Grupo Puntacana

Grupo Puntacana (officially Grupo Puntacana S.A.) is a private Dominican business conglomerate, dedicated to sustainable tourism founded in 1969. It is a pioneer in the development of the destination and a real estate community in Punta Cana.
==History==
In 1969, a group of American investors purchased 30 square miles of undeveloped land in eastern Dominican Republic, covered in jungle and six miles of beach. They were soon joined by a group of local investors, led by Dominican businessman Frank Rainieri and American Theodore W. Kheel, who had a vision of developing the area for tourism purposes. In 1970, Rainieri changed the original name of the place from Yauya or Punta Borrachos, a name that was not very attractive for tourist or commercial purposes, to Punta Cana.
Under the direction of Frank Rainieri and Theodore W. Kheel, the Compañía de Desarrollo Turístico Residencial e Industrial S.A. (CODETREISA), today Grupo Puntacana, began developing the property in 1971, building the first hotel in the region, called "Punta Cana Club", with ten rooms and apartments, with capacity for forty people, a club house, a small villa for the staff, a power station and a small airfield. There were no terminals or landing strips; it was simply flat land.
The only problem was that the area was very isolated from the rest of the Dominican Republic. In addition, many more people began to vacation in Punta Cana and more and more small cabins were built. Since there were no roads, nor Ports, the only way to get to Punta Cana was by plane. In the late 1970s, a road was built to connect the area to the capital of the La Altagracia Province, Higüey. Tourists from various countries began to arrive. They had to go through the Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo and then take a short flight in a small plane to Punta Cana. The runway itself had major problems, such as having a very short runway and not yet having a terminal. This meant that passengers would disembark and be directed to a road to be picked up and transported to the hotel, which was inconvenient. Grupo Puntacana knew that it needed a serious airport. In late 1974, Grupo Puntacana began planning for the first private international airport. However, the local government disapproved of the new airport. After eight full years of talks with the province, a contract was signed to begin construction of the new airport. The airport would be built where the old runway was located. Planning for the airport began in early 1981. Oscar Imbert (son of General Antonio Imbert Barrera) The terminal building was designed with palm leaves on the roof and stones from the nearby jungle on the walls. For the columns they used eucalyptus trunks and built them in the Taino and Arawak styles. In 1978, the Club Méditerranée joined the Grupo Puntacana S.A. project, building a 350-room hotel within the scope of the project. Later, Grupo Barceló and Newco established themselves in the Bávaro area. In 1979 they built the Punta Cana Hotel, followed by the construction of the new airport which began in early 1982 and the small airstrip had to close. To make up for the loss a small concrete runway was transformed into a temporary airport. This runway would be transformed into a landing strip when the airport opened. Since the terminal was small and did not require much work, the terminal was completed in less than four months. The runway and apron took a long time because there were not many workers involved in building the airport. The area was cordoned off which deterred many construction workers from attempting to build the airport. However, after eight years of trying to convince the government and two more years of construction, the Punta Cana International Airport began operating on December 17, 1983. 
In 1997, Rainieri and Kheel established a partnership with Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias to begin work on the Punta Cana Marina and real estate development in the region. All “public” services in the area are private: electricity network and production, drinking water network, wastewater and treatment, road networks and highways, security, schools and access to healthcare.
The area managed by the group extends from Punta Cana in the south to Uvero Alto, before an area of unbuildable lagoons.
Category:Companies established in 1969
Category:Companies of the Dominican Republic
Category:Conglomerate companies