ISLAND RESORT
US LEADERSHIP
BREA, CALIFORNIA
🇺🇸
Marc E. Harris* Principal/Owner/Sole Administrator
DESTINAY S.A. de C.V.
Mr. Harris holds the controlling interest in DESTINAY, S.A. de C.V., the Mexican corporation which holds fee simple title to the 675 gross acres (272 has.) of land which comprises the most of the proposed Las Islitas resort project. The acquisition took four years to complete, as Mr. Harris assembled and acquired 78 parcels of ejido class land. The entire process took over four years, from 1994 to 1998, as the individual parcels had no formal surveys, maps, or title documents, which had to be created in order to pass title to DESTINAY.
Mr. Harris is also the General Manager of Bliss Resorts International LLC, an international real estate development, investment, and project management company. BRI is a multi-disciplinary firm with diverse expertise in public policy, land planning, real estate development, environmental engineering, and international relations and trade. Mr. Harris possesses over 40 years of hands-on, real-world business and real estate development experience.
After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in Environmental Engineering, he joined the San Francisco Bay Area real estate development firm of Parnas Corporation as a Project Analyst and Environmental Impacts Specialist, and later served as a Project & Development Analyst for Toll Brothers USA.
*Please note that Mr. Marc Edward Harris is NOT the same person who shows up in google searches as "Marc Matthew Harris", the Florida individual convicted in numerous investment and tax fraud scams in Panama.
The 15-acre Brea Plaza Shopping Center in California
Mr. Harris is perhaps best known as the developer of the 147,500 sq ft, $75 million 15-acre Brea Plaza Shopping Center in Brea, California; where he achieved the first ever lease of a County flood channel; obtaining all environmental permitting to convert a contaminated drainage slough into a parking structure with an engineered bioswale filtration and treatment facility that improved the channel's flow and water quality by 400%.
Bioswale water runoff filtration
system
Mr. Harris pictured above in one of the Panel's meetings in 1994 with then President Ernesto Zedillo (in blue)
Fluent in Spanish and Mexican culture, Mr. Harris was appointed as a Delegate to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo’s 1994 Presidential Panel on Agrarian Reform and Foreign Investment, a policy advocacy group seeking to open land development in Mexico for foreign investment. The Panel developed the protocols which were subsequently incorporated into the landmark legislation which allowed agrarian societies which were given land grants--known as "ejidos"--to vote to disincorporate their society and "sell" the aggregate of their members' parcels to foreign investors. As the ejido society only held "usofructo" or beneficial-use rights to the land, the Mexican government, as the underlying legal owner and per the provisions of the law, would process and provide the fee title to 100% of the disincorporated society's land to the foreign purchaser. In 1998, the LAS ISLITAS ISLAND RESORT property became one of the first properties in Mexico to transact under the new legislation.
Besides his Environmental Engineering Degree from Stanford, Mr. Harris also holds a Civil & Environmental Engineering degree from California State University Long Beach, as well as holding several certificate programs in Business, Economics, Real Estate Law, a Securities & Exchange Commission Series 7 License, and he is an NYSE Registered Representative and Registered Investment Advisor.
MEXICO LEADERSHIP - DESTINAY OPERATIONS
PUERTO VALLARTA, SAN BLAS & TEPIC, NAYARIT
Lic. Jose Faro Lopez
Partner/Chief Operating Officer
Lic. Jose Faro Lopez ("Faro") has been a long time resident of the town of San Blas, and is very well connected to the townspeople as well as the leadership of this warm and inviting community. He has owned and operated businesses in San Blas, and has been involved in Public Relations & tourism promotion throughout Mexico his entire life. For the past 25 years, Faro has been a trusted friend and partner in the pursuit of Mr. Harris' vision for the Las Islitas Island Resort. Faro oversees all day-to-day operations of the DESTINAY Mexico Team, including community relations, advance activities, and overall property management, including farming operations. Faro has lived in the US, and speaks perfect English. He was also a professional baseball player and pitcher in Mexico. He married with four children, resides in Puerto Vallarta and San Blas. He loves deep sea fishing and is an excellent chef.
🇲🇽
Lica. Lupita Lopez Lazaro
Executive Vice President-Administration
Lica. M. Lupita Lopez Lazaro ("Lupita") was born and raised in San Blas, and now runs the DESTINAY offices in Puerto Vallarta. Lupita is also very well connected to the people and leadership of the town of San Blas, including having grown up and gone to school with the current Mayor, Hon. Lica. Candi Yescas. Lupita attended the University of Nayarit (UAN) in the capital city of Tepic, where she earned her degree in Business Administration, as well as an advanced degree in Education from the Nayarit State Educational Institute. Lupita has worked for the past ten years for the Secretary of Education, overseeing the Nayarit state's public education system. Lupita is married and has two children.
Ernesto "Neto" Bernal has lived and worked in the Municipality of San Blas for over 40 years years, and is highly regarded by all of those in the San Blas Municipal government and the community at large. As our Public Affairs Representative and legal counsel, Lic. Bernal is an important and indispensible member of our local management team. Mr. Bernal works alongside Mr. Jose Faro and Ms. Lopez Lazaro to oversee all aspects of the property management, the supervision of all farm workers and, due to his long-time relationship with local police, also handles all security personnel and activities.
José Lorencio Rodriguez
Director General of Transportation
José Lorencio Rodriguez has been involved in automotive transportation nearly his entire life, starting out at age ten driving a tractor on his family's Mango farm in Nayarit, and then moving up to driving the family's semi trucks hauling and distributing mangoes all over Mexico. He has driven tourism buses, and has run his own taxi and private car company for the past 20 years. He is also an excellent mechanic. José's duties include fleet maintenance as well as providing safe transportation for US and Mexico company executives, partners, consultants, and investors.
​
Ernesto Bernal
Attorney/Notario and Director of Municipal Relations
PROJECT CONSULTANTS
Please fill out the form on the CONTACT page and more detailed information will be provided to you.
NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: THE PROPERTY OWNER AND PRINCIPAL, MARC HARRIS, HAS NEVER BEEN, AND IS NOT NOW IN ANY WAY ASSOCIATED WITH ANY ENTITIES OR PERSONS REPRESENTING ITSELF AS "LAS ISLITAS RESORT" AND/OR "LAS ISLITAS ISLAND PARTNERS". IN MAY OF 2018, MR. HARRIS, AS THE TWENTY-YEAR SOLE OWNER OF THE OVER 600-ACRE VALUABLE LAS ISLITAS PROPERTY, ENTERED INTO AN ARMS-LENGTH, NON-EXCLUSIVE "FINDERS FEE" RELATIONSHIP WITH DAVID SEMAS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SEMAS INTRODUCING A QUALIFIED INVESTOR OR CAPITAL PARTNER WHICH WOULD PROVIDE THE FINANCING NEEDED TO DEVELOP THE LAS ISLITAS TOURISM PROJECT. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, SEMAS THEN FORMED LAS ISLITAS ISLAND PARTNERS (LASIP), A NEVADA LLC, AS HIS SOLE OPERATING ENTITY, AND PROMISED TO ARRANGE AN INITIAL MINIMUM FUNDING OF $10 MILLION BY APRIL 20, 2018 AND ULTIMATELY $50 - $75 MILLION FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ALL OF THE PROJECT INFRASTRUCTURE. IT LATER BECAME CLEAR THAT SEMAS' PLAN WAS TO USE THE IMPRESSIVE $75 MILLION AMOUNT AS A MEANS TO MOVE BEYOND HIS LIMITED ROLE AS A NON-EXCLUSIVE "FINDER" TO THAT OF BEING A PARTNER AND PRINCIPAL IN THE LAS ISLITAS PROJECT. WHILE MR. HARRIS WAS OPEN TO CONSIDERING SUCH AN ARRANGMENT, HE AT ALL TIMES MADE IT CLEAR THAT IT WOULD BE STRICTLY CONDITIONED UPON, AND IN DIRECT RELATIONSHIP TO THE ACTUAL RECEIPT OF BOTH THE $10 MILLION AND THE $75 MILLION IN PROMISED FUNDING.
UNFORTUNATELY, AFTER GIVING MR. SEMAS AMPLE TIME BEYOND HIS OWN DEADLINES, NEITHER SEMAS NOR ANY OF HIS CONTACTS EVER PERFORMED ANY OF THE CAPITAL INVESTMENT WHICH HE HAD PROMISED AND, OF COURSE, THE EQUITY INTEREST WAS NEVER CONVEYED TO SEMAS OR HIS SHELL ENTITIES.
RATHER THAN ACKNOWLEDGE HIS OWN FAILURE TO PERFORM AS PROMISED, MR. SEMAS' RESPONSE WAS INSTEAD TO INTERFERE IN THE PROJECT AND ATTEMPTING TO PUT MR. HARRIS AND THE PROJECT ITSELF AT A DISADVANTAGE BY MAKING NUMEROUS FALSE AND DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS ABOUT MR. HARRIS, AND HIRING A MEXICAN ATTORNEY TO ABSURDLY THREATEN TO CANCEL MR. HARRIS' 1998 PURCHASE AND THE LEGAL PROPERTY DEEDS FOR ALL OF THE AGGREGATED LAS ISLITAS SUB-PARCEL PROPERTIES. MORE ONEROUS, IN EXCHANGE FOR HARRIS "COOPERATING" WITH THIS TORTIOUS SCHEME, SEMAS "OFFERED" TO ALLOW HARRIS TO RETAIN A MERE 17% OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY--A VALUABLE ASSET WHICH HE HAD SPENT FOUR YEARS TO ASSEMBLE AND PURCHASE, AND IN WHICH HARRIS HAS BEEN THE SOLE OWNER OF FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
​
NO PERSON WHO HAS INVESTED THE AMOUNT OF WORK, TIME, PATIENCE, AND ENDURANCE IN ORDER TO ACQUIRE THE OWNERSHIP OF LANDS WOULD EVER TOLERATE OR ACCEPT THESE ACTIONS AGAINST THEM AND THEIR PROPERTY; ACTIONS WHICH MOST WOULD AGREE ARE TANTAMOUNT TO EXTORTION.
​
TO BE CLEAR, ALL OF SEMAS' ASSERTIONS OF POSSESSING OR BEING ENTITLED TO ANY EQUITY INTEREST IN THE LAS ISLITAS PROPERTIES OR PROJECT ARE FALSE AND UNSUPPORTED BY FACTS; AS ARE ANY OF SEMAS' DEFAMATORY ASSERTIONS OF ANY BAD FAITH OR FRAUDULENT ACTS BY MR. HARRIS.
​
FOR ANY INTERESTED AND QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS, MR HARRIS WILL PROVIDE ANY NECESSARY DOCUMENTATION TO SUPPORT THESE FACTS; INCLUDING PROVIDING THE DIRECT CONTACT INFORMATION FOR MR. SEMAS IN ORDER TO REQUEST THAT HE PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE OF HAVING EVER ACTUALLY FUNDED THE $75 MILLION, $10 MILLION, OR EVEN $5 MILLION AS PROMISED.