Puntacana Resort and Club
| Puntacana Resort & Club | |
|---|---|
| File:Puntacana-logo.gif | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Punta Cana, Dominican Republic |
| Opening | 1969 |
| Owner | Frank Rainieri |
| Design and construction | |
| Developer | Frank Rainieri, Ted Kheel |
| Website | |
| Puntacana.com | |
Puntacana Resort & Club is a resort and residential community located in Punta Cana, La Altagracia Province, Dominican Republic; established in 1969 by businessman and hotelier Frank Rainieri and Theodore W. Kheel, a New York attorney and labor mediator. The area now encompasses 26 square miles (67 km2), and includes Tortuga Bay hotel, The Puntacana Hotel, a Six Senses Spa, an ecological reserve, four residential communities, several restaurants, two 18-hole golf courses and the Punta Cana International Airport.[1]
History and Development
In 1969, Frank Rainieri and Theodore Kheel[2] acquired a 58-million square meter lot on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, which was covered with jungle.[3] Their first project was a 40 guest hotel called the Punta Cana Club.
In 1987, they constructed The Puntacana Hotel. In 2006, Tortuga Bay opened, a boutique hotel designed by fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. Tortuga Bay is a Leading Small Hotel of the World and a member of Virtuoso.
Corporate and social responsibilities and policies have been pursued since the resort was built. They opened two schools and a health clinic in the community and have plans to build a new town center, school and hospital.[4][5]
Amenities/Facilities
- The Puntacana Hotel: It has 160 rooms and 21 beach casitas. The hotel was completely refurbished in October 2009. [6]
- Tortuga Bay: A small boutique hotel, made up of 15 villas on the beach which are designed by Oscar de la Renta.
- Six Senses Spa:The spa uses medicinal plants from the area in some of it’s treatments.[7] The spa has eight indoor private treatment rooms and outdoors palapas overlooking the beach.[8]
- Real Estate: Tortuga Bay, Corales, Hacienda and Arrecife make up the resort’s real estate communities, known collectively as The Estates. Residents include Oscar de la Renta, Julio Iglesias and Mikhail Baryshnikov.[9][10]
- Golf: The resort has two golf courses: La Cana (designed by P.B. Dye) and Corales (designed by Tom Fazio). A third golf course , Hacienda, is scheduled to open in 2011.
Puntacana Foundation: Social Projects
The Puntacana Foundation’s Social Projects office focuses on promoting and assisting in the sustainable human development of local education, health care, culture, sports and community organization of the underserved in and around the Punta Cana region of the Dominican Republic through a variety of activities, projects and collaborations.[11][12]
It has collaborated with development-focused entities such as Save The Children, USAID, the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM), the Punta Cana Rotary Club, La Altagracia Tourism Cluster, the Punta Cana Hotels Association, Universidad APEC, Instituto Ciencias Visuales de España, the Dominican Government's Ministries of Health and of Culture, the Verón Municipality, the United States Chamber of Commerce, Pack For a Purpose and others, and is part of both the Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations Global Compact communities.
- ^ Robb Report Vacation Homes. "Dominican Republic", December 2007. "Indeed, Rainieri’s 15,00-acrea residential complex will be, when fully actualized, a microcosm of the region, containing-in addition to three miles of sandy beach—its own international airport, a 288-room resort, a horse ranch, a nature sanctuary, a 72-par golf course, and a dozen or so restaurants and bars."
- ^ Entrée Magazine. "Tortuga Bay", Holiday, 2009. "The resort was the vision of American labor lawyer Ted Kheel and a spirited, young Dominican named Frank Rainieri."
- ^ Airways Magazine. "Punta Cana Airport: From Jungle to Caribbean Showpiece", May 2009. "Late in the Sixties, Frank Rainieri and Ted Kheel, along with other investors, bought a large parcel of land, for what was then the bargain price of $200,000 at the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, which occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, itself part of the Greater Antilles archipelago."
- ^ Condé Nast Traveler. "World Savers Awards: Education", September 2009. "To keep up with the growth, it built a well-equipped high school, where the staff’s offspring study alongside the CEO’s grandchildren."
- ^ Austin Monthly. "Mother Nature's Getaway", April 2009. "They invested in the local economy: building schools, a hospital and a police station and establishing the now world renowned ecological foundation, which proved their commitment to protect the environment."
- ^ Travel Weekly. “Ecofriendly Puntacana finishes $2M refurb in time for winter.” November 2, 2009. “The 186-room Puntacana hotel, tucked within the Puntacana Resort complex on the east coast of the Dominican Republic, completed a $2 million refurbishment of its accommodations this fall in time for the upcoming winter season.”
- ^ American Spa. "Caribbean Heat", April 2009. "In addition to featuring ESPA products, Six Senses Spa collaborated with the PUNTACANA Ecological Foundation to incorporate medicinal plants from the area into a series of treatments."
- ^ Condé Nast Traveler. "Hot List", May 2007. "Among these 19,000 square feet of tasteful Asian-accented serenity at the Punta Cana Resort and Club, the real standouts are the two large private treatment rooms on the beach, each with a palapa-style roof and its own bath."
- ^ Elite Traveler. "Owning a Caribbean Paradise", May/June, 2008. "Who lives here: Oscar de la Renta, Julio Iglesias and prominent European and American businessmen and their families."
- ^ T:The New York Times Style Magazine. "Hotel Happenings", Winter, 2008. "On the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, Puntacana Resort and Club has been attracting famous guests and residents like Oscar de la Renta, Julio Iglesias and Mikhail Baryshnikov since it opened in 1978."
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Established in August 1998, one of the Puntacana Foundation’s Social Projects' current areas of action is with the Ann & Ted Kheel Polytechnic School in Verón. The school was built by the Foundation in 2004, is the only public high school within 50 miles of the Punta Cana International Airport, and teaches technical and adult education classes such as hospitality, English language, computer applications, refrigeration, electricity, plumbing.[1][2] The school is said to be an “…outstanding contribution to the development of the Eastern region.”[3] The Puntacana International School in Punta Cana- a modern, bilingual, private school for Puntacana Resort and Club’s employees’ children- was built and is managed and maintained by the Foundation. The Foundation also assists and manages the procurement of school-related item donations (such as sports equipment and classroom paraphernalia), the maintenance and upgrading of various Punta Cana region public schools and the education and training of public school teachers,[1][2] as well as student educational workshops. [4]
The Verón Rural Clinic, renovated in 2006 in cooperation with the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and the Dominican Ministry of Health, is a free public health clinic with an average of 150 patients per day. The Clinic has a laboratory, examination rooms, a sonographic machine, an ambulance and a separate pediatric unit[1][5]. The Foundation is also involved with improving the health education of local doctors and the community, supporting and managing health care activities such as VCOM’s medical missions[6] and free ophthalmological exams and surgeries during certain times of the year. [2]
The Foundation promotes local artists through the Puntacana Art Gallery[2], cultural festivals such as the Puntacana Carnival[7], a yearly symphonic orchestra and choir concert,[8] a softball and baseball field in Véron and a basketball and volleyball court at the Ann & Ted Kheel Polytechnic School. [2]
The Ecological Foundation
The Puntacana Ecological Foundation started in 1988. It includes an ‘iguanatorium’, organic vegetable gardens, etymology exhibits and a medicinal plant garden. The Foundation also hosts groups from universities like Virginia Tech, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Miami to conduct research and educational programs.[9]
For 2010, their goals include putting into place an integrated coastal management plan, land development and continuing to expand their educational programs. [10]
Punta Cana International Airport
The Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ), located just 5 minutes from the Resort, is the second busiest airport in the Caribbean. Owned and operated by Grupo PUNTACANA, it continues to expand, and added a new terminal which opened in January 2009. [11]
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DT4was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Stratos. "Communities Go Green", February 2008. "The resort has its own nature reserve and operates programs with Harvard and Cornell university’s on site."
- ^ Prestige New York. “Welcome to Paradise”, Holiday 2009. “Jake Kheel says some of the ecological foundation’s goals for 2010 include the implementation of an integrated coastal management plan for boaters and fisherman, land development that improves water quality of the coastal area and expanding environmental education programs.”
- ^ Airways Magazine. “Punta Cana Airport: From Jungle to Caribbean Showpiece" May 2009. “Fewer than 3,000 travelers arrived at Punta Cana International Airport the first year, but by 1998 the number had risen to almost a million, and in 2008 1.8 million passengers passed through PUJ-making it the second busiest airport in the Caribbean. Spurred by such phenomenal growth, PUJ-owned and operated by resort developer Grupo Puntacana- has continued to expand, with Terminal B unveiled in January this year.”
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