovations and best practices for sustainable building. This year a unique voluntary rating system that incorporates LEED principles but goes beyond the application of LEED to address the nationally significant natural and cultural values of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem will be unveiled.

The Yellowstone Business Partnership (YBP) has been invited to present an educational program on their Greater Yellowstone Framework for Sustainable Development (GY-Framework). YBP’s GY-Framework was designed to help the largest, intact ecosystem in America survive demands of rapid development. Taking lessons from LEED, over 80 volunteers from the YBP membership worked for nine months to develop a tool that defines sustainable development for the region. There are currently seven prerequisites and 57 credits that cover categories such as Land Use and Conservation, Biodiversity, Recreation Resources, and Public Service and Infrastructure.

The honor of being selected to present at Greenbuild is even more significant according to Mary Ann Lazarus, chair of the Greenbuild 2008 Program Committee: “This year’s selection process was the most competitive in Greenbuild history with over 1,400 proposals submitted and fewer than 100 accepted into the final program. This level of selectivity enabled the Program Committee to assemble the strongest and most robust educational program to date.”

YBP’s presence at Greenbuild 2008 will give them international exposure to their innovative rating system, showing the building industry around the world that by looking beyond the built environment, developers can help preserve the cultural and natural heritage of a region.

The YBP Greenbuild educational program will begin with Jan Brown presenting the GY-Framework, its history and a description of the eleven registered pilot projects that will test the new rating system. These pilot projects include two high schools, local and state parks, a ski resort, and several mixed use and neighborhood developments.

Kath Williams, consultant for the GY-Framework, will then conduct an interactive Q & A with three of the eleven GY-Framework developers: Teton Meadows Ranch in Jackson, WY, Story Mill Neighborhood in Bozeman, MT, and Mountainside Village, in Victor, ID. These developers were chosen to participate because they represented all three states that YBP covers and they were comparable mixed use or neighborhood projects.

For more information on the Greenbuild Expo visit www.greenbuildexpo.org. For information on the USGBC and LEED visit www.usgbc.org. For information on the Yellowstone Business Partnership visit www.yellowstonebusiness.org or call (406) 522-7809.

The Yellowstone Business Partnership is committed to applying collaborative approaches to resolving multi-state challenges. YBP works with willing businesses to help them operate more sustainably, develop responsibly, enhance regional mobility and improve cross-boundary communications. The 5th Annual Conference at Jackson Lake Lodge entitled “Connecting the DOTs: Moving People and Promise across Greater Yellowstone” began the conversation on how to develop a concept of operations for a regional transportation network.

The US Green Building Council is a non profit organization that certifies sustainable businesses, homes, hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods. USGBC is dedicated to expanding green building practices and education, and its LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™.

Credits for this contribution go in full to PRWeb