El Fonatur asked the ejido of Bacalar to incorporate 1,000 hectares into the urban real estate project that accompanies the Mayan Train, in addition to another 6 hectares for the construction of the railway station.
The National Tourism Development Fund (Fonatur) asked the Bacalar ejido to incorporate 1,000 hectares into the urban real estate project that accompanies the Mayan Train, in addition to another 6 hectares for the construction of the railway station.
Luis Chimal Balam, ejido commissioner of Bacalar, said that since the last meeting with Rogelio Jiménez Pons, director of Fonatur, more than a month ago, the negotiations are stagnant, since the ejidal assembly will not authorize incorporating such a large surface to the project without having the certainty that there will be an economic benefit for the ejidatarios.
In a separate interview, Jiménez Pons confirmed that there is a proposal to incorporate 1,000 hectares of the Bacalar ejido to the Mayan Train, but it is not about expropriations, but about association with the ejidatarios so that they rent their land to eventual investors of real estate projects they plan to detonate around the railway station, he said.
The incorporation scheme that Fonatur proposes to ejidatarios is the investment and real estate trust, a figure used to encourage investment in real estate by placing Real Estate Trust Stock Certificates in the Mexican Stock Exchange, he said.
This model seeks to take advantage of the expertise of Fonatur in the generation of projects, which will be put to the consideration of the rating agencies to prove their profitability, “and at that time launch them to the market to acquire the capital to develop the proposals”, even considering using retirement funds, which have also raised their hands to participate, he said.
Source: The Economist / Jesús Vázquez / Oct 24, 2019