Grasp this chance of a truly unique opportunity to become an owner of a rare, amazingly beautiful, prime beach front location property overlooking the Caribbean Sea and at the same time becoming an entrepreneur of a well-established, flourishing small business. HOME | bajamar (bajamarbelize.com). Contact for more photos: [email protected]
The business consists of a boutique vacation property. The home is situated on the picturesque island of Ambergris Caye in Belize better known as San Pedro, which is the principal town of the island, or through the Madonna song: “La Isla, Bonita”. The vacation home offers pretty much the same services as a boutique hotel or guesthouse.The property is situated 5 miles north of San Pedro on a piece of land, almost 1 acre in size with several structures on it:
The main building/house is principally a two story (4000 ft.² plus under roof) concrete and block construction (roof is poured concrete providing very strong, hurricane resistant protection). The local architect (Sue Courtenay) designed style is that of a plantation house with large terraces/verandas both front and rear and an upside down floor layout: on the second floor is an open, fully, equipped kitchen and living room with a view of the sea/beach/pool and two bedrooms, one of them en-suite and two bathrooms. The two bedrooms, living room and kitchen have hardwood mahogany floors. There are verandas both front and back. The rear veranda has an outside bar with sink and two beverage coolers as well as a grill and a huge long dining table with 10 chairs. At beach level the house comprises three large, separate hotel, style rooms/studios, each having a sea view. Each of the studios is equipped with a king-size bed or two twins, en-suite, bathroom, and a small kitchenette. Each of the studios has access to a terrace outfront overlooking the infinity pool and beach/sea. All bedrooms and the living room have split air-conditioners and ceiling fans. The high end finishes throughput the house have a tasteful Caribbean flair: interior furnishings are made of local hardwoods and exterior furnishings of almost indestructible and long lasting composite (made locally by Hummingbird Furnishings, Belmopan). There are many paintings throughout the house from local and Caribbean artists.
A third story sun-deck partially covered by a retractable awning and furnished with a small round table and chairs provides an ideal, quiet hideaway and fantastic viewing platform for those amazing starlit nights that the Isla Bonita enjoys due to low light pollution in the area.
Below the house a massive rainwater cistern with a capacity in excess of 50,000 gallons, fed by rainfall from the rooves of all building structures on the property, which provides clean filtered tap-water throughout the year.
A beautifully clear, infinity edge freshwater pool (23,000 gallon capacity L-Shaped 26ft by 20ft), which was fully refurbished in 2022 – re-tiled upper surfaces and re-applied Diamond Brite finish-completely new electronics in pool house.
Palapa: (Approx 200sq ft) Close to the pool a wonderful cool spot is made available by the presence of a thatched Palapa large enough to seat 10 people for dinner and a bar, including sink and undercounter beverage cooler.
A boat pier (dock) 126 feet long – comprising a walkway 116 feet long, 8 feet wide and an end platform, 16‘wide x 20‘ long- constructed of treated pine planks 2 inches thick fastened with high-quality, 305, stainless steel screws. The extraordinarily strong construction has stood up against occasional storms: The pine pilings have been soaked especially long in cremated copper arsenate and pile driven into the bedrock. (This quality of construction is rare even amongst the numerous docks along Ambergris’ coastline).
There is a storage and laundry building immediately behind the main building (300 square feet) built on concrete stilts with walls of treated pine framework, finished in Plycem with a corrugated metal roof. The building also includes a shower and small bathroom. The storage area is stocked with linens towels, spare mattresses, cleaning materials etc. The laundry has two washing machines and two gas dryers as well as a large sink.
The staff premises (also referred to as the cabaña) is an attractive hexagonal construction of approx. 650ft elevated on massive stilts and built of hardwoods with a plycem wall finish with a corrugated metal roof. The cabaña has a kitchen and living room / sleeping area as well as a bathroom and a separate toilet. This building is located some 150 feet to the rear of the main building in the gardens of the home.
Back-up Generator Shelter: (hardwood framework with corrugated metal roof) Four Kohler Back-up Generator 20RSL. Generator runs on butane gas and is sufficiently powerful to provide electricity (when necessary) to the whole premises apart from the ACs.
A Wellhouse (56sq ft) in the rear garden provides a supplementary water source for topping up the pool, watering the garden etc and emergency use for the house and cabaña.
The current staff comprise three people: the caretaker, Alfred, Dianie, the cleaner and cook, and Christian, who takes care of the beach, pool and garden, and generally assists the main caretaker, Alfred.
The caretaker is independent and will ensure perfect maintenance of the property renewing what needs to be renovated and replacing whatever needs replacement. He is also the perfect concierge arranging tours for guests, booking dinners at nearby restaurants and organizing the hire of golf carts for guests to travel around the island. Concerning Dianie’s services: guests may wish to take a catered holiday by asking Dianie to cook and prepare meals (or not ). Currently the business is set up to have twice weekly cleaning during the guests’ stay and a thorough cleaning at check-in and checkout.
The main garden of the property is fenced and gated and laid out at the rear of the house. It is a long strip of land going all the way to the small track on the lagoon side of the island that connects to the main road from San Pedro to the north of the island. There is a beautiful avenue of royal palm trees along the driveway to the house.
The garden has many beautiful tropical flowers, oleander and hibiscus for example, it also has local fruit trees as well as lemon and orange.
The sale not only includes absolutely all furniture and necessities for the running of the vacation home (extensively furnishing: cutlery, pots, pans, glasses, decorations, towels, laundry, washing machine and dryer etc), but also includes a number of extra items, such as five kayaks, a small Jon boat with a 15 hp engine, ideal for fishing the lagoon, as well as a golf cart (which is the main means of transport on the island).
The property and business has grown over the years from a small vacation house to a truly well-functioning business which even managed to break even during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 to 2021, in which Belize was closed for an extended period of time for the entry of foreigners.
The previous owner reinvested profits to grow the business and improve the house, to build new facilities and extend and enhance existing facilities. Now that the business is well established, all necessary investments have been made over the past 13 years so that all required facilities are now present, and enhancements have been made; it is an excellent opportunity for an investor to harvest the fruits of hard work of the previous owner and so to speak “milk the cow”.
The small business boasts an average EBITDA in normal (non-Covid) years of between USD 50-60,000 and an average occupancy rate of 60 to 70%. Annual turnover lies around 170,000 USD and has by no means been maximised. The previous owner saw the place as a passion and his own home to come and enjoy for some months per year (partly during the highest priced periods of the year, when he could’ve had guests and increased turnover/profits); weddings were hosted at no extra cost, welcome meals were offered for free to guests, and generous discounts were granted to returning guests.
In other words thus far the goal of the business was not profit maximisation but to realise and live a dream of being an owner of a truly beautiful place in the Caribbean while making some profit without having too much hassle.
The sale is for the property itself including absolutely everything, as well as the established, flourishing tourism business. The most amazing hard-working staff (we dare say in the whole of Belize) are there to help you run the place. Over the years they have become extremely knowledgeable and most appreciated by guests. The degree of their involvement can of course be adjusted to the extent needed and required by a new owner.
The previous owner has not been on the island for the last three years due to severe illness. However, with the staff on site, the business has run amazingly well.
This amazing and extraordinary opportunity of becoming an entrepreneur and owner of a dream location property in the Caribbean comes at an asking price of just US$1.7 million.