A US $30.5 million (515 million peso) hotel-and-residence project has been proposed for Bahía de Banderas in Nayarit, on Mexico's Pacific coast near the Punta de Mita and Nuevo Vallarta resort corridor. The scheme, dubbed Ocean II and put forward by BM/5096 Business Trust, was published in the Environment Ministry's Ecological Gazette on August 20 — meaning nothing gets built until it clears an Environmental Impact Assessment.
If approved, the development would cover about 65,453 square metres, spread across private land, reclaimed seabed and a slice of the Federal Maritime-Terrestrial Zone, with access from Paseo de los Cocoteros Avenue. The hotel side would bring 187 rooms across five towers of five to 10 storeys on the Palapar Lot within the Los Flamingos Master Condominium. Next door, six residential towers would hold 275 apartments, with basement parking for 784 cars.
The amenity list is long: restaurants, a spa, gym, beach club, event hall, shops, pools and more than 25,000 square metres of green space. The developers say construction would run in phases starting March 2027, wrapping up around 2033 — a seven-year build, so don't expect to book a room here anytime soon.
The timing is notable. This stretch of Nayarit coastline has seen real friction between development and conservation. The beaches are a nesting habitat for the olive ridley sea turtle, and in July the Environment Ministry revoked the federal concession for a luxury project at Punta de Mita after finding unauthorised construction and environmental violations by the developer Cantiles de Mita.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has also weighed in, announcing during a weekend visit to Nayarit a new Master Plan meant to conserve beaches, guarantee free public access and protect biodiversity along the entire state coastline. "We don't want the mangroves destroyed or all the beaches privatized," she said, noting she had been working with the state governor on the tourism plan for over a year.
For travellers, the takeaway is mixed. Bahía de Banderas remains one of Mexico's most attractive Pacific bases — calm swimming beaches, easy access to Puerto Vallarta's airport, and day trips to turtle-nesting beaches, surf towns like Sayulita and San Pancho, and the Marietas Islands. Ocean II would eventually add another large-scale option to the area's hotel stock, though the environmental review, ongoing regulatory scrutiny and Sheinbaum's conservation push could reshape or even sink the project. If you're eyeing Nayarit for the next few years, existing resorts and boutique stays remain the way to go — and the public-beach access guarantees being promised are worth watching, since they'll affect exactly which stretches of sand anyone can actually enjoy.
Story reported by Mexico News Daily Travel.