Archive for the 'construction' Category

Some good news from DeVere!

admin June 15th, 2008

A quick update to let you know that DeVere have posted added a new page to their website here.

This is great news for owners at Roda Golf and Beach Resort, some of whom were starting to get concerned that the De Vere Hotel development had “stalled”. Here at Roda Golf Info we prefer to look on the “bright side”. So we are very happy that De Vere have once again reaffirmed their commitment to the Roda Golf Hotel. Here’s the full text they recently added to their website:


We are proud to announce that De Vere has signed a contract with the Calidona Group to manage Roda Golf and Beach Resort, a 140 bedroom hotel, spa, beach club and 18-hole golf course in the Murcia Region of Spain. Located in a natural setting close to the famous Mar Menor, this golfer’s paradise offers an excellent year round climate and easy access to miles of Mediterranean beaches.

At the resort guests can indulge in a range of activities including swimming, tennis and, of course, golf. Nearby, one can try a range of activities including sailing, water skiing and trekking. Or why not step out in to the local area and discover medieval villages, explore fertile valleys or simply indulge in a spot of retail therapy.

Construction of the hotel will commence later this year and the hotel is expected to open in the summer of 2010. Start practising your swing now.

Stop Press! Roda Beach Club gets an official opening date!

admin June 13th, 2008

Work under way at the Beach Club last April! - Click to enlarge
Work under way at the Beach Club last April! - Click to enlarge

Great news “straight from the top” today! We can now inform everyone that the Roda Golf Beach Club will be opening in “mid July”. The last time we were at the Roda Golf Beach Club was at the end of April, and we could see then how the work was cracking on. Well, not it’s very nearly time to enjoy all that work…from the side of the pool with a cold beer!

We’ll get back over to the club as soon as we can to update the pictures we can offer. And you can be sure we’ll be there the day it opens to take some pictures for you, just like we did the day the Roda Clubhouse opened! No rest for us, but then Calida International Properties are sponsoring us to bring you the latest information. Perhaps they’ll buy us that beer too? :)

See you all soon in the Roda Beach Club!

See the changes on Phase 4!

admin June 3rd, 2008

When we did our first full photo report back in March (Roda Golf full report - March) we took a picture “over the fence” showing the Phase 4 villa properties, which were in a very early state of development. It was nice to see when we returned for our latest full report (Roda Golf full report - May) that things had progressed considerably! You can easily see all the latest changes to the properties in the two images below.

We’ll be back in Roda later this month with our photographer, providing you with another full update. Where would you like to see covered in detail next time?

Roda Golf and Beach Resort - Phase 4 (After)
Roda Golf and Beach Resort - Phase 4 (Before)

De Vere Hotel Construction & massive photo of site

admin May 1st, 2008

roda_de_vere_construction_site_sm.jpg

Click the image above, or here ,to download the massive format (3000 pixels wide! - just 494k)

Barry Geoghegan recently asked “When will construction begin on Hotel and why has it been delayed. Has it been decided to cancel plans for the hotel?” We passed that comment on to Stuart at Calida International Properties who had this to say:

“The plan for the De Vere 5 star hotel at Roda Golf and Beach Resort has certainly not been cancelled! De Vere are very much committed to this, their very first project outside of the UK.

There has been much talk and speculation about the local politics, and the town hall officials, and it is true that there has been lots of upheaval in the San Javier and Los Alcazares town councils.

The reason for the delays are, as usual, the building licenses. It really is a “chore” trying to get the building licenses and permissions for the various projects within the Roda Golf and Beach Resort. This is the only reason for the delays.

Work will be commencing on the De Vere hotel and the commercial centre very soon, we do not have an exact date, however watch this space, once work has been commenced, the building really does proceed at a considerable pace.

Stick with it Barry, it will happen.”

Visit and full report - Roda Golf Beach Club

admin April 29th, 2008

Work going on! A lot of it! -  Click to enlarge
Work going on! A lot of it! - Click to enlarge

Photo gallery is below this report! Hover over it for controls, click it for descriptions. Or go straight to the Flickr set for high resolution views!

We have had a large number of requests for this report, with updated pictures from our regular visitors, who are growing increasingly fed up with the negative posts on a few “independent” forums out there about the beach club at Roda Golf.

We visited the Roda Golf beach club on Friday 25th April and were very pleasantly surprised at the amount of work that has currently been completed, also the amount of work under construction, there were about 25 men working. Only a couple had decided it was too hot and were enjoying what looked like a well earned “siesta” under one of the beautiful palm trees!

The Roda Golf and Beach Resort beach club is progressing nicely, the location is fantastic, for those of you who have not been lucky enough to visit the area, you are in for a very pleasant surprise.

There was a massive amount of work to be done but due to owner pressure, the beach club was opened last year with a very limited service, it looked nice and was a pleasant alternative to the local beaches in Los Alcazares. However, for it to be considered a 5 star beach club, which is what you all want, the building needed to be taken back to the bare structure, well that has happened in the closed season.

You must also remember that now that the new clubhouse has been completed and opened, with huge success I might add, (see our roda golf clubhouse post here) there are more men available for work on the beach club.

There has been lots of new steel added, as well as a new floor for the upstairs. A number of internal walls have been removed, and all the area outside has been cleared. There are lots of building materials laying around, however they will all be used in due course.

The beaches have been swept and all the beach debris has been removed, we actually watched a couple of trucks taking it away whilst we were there.

The Beach Club pool - Neglected...for now! -  Click to enlarge
The Beach Club pool - Neglected...for now! - Click to enlarge

The swimming pool has clearly been neglected, obviously as nobody has been using it for about 10 months, it looks like nobody has cleaned it in that time either, this pool will take just a week or 2 at most to be restored to it’s former glory, but it has the potential to be spectacular, what with it being only 40 paces to the Mediterranean sea from the pool!

The gardens again have the potential to be superb, it is a massive area with loads of room to simply lounge around and relax whilst you decide, “is it the pool or the sea”? Not a bad choice, we call that a “win win” situation! :)

We were lucky enough to meet some new owners who had just purchased this week, they were checking out the location and the planned facilities for the first time, Matt and Rachel and their 14 week old daughter Macy from Porthcawl, South Wales. They absolutely loved the place! Matt, who own his own magazine, “Seaside News“, commented that even though the place was a mess, he could see the potential for one of the nicest facilities he has ever seen.

Matt who loves to surf, and has travelled the world in pursuit of that elusive monster wave said, “the peace and quiet here, and the natural beauty of this area is just fantastic and we can’t wait to use the beach club”.

Nice one Matt, thanks for your time. We hope you and the family had a safe trip home.

In our opinion, this beach club is going to be awesome. We have always felt that, and if the new Roda Golf clubhouse is anything to go by, I think we will be right. The planned opening is the last week of June, which is when all the water parks in the area open, so nothing strange there. Be patient and get ready to be wowed, because even though there have been considerable delays, Calidona so far are exceeding everybody’s expectations with the finished product.

We hope you enjoy these most up to date photos of the beach club, please feel free to leave a comment or request any further information.

Look out for our next news item coming soon, and remember, you can click the gallery for descriptions of each photo!

Phase 4 delays - Advice from the experts

admin April 10th, 2008

Another interesting comment from our sponsors at Calida International Properties, this time they are addressing the delays at Phase 4 which are concerning many of our readers:

We are constantly being asked “what are the reasons for the delays on phase 4 at Roda Golf?”

Phase 4 - April 2008 - Click to enlarge
Phase 4 - April 2008 - Click to enlarge

It is so very frustrating, particularly for those owners on Roda Golf Phase 4, but of course it does affect everybody, including the developer, nobody wants to “crack on” more than the developers themselves! Luckily the answer is extremely simple.

I appreciate you all think that this is just an excuse, however the truth of the matter is that town hall bureaucracy is responsible. For those of you who live in Spain or have purchased in Spain before, you will know all about this subject. It is so painfully slow waiting for the local council or town hall officials to take responsibility and simply issue the licences. That is the problem in a “nutshell” - nothing more sinister than that, so for all you conspiracy theorists out there, please relax (easier said than done) there are some great updated pictures of phase 4 coming in our imminent “April - Full Report” article. These new, and very detailed photos taken from the course, show that there has been progress, but we appreciate not enough, so please watch this space, as soon as we have news we will advise you.

Phase 4 construction

admin March 11th, 2008

During our visit to the site last week we noticed a little more construction occurring on Phase 4. The front line villas are coming along quite nicely, but the apartments have not progressed as much as we would have hoped.

Phase 4 construction - Click to enlarge
Phase 4 construction - Click to enlarge

Full report and gallery from our latest visit on 5th March ‘08!

admin March 7th, 2008

Here’s a gallery of pictures that we took when we were on the site this week. Please just hover over the gallery area to access the controls, and if you click a picture a detailed description will appear! If you want to see any of these images in super large sizes and with detailed descriptions, then please head over to our Flickr page here. Our full report is below the gallery. Happy reading!


Introduction

We visited Roda Golf resort on March 5th 2008, we were very impressed with the resort generally, we are aware that the are delays and that there are snagging issues, also that individual owners have a number of concerns that are unique to them, however for our first report on this new information site, we are going to be informative, positive, honest and generally upbeat, I think that is what most of you would prefer, so here goes.

Main Entrance

Our first impression of the main entrance, the Roda sign and the general appearance was very positive, very clean looking, very neat and tidy, lot’s of people wandering around, plenty of golfers and of course the sales office was busy, which is a good thing, as was the golf course, not a bad start, all in all.

Phase 1

Phase 1 looks great, all the plants have really started to mature, the communal gardens and pool area’s look just wonderful, we don’t think it looks great with the “for sale” or “se vende” signs on the outside of the houses and apartments, the same goes for the “for rent” signs, owners are unlikely to attract any interest from signs on the properties, there are so many websites advertising sales, also so many agents out there, the only people to benefit is free advertising for agency’s who probably sold the property in the first place, with the promise of sell before completion, I also think these owners are in breach of community rules, we would advise you check on this.

Overall phase 1 is looking great and as we stated earlier, we are aware that there are some outstanding issues, these will be raised in later reports.

Phase 2

Again, we were very impressed with the progress, most properties have now been handed over and communal area’s and swimming pools looked great, by the end of the summer, lot’s more green area’s and the plants and shrubs will have grown and phase 2 will be beautiful.

We took some pictures at the end of phase 2, next to the proposed phase 5 location, there are some great photo’s and a panorama shot which we think looks great, the owners over there have some free advertising for their communal area and apartments, should tempt potential renters.

Steven Devadics and Kevin Nicholson from Newcastle, both have apartments in this area and they absolutely love them, they are both enjoying rental success and they only completed just before christmas, these 2 characters can regularly be seen playing darts in “Henry’s bar” in the 525 plaza.

Generally phase 2 is completed, just some remedial work on the gardens and the obligatory snagging, but very impressed.

Phase 3

This phase is very exciting, simply because it has taken so long to get to this point, it is very spacious and the whole phase lends itself to outdoors living with lot’s of rest and relaxation, which I am quite certain you all deserve very much.

We have concentrated on this phase, simply because the other 2 phases have been around for a while and you have all seen the existing batch of updated photo’s which regularly find they way on to your own individual websites or the “eye on Spain” site, the difference between this site and the “eye on Spain” site, is that this is purely for Roda Golf owners and their guests, this site is here for you folks to enjoy and have your say!

The apartment blocks on phase 3 are very well spaced out with fantastic views of the golf course from most apartments, particularly the first floor and of course the penthouse apartments.

Part A of phase 3 is currently being handed over to owners and the ones we have spoken to are very happy, Steve and Nikki Sutton of Bridgend, South Wales were “over the moon” with their first floor apartment, they are due to complete any day, the snagging revealed no real problems and they can not wait to move in, good luck folks, enjoy your new home.

There are some unique properties on this phase, the “second line” semi-detached, 3 bedroom “finca” villa’s looked fantastic, we really like these properties and the communal area’s and walkways between these properties and the apartments were an absolute joy to walk through.

There is still some way to go, but after a comprehensive walk through phase 3, part A, we feel that by the end of the summer, this part of the Roda Golf resort will look fantastic, a lot more railings have been used over on phase 3, we have noticed that a lot of you would prefer that, it would appear that the developer is listening to you folks, particularly with the more constructive and balanced suggestions.

Overall, phase 3 is going to be superb, looks great, but will be fantastic, phase 3 part B still some way off, possibly by the end of the year, maybe sooner?

Possible downside of phase 3, furthest away from all amenities, no access across the golf course, get yourselves a golf buggy for travelling around resort, about 3,000 euros for a really nice one.

Phase 4

I know a lot of you are very frustrated about the lack of progress over on phase 4, we have taken just one picture here, you can clearly see that considerable work has been started on the villa’s, no work on the apartments, building licenses still not in place, however as soon as we hear anything we will post on this site.

All the excavatition work has been done for the apartment blocks, all infrastructure is in place, lot’s of play area’s for the kids, all roads, pavements and walking area’s completed, phase 4 will invariably be stunning, be patient folks, stick with it, I know you are getting fed up, it will be superb.

Golf Course

The golf course is fantastic, so much harder than we all thought it woiuld be, but still friendly enough for the high handicap golfer, there is a celeb / am event being proposed for Sept / Oct this year, we will keep you informed as we get the final details.

A number of professional events have already taken place here, not on the professional PGA tour of course, but still high profile events, which are starting to get the Roda Golf Resort the reputation you all want it to have

When playing the course, you should all respect other players, call players through at all times if you are a bit slow and respect the etiquette at all times, replace all divots and don’t forget to repair pitch marks, this is your course remember, also all the very best of luck on the par 3, 7th hole to an island green, the Dave Thomas signature hole is brilliant, but with the wind, it can be a real test and don’t forget to have a go for the 18th green in 2, but carry spare balls in case!!

New Clubhouse

We took plenty of pictures here, this is the nicest golf clubhouse I think I have ever seen, the facilities are fantatsic, the views, the furnishings, all top quality and beautifully laid out, when this clubhouse opens, you will all agree it has been worth the wait, the propsed opening for the new De Vere Roda Clubhouse is still March sometime, please watch this space.

The new PGA academy is now open, again fantastic facilities, beautiful training bays and the driving range is floodlit, you will enjoy this folks, full prices available on this website and Roda Golf’s own site, also full info available in the pro shop.

I hope you enjoy reading these comments and observations, whilst we have tried to be impartial and simply be informative, it was difficult not to offer opinions, we think Roda Golf and Beach Resort is fantastic, there are problems, but nothing too major and we believe that this will be one of the nicest golf and beach resorts in Europe.

Please feel free to offer any comments, please be gentle with us, we are doing this for your benefit, we are not associated with the developer or De Vere in any way.

As soon as we have more information, we will post straight away, you can also help us with any information.

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