Margarita´s Cruise Ship of Call, the best combination of Port Call, Marina and Market Place, with a large choice of restaurants and cafes, exclusive boutiques, jewelry and duty free shops, international shopping and tourist facialties by the sea.
This PORT has been conceived and designed as part of a strategy to rehabilitate and revitalize one of the most abandoned and blighted areas of the City of Porlamar: Its Waterfront... The PORT is Margarita Island’s Cruise Ship Port of Call. It is a comprehensive, sustainable and innovating, long-range Development.
This PORT introduces a new concept for Cruise Ship Ports of Call. It is at
the same time a Port, a “Welcoming Stage” for cruise passengers and a
secure, comfortable and attractive “Meeting Place” of leisure, recreation,
shopping and culture, for the international, national and local tourist. It is
Destination in a Destination.
The PLAN we proposed calls for a different strategy: to bring back the
life to the core of the City by creating an invigorating new energy thru
the cruise passengers arriving right in the place where more needed. The
Strategy includes the construction of a “Costanera” Avenue, a Waterfront
Promenade running along the seafront, providing access to excluded and
populated low income sectors of the city, new land for social and tourist
development and the creation of a direct access to the City: a landscaped
and urban designed promenade through its waterfront.
The PORT has been though out as a CITADEL. Located right at the heart
of Porlamar Waterfront, just at the beginning of the main pedestrian Boul
evard of the City, at only five blocks away from Plaza Bolívar, the most important public space and Ceremonial Square in Porlamar. The City downtown is a very dense Duty Free Port retail area that has being suffering from a progressive social, economic and environmental decline intensified from the moment new suburban Shopping Malls sprung out taking away the “City Energy” from its own downtown and seafront.
Most important, the Port is not just a transportation terminal, is much
more than a port. The Port is part of the City and directly connected to it.
In this new Port, cruise passengers will arrive at the heart of the City and
find a nice and convenient environment where to stroll, shop, enjoy tra
ditionaldances, or have a nice time in any of the cafes, restaurants and bars located around the main plaza and the waterfront.
They will get the first impression and a feeling of the local culture, traditions and tastes. Locals will enjoy as well of the new urban waterfront experience, the emerald blue waters of the Caribbean bay and the view of the spectacular cruise ships anchored one mile off the seafront while mingling with the arriving tourists, sharing the welcoming experience, the energy and happiness they radiate. Both tourist and visitors will enjoy the direct connection to the City downtown and reinvigorate the pedestrian and shopping activity along the Boulevards.
The Port is conceived as a tourist destination and includes in this first
phase, a Shopping Centre, a Gastronomic Plaza, an Amphitheatre and
soon a Marina. This new concept will create a new flow of people, right
in the area of the City which is most abandoned. With time, and gradually, the
cruise passengers will enter the City through the pedestrian boulevards to shops along and to visit the Plaza Bolivar. Indeed, just the presence of cruise ships anchored in the Bay will immediately start a positive reaction in the close by retailers, many of which are already renovating their store fronts and inventories. This strategy includes constant support the Port provides to the Municipality, which holds 25% ownership, in terms of planning, urban design and architecture.