Mexico Rejects Luxury Development on Sea Turtle Nesting Beach North of Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) has denied authorization for the Playa 35 luxury condominium project planned for Playa Paraiso, a sea turtle nesting beach north of Playa del Carmen, after more than a year of review.

The project, promoted by developer DK del Caribe, called for 44 luxury apartments. Local residents had protested and demanded a halt to construction, warning that the development threatened not only the turtle nesting site but also the area’s rich flora and fauna.

The Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) had already shut down the project in 2024 after discovering it had obtained municipal construction permits under the previous administration of Lili Campos Miranda.

In an attempt to regularize the project, the developer submitted an Environmental Impact Statement to Semarnat’s General Directorate of Environmental Impact and Risk (DGIRA) in May 2025. The agency began its analysis the following month.

This week, Semarnat published its decision in the official Ecological Gazette, ruling the project unviable. According to the resolution in file 23QR2025TD029, the agency concluded that the authorization was not warranted because the project failed to comply with several criteria of the local Ecological Zoning Program for the municipality of Solidaridad (now Playa del Carmen).

The resolution also noted that the environmental impact assessment incorrectly evaluated impacts and therefore failed to establish adequate mitigation or compensation measures.

The luxury units had been listed for sale on real estate portals such as Maya Ocean Real Estate and Select Riviera Maya Real Estate, with prices ranging from $332,000 to $462,000.