Ritz-Carlton Reserve to Open Boutique Resort in Puerto Rico

Ritz-Carlton Reserve to Open Boutique Resort in Puerto Rico
By Gay Nagle Myers (Travel Weekly)

Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, will open in Puerto Rico in December 2012 as Ritz-Carlton's second Reserve, joining Phulay Bay on the Thai island of Krabi, which opened in December 2009.

Molasses Reef in West Caicos, Turks and Caicos was to have been the first Reserve, but it hit the wall when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. The resort was 75% complete when work was halted, and it remains on hold.

According to Ritz-Carlton, the Reserve brand features "one-of-a-kind boutique resorts positioned in unique settings."

"It's a departure in size and scope from Ritz-Carlton's current portfolio of 76 worldwide properties, and the brand rounds out our offerings for our guests," said Clayton Ruebensaal, vice president of marketing. "The Reserve brand offers a new level of luxury and service for leisure travelers in small, secluded, environmentally sensitive resorts and hideaways for urban-oriented guests," he said.

Dorado already has name recognition. In 1958, hotelier Laurance S. Rockefeller introduced the beachfront Dorado Beach Hotel and Golf Club on the grounds of a former 1,400-acre grapefruit and coconut plantation.

Dorado Beach Hotel was one of the three Caribbean properties that early on made up the RockResorts brand, Rockefeller's resort management company, which was sold years later to the railroad company CSX and later acquired by Vail Resorts in 2001.

Now Ritz-Carlton is reconstructing Rockefeller's original resort, "guided by his vision of combining contemporary design, local culture, sustainability and barefoot sophistication," according to Christensen.