SOL Melia is developing a resort in the Dominican Republic which it claims will be the one of the largest in the Caribbean.
The 500,000sq metre Palma Real Villas Golf and Country Club will house four luxury hotels, a large shopping and leisure complex and a 27-hole golf course.
The resort will be located alongside Bavaro Beach, 15mins from the Punta Cana International Airport. It is being developed as part of a strategic alliance with Dominican company Remax Metropolitana.
The first hotel, the Melia Tropical, is already operating and the second, the Melia Caribe, will open at the end of this year. The latter will include a convention centre for up to 1,000 people.
Two more properties will open in 2000, while the golf course will open in November and will include a golf academy and social club.
Sol Melia already had four hotels in the Dominican Republic – the Melia Bavaro Resort, the Paradisus Punta Cana, the Melia Santa Domingo and the Melia Juan Dolio.