When I first arrived here, Porto Montenegro was in its infancy. However, due to a consortium of investors including Lord Jacob Rothschild, Bernard Arnault and Canadian businessman and philanthropist Peter Munk having the foresight to see the opportunity of creating a world-class marina to meet the growing demand for yacht berths and waterfront property around the Mediterranean, it has now grown to be a world-class, platinum award-winning residential marina development.
As one of the fastest-growing tourism hotspots in the Mediterranean, Montenegro is attracting increasing attention from international investors, with most of the larger luxury real estate developments happening on the coast. For example, as well as Porto Montenegro, we have Portonovi further down the harbour financed by Azerbaijani investors, and Lustica Bay on the coast founded by Orascom, a Swiss-Egyptian development. In addition to these major new developments, there’s a lot of smaller developments being built as well, adding to the overall regeneration of the country’s tourism industry.
The Porto Montenegro site started as a huge Austro-Hungarian naval base in 1889, and became a Yugoslav shipyard after the Second World War, then continued as a shipyard through the break up of Yugoslavia to what is now Montenegro. When the developers arrived here there were lots of shipyard facilities such as warehouses, docks and cranes, plus around 60 naval vessels left in the port, which all had to be moved to make space for what we have here now.
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Located on the edge of the town of Tivat in the Bay of Kotor, we’re very keen to work with the local community on sustainability and environmental issues. Indeed, the shipyard created some environmental problems that have now been taken care of by this development. For example, water contamination has been removed, the land has been regenerated with mountain plants and trees, and we've created jobs for over 450 local people.
Today, we currently have around 450 berths in the marina, and can accommodate yachts of up to 250 metres, which means we can accommodate the biggest yachts being built at the moment. In 2010 there was only one residential development here, but since then we’ve built six major residential areas, plus the five-star Regent Hotel, and we've just launched Regent Pool Club Residences, so now it’s like a village in itself.
The 62 one-, two- and three-bedroom Pool Club residences were designed by world-renowned architects WATG, who worked with Tino Zervudachi and his team at MHZ in Paris to create the interiors, which are decorated in very natural tones to complement the warm climate and waterfront setting. Every residence has a private balcony or terrace as well as access to an elevated 3,000sq metre pool deck, and there are penthouses available with spectacular views and their own pool.
It's a great investment opportunity for buyers, as if they’re not living here permanently they can rent their apartment out, as there are no shortage of rental requirements. In addition, they also have a lovely place to stay if they want a holiday, or live here on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. The Residences benefit from the services and facilities of the Regent Hotel, and agreements can be made with the hotel so that if residents aren't using their apartments, the apartment can be rented as part of the hotel. Indeed, around two-thirds of the Regent Hotel is actually private apartments.
It’s extremely safe and sheltered around the Bay of Kotor and sailing conditions are ideal, as there’s just the right amount of wind. We have an amazing yacht club here, which caters for both experienced and first-time sailors. For those who don’t have their own boats, we have a fleet of smaller sailing yachts such as Blue 26s, Picos, Tofinou 9.5s and J/70s that our members can use. We also have a sailing school with a great team of instructors, so our guests can learn how to sail once they are here.
Away from the coastline, Montenegro is also incredibly beautiful and unspoilt, with mountains, high pasture areas, glacial lakes and wildlife reserves, plus if you’re coming from the UK or northern Europe, it has a much more pleasant climate. We have very short winters and long summers, from March to November, and through the summer there are direct flights from London Gatwick and Manchester to Tivat airport, just a few minutes drive from Porto Montenegro.
We’re very excited about the future here, as Montenegro's status as an emerging high-end tourist destination continues to grow.
JOHN STEPHENS first arrived in Porto Montenegro and the UNESCO-protected Boka Bay in 2010, because he needed to refuel his boat. Seven years later, he still hasn't left, and works across project planning and sales management for new developments; portomontenegro.com / regenthotels.com/regent-portomontenegro
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